ARCHIVES AND RECORDS
 

Under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, the work pertaining to the Central Libraries of national importance, the, Delivery of Books Act and publication of rare manuscripts is assigned to the Department of Culture. The Central Government cannot make a law for a library system of the country as a whole as the subject "Libraries" is included in the State List. The Central Government has jurisdiction only over libraries established by the Central Government and institutions of national importance declared so by the Central Government. 'However, it takes initiative to secure the voluntary cooperation of the State Governments and to promote a coordinated development of national. State and other Libraries. Funds for such an integrated development form part of Central and State Five Year Plans. The Central Government also provides financial assistance to libraries in various parts of the country for certain approved purposes like purchase of books, furniture and equipment and construction of buildings.

Manuscripts constitute an important part of' the rich Indian Cultural Heritage. These are the major repositories of the contribution that our predecessors made in the diverse fields of religion, philosophy astronomy, literature, history, medicine and science. They constitute the primary source of reconstruction.of India's past.

The Department has introduced a scheme of financial. assistance to voluntary organisations, educational institutions, libraries, museums and universities, for preservation, listing, cataloguing, evaluation, publication etc. of manuscripts. The Department of Culture has also taken over under Act of Parliament, the Rampur Raza Library, Rampur and Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna which contain a rich collection of Manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. In addition, proper care of manuscripts is also being taken in museums, libraries and other such institutions which are under the control of Central and State Governments.

National Archives of India, New Delhi

The National Archives of India is the biggest repository of Government records and other archival material in the country. It receives public records of any public office or organisation or papers of historical value. It tends advice and assistance to various State Archives for the proper maintenance and preservation of valuable documents and records and provides research facilities to scholars. It also imparts training in Archives through its Archival Training School. The main activities are described below :

Accessions : Important accessions include (i) Swami Shradhanand papers (1100 items approx.); (ii) Correspondence relating to J. C. Roses Scientific experiments; (iii), 5 rolls and 1 strip of records of Indian interest from Director of Czech Archives.

Records and Archives Management : (a) The ninth report of the Director of Archives on the implementation of Archival Policy Reso- lution was printed. (b) Background notes on the proposed public Records Act were prepared. 23,805 files of different Ministries were appraised and retention schedules of six creating agencies were vetted.

Reference Media : 10 groups of record's from public and private records were listed.

Publications: The Indian Archives (Vol. XXX, No. 2), Annual Report (1981), National Register of Private Records (Vol. XII), Research Bulletin (Vol, XI), Guide to Records (Part VI and VII). Proceedings of the Seminar on Disposition of Government Records, Catalogue of MRIO Misc. Maps of Survey of India, Calendar of

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Acquired Documents (1402-1719) Catalogue of seats (foreign Vol.I) and North Western Frontier and British India (1839-42), Vol.II were published.

Committees and Conferences : The 48th session of the Indian Historical Records Commission was held on June 5-6, 1982 at Gandhinagar (Gujarat). Select Judicial documents were displayed on the occasion. The 32nd meeting of the: National Committee; of Archivists and 2nd meeting of the Religious Records Committee were held along with the session.

Archival Training: 14 candidates secured one year Diploma in Archival studies (1981-82 session) while 11 Indian and 9 foreign students have joined the 1982-83 session. Short term training continued to be imparted to various Government nominees.

`Towards Freedom' Project made steady progress in selection of materials from public and private records and microfilms (1937-47).

Technical Service : Nearly 70,000 sheets were repaired and, rehabilitated and 2,60,520 exposures, of microfilms and 50,644 xerox copies were prepared.

Archives Week was celebrated (November 1-7, 1982) with an exhibition of documents on 'Games and Sports', open House programme and a workshop on conservation and reprography.

Public Relations : An album of Archives of Saudian interest, was prepared for presentation to Prince Fahad of Saudi Arabia.

Regional Branch : Department's Offices at Bhopal, Jaipur and Pondicherry continued their normal activities.

Khuda Baksha Oriental Public Library, Patna

One of the richest collections of Arabic and Persian manuscripts and Mughal and Central Asian paintings-presently possessing some 78,500 printed books and 14,000 manuscripts and 2,000 paintings- the Khuda Bakhsh Library is fast becoming a centre for preserving and dissemination of knowledge in its special fields of Arabic and Persian learning and Islamic and Medieval Indian Studies.

