International Archives Day 2023: ‘Our Language, Our Heritage’ Exhibition

International Archives Day celebrated every year on 9th June. The purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the preservation and management of records.

With the development of human civilization, the importance of records has increased in the life of every human being. These records may include your identity card, ration card, bank passbook, mark sheet and many certificates. Sometimes these documents are important for us as well as for our family, society or nation. In this way every man saves and preserves records in his daily life.

Inauguration of ‘Our Language, Our Heritage’ exhibition

National Archives of India is celebrating International Archives Day on June 9, 2023. On this occasion, an exhibition titled “Our Language, Our Heritage” is being organize under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM). Minister of State for Culture Sushri Meenakshi Lekhi inaugurated the exhibition. The ‘Hamari Bhasha, Hamari Virasat’ exhibition will be open for the general public from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on every day including Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays till July 08, 2023.

Let’s know what will be display in this exhibition –

• The exhibition will display original manuscripts (such as the Bhoj tree-bark Gilgit Manuscripts, Tattvartha Sutras, Ramayana and Srimad Bhagavad Gita, among others) extracted from the history of archival repositories.
• Selected works from the official files of the government, literature banned under colonial rule, private manuscripts of eminent persons and rare books housed in the National Archives Library of India will also be displayed.
• The exhibition also includes one of the oldest manuscripts in the world – the Gilgit Manuscripts, the oldest preserved manuscript collection in India.
• Included in this exhibition are both authentic (sacred) and non-canonical Buddhist works on pages made from the bark of the Bhoja tree. These works throw light on the development of Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Mongolian, Machu and Tibetan religious-philosophical literature.

Digitization of Documents

In this digital age, the risk of loss of records has reduced. By digitizing the documents, they can now be read anywhere and at any time.

The Department of Language, Art and Culture has prepared a plan to preserve the age-old records. Now the rare records related to the princely state and politics of the kings of Himachal can be read with one click without harming them. The modern techniques of preservation of records have not only been useful for the preservation of documents, but it has also increased the dissemination of these documents.

There are many documents of ancient times in the country, whose condition has deteriorated. Digitization is very important for such documents. This will help researchers a lot.

History of International Archives Day

The celebration of International Record Day or Record Store Day started in the year 2007. The purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the preservation and management of records. It also makes common citizens aware to preserve their documents.

About Bihar Records Building

Important documents of the history of the world along with India are keep safe in the Bihar Records Building. The 2.3-acre building on Bailey Road in Bihar was inaugurate on October 23, 1987 by the then Vice-President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma.

This archive building includes all the photographs and textual materials from the Mughal period to the freedom movement and tells the story of independent India. In this building, there are many rare documents related to the documents of Zamindari practice, Todermal’s diary, Bapu’s arrival in Bihar. This huge collection of books of historical and administrative importance in the Records Building attracts researchers from India and abroad.

Click here to read this article in Hindi.