The Custodial Death Of Indian History

In the colonial era, archives received generous support from public and private sources, but after Independence came apathy and neglect, which is leading to the custodial death of Indian history.

Indian archives are in terrible shape. The funds and expertise required to preserve records are seriously lacking. The only hope is to establish a foundation to digitize all records and make them freely available online.

A remarkable aspect of contemporary India is how much we care about our history and how little we do to preserve it. In bookstores, volumes about our past dominate the bestseller lists. But in the archives, records of our past are crumbling away. The irony is profound: We are hungry for knowledge but are starving ourselves of the answers.

In the colonial era, archives received generous support from public and private sources. Many had unique collections and were the pride of their town. With Independence came apathy and neglect. In archive upon archive, collectio...

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