Digital archive containing all historical material available on Nehru goes live next year | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In an effort to make the legacy of India’s first Prime Minister accessible not only to historians but to all who wish to study and research his work and contributions, the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF) on Wednesday announced that a digital archive containing all historical material available on Nehru will go live on November 14 next year – his birth anniversary.
On whether this archive was created to counter the false narratives, propaganda and political attacks on Nehru, Congress leader and one of the trustees of the JNMF Jairam Ramesh asserted that this is not a political exercise but an intellectual and historical one. “The idea of ​​the archive is to publish all authentic and original material on Nehru and his contemporaries. We do not commission any pieces or interpret anything…,” Ramesh claimed.
The JNMF said that the archive is being set up to enable anyone who would like to read, research and make their own decisions about Nehru’s work through a platform where all sources will be available at one place. It is seen by JNMF as a space that will contribute to scientific work and informed debate.
“The Nehru Archive” will to begin with bring together on one platform 100 volumes of ‘The Selected Works of Nehru’, his letters to CMs from 1947 to 1964 and published books such as ‘Letters from a Father to His Daughter’, ‘ Glimpses of World History, An Autobiography’, ‘The Unity of India’, ‘The Discovery of India’, ‘A Bunch of Old Letters’ and his lesser known writings.
The archive will also include Nehru’s speeches from 1917 to 1964, writings about him by his contemporaries, material about him from global archives and lesser known published and unpublished writings.
According to JNMF, the multimedia digital archive is being created along the lines of the US-based Wilson Center.
JNMF vice-chairman Dr. Karan Singh believes the digital archive will “make Nehru more accessible to successive generations who need to be kept informed of his contribution to the making of modern India and the world.”
Jairam Ramesh claimed that the idea is to create an archive where one can easily search, access and download material from one place.
JNMF Secretary Madhavan K Palat told that the archive will be a dynamic space that will be constantly updated with newer archival resources. “It should be the single most important source for research and study on Jawaharlal Nehru,” he emphasized.
Established in 1964, JNMF currently has fourteen trustees and is led by Congress Parliamentary Party president Sonia Gandhi.