Come February, the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), an autonomous research institution under the State government, will embark upon a gargantuan two-year project aimed at chronicling the devastation caused by the mid-August floods of 2018.
What the KCHR has in mind is a well-documented and accurate story of the floods, KCHR chairman and historian P.K. Michael Tharakan told The Hindu .
“Many studies are being undertaken against the backdrop of the floods by government departments and scientific and research institutions. But what is the role of a historian? What happens today becomes history after five years,” Dr. Tharakan said. Since human memory fell easy prey to distortions and embellishments over time, it was important that this enterprise was undertaken at the earliest, he said.
February launch
The KCHR is planning for a February launch of the project ‘Floods, Archives and Memories’ once its advisory committee finalises it by next week. To be coordinated by KCHR researcher Aby Thomas, it will record four aspects of the calamity that claimed nearly 500 lives and left large swathes of the State in utter ruin: the disaster itself; the rescue operations; relief and relocation; and finally, certain aspects of resettlement.
For materials, the KCHR plans to rely on government records, archival materials on previous disasters such as the flood of 1924, and contemporary archives such as newspaper reports. “But of course, the most important source of information is the memories of the victims and the rescuers. The project will place special emphasis on the role played by fishermen in the rescue operations,” Dr. Tharakan said.
The KCHR plans to conduct two comprehensive data collection surveys in 2019 and 2020 and wind up the project by June 2021.
The project is expected to throw up a wealth of materials, which will be published as books in Malayalam and English plus a report on the findings that will be submitted to the government. Additionally, three working papers will be published and all the unused materials will be uploaded online. Lastly, there is also a plan to establish a small museum on the floods at the KCHR facility at Pattanam.
