The editorial in the Greater Kashmir points to another reason why Kashmir is not ready yet. More than the government, it is indifferent public that should take most of the blame
Preserve for Posterity
The report that the Kashmir Repository, located inside the Archives Department’s dilapidated building at Old Secretariat, Srinagar is in a shambles. That the prized possession of the state, Kashmir’s archival material, is adorned by bird droppings and dust reflects our collective mindset. While the custodian of the important, unique, and rare documents and manuscripts, the state government, is indifferent and insensitive towards the issue of preservation heritage lying in its custody, those in academics, scholars of history, activists claiming to be involved in promotion of culture and others too appear to be unconcerned and grossly insensitive to this wastage of the part of our rich heritage. This is the reason that government could afford such a neglect. That is how they could give the prized cache of historical documents to the care of nonprofessionals who do not know as to what to do with it.
It is not that the department of archives has not the services of trained people available with it; unfortunately they appear to have been sidelined. Normal archival activities involve processing, organizing each accession following the principles of arrangement, then packing, labeling, and storing the records so that they are under physical control. Here the situation is one of total chaos; the custodians do not know what lies where and a visitor to these archives is appalled to see its miserable fate. Academics and even ordinary students of history, art and culture know that archival materials are the basis for organizational knowledge, legal evidence, historical research, as well as personal and collective memory. The most common terms in the English language that are used for archival materials include historical documents, archives, or records. It is often said that “People must know the past to understand the present and face the future”. But here it appears a sinister design in allowing the prized collection of these archival materials to go waste lest the people know their past.
There is more to the situation of these archives than meets the eye. There are people who have been accusing the state and central governments of removing some important documents from the archives in a sly manner. Curiously these accusations have never been contradicted and if an attempt was made to refute the charges it was done without any supporting evidence. While the world is busy in finding ways and means to preserve the heritage and has come up with materials like acid-free paper, buffered paper made from wood based pulp also called Conservation Grade Paper; museum-grade-cotton rag paper made from cotton pulp, also known as Archival Grade Paper; yet another form of “archival paper” is being made from recycled plastic in the form of Durabook and are using modern digital technology to preserve and conserve the archival materials including documents; here the custodians of our heritage appear wittingly and unwittingly turning a blind eye to the deterioration of these archives.
With this kind of indifferent and callous attitude the state government is not only doing injustice to the present generation but also to the coming generations. History will not forgive this lapse on the part of the state government. The least the state government can do to save the archives from becoming a moth-meal is to have the documents scanned and digitized for posterity so that it does not pass in to history as a reckless, indifferent, and insensitive government that allowed the heritage to go waste. It is strange that the government that claims to be democratic in nature stands nowhere when compared to the self-appointed Rajas, Maharajas, monarchs and other rulers of the past who are viewed as autocrats and despots, as far as preserving and conserving archives is concerned. Let the state government respond to the situation and step in to set the things right in the Archives Department and have an advisory committee in place comprising academics, historians, archeologists and NGOs pursuing conservation of heritage to advise it on conservation and associated matters.