Faced with the arduous task of preserving the public records of the country and struggling in its attempt to do the same, the National Archives of India (NAI) has asked all government departments to use standard stationery in preserving their documents. The repository of the non-current records of the government of India, the NAI shot off a letter last month to all ministries and State Archives Departments asking them to to use stationery in conformity with the specifications laid out by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

“The National Archives of India has been striving to impress upon all the record-creating agencies the importance and need of using Bureau of Indian Standards standard quality paper, pen, ink (both for fountain pen and ball point pen) for permanent records created by them. It is its (NAI’s) prime concern to ascertain that the record-creating agencies use standard quality paper, pen and ink creating records of permanent nature so that the longevity of these records is ensured. Needless to say that preservation of records is becoming costlier day by day due to rising costs of preservative materials as also space to be utilised for their safe upkeep and maintenance,” the NAI has said in its letter.

The NAI, established in 1891 and housed in Delhi since 1926, boasts of documents dating back to “Parwana of Ala Khan” in Persian, dated October 19, 1352 (the oldest document with the NAI) to the Farman of Humayun, December 16, 1539, the treaty between the British Indian Government and the Sultan of Muscat (Arabic and English) and the Sanad issued by the East India Company to Maharaja Dalip Singh on the confiscation of his rights and presentation of Koh-i-Noor, March 28, 1849 among other things. Using sophisticated techniques like “solvent or hand lamination” process and an elaborate microfilming programme to preserve documents — most of which have grown brittle with time and hence require careful handling — the NAI is also in the process of computerising documents to ensure efficient record keeping.

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