National organisation secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY), a subsidiary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dr Balmukund Pandey said that history has an important role in building a strong nation because history is the soul of the nation. He was addressing a planning meeting as the chief guest on history knowledge competition, organised by Kashi Prant unit of ABISY at CM Anglo Bengali Intermediate College, Bhelupur here on Monday. In the meeting, there was a wide discussion on the development of national consciousness through history.

“Though history is dependent on the past but nourishes the present and paves the way for the future,” Dr Pandey said, adding that there is a need for a competition for knowledge of history so that the new generation can become aware of the glorious history in the light of Indian consciousness.

National president of ABISY Prof Devi Prasad Singh called upon the youth to awaken love and interest in the great achievements of their ancestors. He gave suggestions to all the provincial office-bearers and coordinators for further expanding contacts in the district. The meeting was presided over by Dr Vishwanath Dubey, Principal of CM Anglo Bengali Intermediate College. He described history knowledge competition as important for secondary level students. Founder President of Kashi Prant Prof Suman Jain (Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University) also said that the history knowledge competition is useful.

The subject of the meeting was introduced by Prof Pravesh Bhardwaj, senior professor of the Department of History at BHU. He gave information about the importance of the three-tier history knowledge competition and the time of organising the competition between December 26 and January 13 next.

The meeting was conducted by Dr Hemant Singh, while the vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Archana Goswami.

The event was also attended by Prof Onkar Nath Singh, Prof Anil Kumar Dubey, Prof Abha Mishra Pathak, Dr Anuradha Singh, Dr Sheetal Rana, Dr Umesh Kumar Singh, Dr Urjasvita Singh, Dr Aarti Pandey, Dr Indra Bahadur Singh, Prof Prashant Kashyap, Dr Priyanka Singh and Dr Praveen Tripathi.