Founded in 1891 by Khuda Bakhsh and taken over by the Government of India in 1969 the library is now functioning in five different dimen- sions : (i) Reference Service is well organised, the average for the year reaching around 600 postal and 5000 spot replies; (ii) A concerted effort to obtain the fast perishing manuscript's wealth continues, the acquisition figure reaching around 65 this year; (iii) Preservation of the holdings is being performed by trained hands through mechanical, chemical, physical and binding processes. In the last named process, hand lamination is being done by trained personnel; (iv) Towards disseminating knowledge, the time honoured 75 Years old project of descriptive Cataloguing of the manuscripts preserved in the Library is in progress and the compilation of the 35th and 36th volumes of the Descriptive Catalogue has been finalised this year. Of the earlier 34 volumes, two out of print volumes have been reproduced last year with necessary additions and corrections bringing the total of revised editions to eight; (v) The manuscripts are being critically edited and published; and rare material of the Library is being introduced through the Library's quarterly journal. So far, 20 issues of the Journal have been printed which are-spread over 4,000 pages.

Lastly, to house the growing organism as the Library is, the present, building is being extended, and a three floor extension has already been completed. A Publication Unit has been established to supervise the various programmes of publications. After completion of the, extension work of the building, a preservation laboratory will be started, which would work full-fledged; preliminary work has- been started and one Assistant Librarian (Preservation) has been appointed.

T.M.S.S.M. Library, Thanjavur

The Tanjore Maharaja Sarfoji's Saraswati Mahal library was described by Dr. Burnell "to be the best and most important in the World". It has its roots in the time of the imperial Cholas and was subsequently revived by the

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Thanjavur Naiks of the Vijayanagar Empire, and was greatly developed in the early part of the nineteenth century by Maharaja Sarfoji. The Government of Madras took possession of the Library in October, 1918 under the Charitable Endowment Act and formed a committee for its management. The Library has rich collection of about 40,000 manuscripts in Sanskrit, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and other languages, besides a collection, of over 23,000 books in the Indian and European languages covering various disciplines. The Government is actively engaged in considering all possible solutions to achieve fuller development of Library. The Central Government is at present giving plan grants in pursuance of the recommendations of the committee set up in 1977.

The Central Government is in negotiation with the Government of Tamil Nadu to convert the Library into a Registered body. It is hoped that by the end of the year 1982-83, the Library will be Registered body and management will be more effective in the hands of both Central Government and the Government of Tamil Nadu.

Rampur Raza Library, Rampur

This Library has one of the richest collections of India with holdings of 15,000 manuscripts, 30 miniature paintings and quite a large number of rare and out of. print-material in the form of books' and journals. The Library is famous throughout the world of Oriental and Islamic Scholarship due to its rare manuscripts and because of the facilities and hospitalities rendered to the scholars during, their stay and study at Rampur.

The Library is fully financed by Central Government. It also receives an annual grant of Rs. 48,000/- from Government of Uttar Pradesh. The Library was declared as an "Institution of National Importance" through an Act of, Parliament in. 1975. A special grant of Rs. 5.00 lakhs over and above the normal allocation of Rs. 3.00 lakhs is proposed to be released during the current financial year for special repairs of Hamid Manzil/Rang Mahal in which the Library is housed. This is in pursuance of the estimates of Rs. 10.50 lakhs prepared by C.P.W.D.

Preservation of Manuscripts

The Scheme of financial assistance for preservation of manuscripts, launched from 1980-81, has been continued in the current year. It provides financial assistance to voluntary organisations, Universities including deemed Universities/Libraries, Museums, etc. for cataloguing, editing, preservations, publication etc. of rare manuscripts. The main objective of the scheme is to preserve the rich cultural heritage of India in the form of rare manuscripts.

Approximately, 70 applications have been received during the year. Besides, grant to certain Institutions is to be extended during current year also on the basis of their projects approved last year to spread into a couple of years. The current year's provision of Rs. 15.00 lakhs is expected to be fully utilised by disbursing grant in the ratio of 75 : 25 subject to maximum grant being Rs. 2.00 lakhs for each approved project.

Fellowship covering different disci- plines and Fields including Epigraphy, Paleography, Extinct Languages, Ancient Scripts and Numismatics

The Scheme has been introduced to promote the study of extinct languages and scripts in which the expertise is fast dwindling. Fellowships under the scheme of the value of Rs. 600\- per month tenable for 2 years are awarded to 10 scholars every year for higher studies/research in Epigraphy, Paleography, Extinct Languages, Ancient Scripts, Numismatics etc.

Asiatic Society of India, Calcutta

The Asiatic Society, Calcutta was founded in 1784 with the object of enquiring into the history, the antiquities. arts, sciences of literature of Asia. The Institute has proved to be the fountain- head of all library and scientific activities in India and the parent of all other Asiatic Societies. Its declared objects are to conduct research into matters which are largely cultural and sociological with special being on Indology.

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