NAI to display archival gems to kick off 125th-yr celebrations

Rare archival documents and original maps, including a 1912 colour-coded one of Delhi depicting land acquisition proposals for creation of the new imperial capital, and first President Rajendra Prasad's passport will be on display here from tomorrow.
Repository of some of the oldest and rarest records pertaining to the country, this month-long exhibition will throw open National Archives' year-long calendar of activities that will culminate on March 11 next year, coinciding with 125 glorious years of the institution.
'Treasure of National Archives' will offer visitors a glimpse into the rare records and images that have been drawn from oriental, public, pre and post-Independence, and cartographic records.

"We have pulled out the rarest of the gems from our archival chest of treasure and quite sure they will dazzle people when they will get a chance to lay their eyes on such rare documents and images," a senior official of the NAI's Exhibition Unit told PTI.
And with the Land Acquisition Bill hogging headlines, one of the records on display is the "colour-coded map" titled 'Delhi & Vicinity' in multiple hues, which displays the regions acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 for planing the new capital city, the cantonment, civil lines, development and firm areas.
Another rarity on display is Prasad's 32-page bilingual (Anglo-French) passport, bearing the number "1863" and issued to him at New Delhi on 3rd October, 1947. The national leader became India's first President on 26th January 1950.

His national status reads "Indian British Subject by birth" and has been issued by the "Empire of India".

Among the priceless documents are some of the historic letters, correspondences and records associated with events such as the one informing about the execution of revolutionary Mangal Pandey (1857), demise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1839), death of Napoleon Bonaparte (1839) and a note dated February 17, 1948 sent by the government of Pakistan to the government of India on the division of archives of the late government of India.
Also on display would be rare coloured images of the Red Fort, map of Delhi Province, history sheet of Annie Besant, among others.

Born on March 11 in 1891 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department, it was later shifted to New Delhi post the shifting of the imperial capital to Delhi in 1911. The present building of the National Archives of India (NAI) was constructed in 1926 and the transfer of all records was completed in 1937.
As part of the foundation day, NAI tomorrow would also hold a special lecture at the National Museum on 'From Scriptorium to Variorium: The journey towards Digital Archives' later in the afternoon.
Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma is scheduled to inaugurate this year-long curtain-raiser function at the Museum, where he would also open an online portal and release two new NAI publications and a reprint of a very rare old book.