‘North-east’s social history neglected’

SNS, Gangtok, 12 November 2013: Social history of the northeast India is not being rightly documented and preserved and so its social culture is in danger, said Mr Willien Ocn Schendel, a teacher from the University of Amsterdam while addressing a talk on the importance of visual documentation to preserve old social history.

The programme was organised by the department of Anthropology, Sikkim University. Prof Willien rued the fact that despite the presence of a number of anthropologists in the north-eastern region, its social history is not being preserved and documented.

“We find northeast’s history in books, but we never find its social history,” he said. 

He further said he had collected and documented the northeast’s social history through images from the interior parts of the region. “But I have not yet got a chance to do the same regarding Sikkim,” he added. 

Dr Kathrika Sinha Kerkhoff from International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam said that IISH is working for documentation on Northeastern region.