'Shaurya Sankalan': Army building archives to preserve military history

Nearly 700 hours of audio-visual content and 11 lakh pages related to "declassified records" on the 1948 Jammu and Kashmir conflict, 1961 Goa Liberation and the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 have been archived as part of a project to preserve the Army's glorious past for posterity, officials said on Friday.

This has been done under Project 'Shaurya Sankalan: Digital Archiving of Military History' of the Army, they said.

"Nearly 11 lakh pages and 700 hours of audio-visual content related to declassified records from 1948 Jammu and Kashmir conflict, 1961 Goa Liberation (Operation VIJAY) and 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars, held with over 1300 units, formations, regimental centres and military museums in the form of battle memoirs," a senior official said.

"After-action reports" and audio-visual films have been cured, digitised and preserved in the 'Digital Archive Kiosk' created at the United Services Institute of India, New Delhi, he said.

Subsequently, another kiosk will be established at the upcoming 'History Cell' of the Army War College, the officials said.

This will be accessible to researchers, academicians and scholar warriors in a web page interactive format, they said.

"The initiative has given an impetus to digitally inspired and comprehensively compiled ecosystem of the history of the Indian Army which shall continue to be further enhanced and enriched in times to come," the official said.