When a history scholar from JNU asked the National Archives of India for a document, her request was turned down. She was told it was ‘‘too brittle’’. Then it happened again. And again.It is not that her requests were jinxed. The fact is that a large number of historic documents lying with their official custodian, the National Archives, are ‘‘brittle’’. Or blackened. Or crumbling.Those who have examined the documents say that even by conservative estimates, more than a third are in bad shape.There are records from the Mughal period; contracts signed by the East India Company in the mid-18th century; political records maintained by the Home Department from 1747 onward; 18th and 19th Century secretarial records and PWD railway projects from 1902.None of these can stand scrutiny any longer. ‘‘Some will crumble into powder the moment they are touched,’’ acknowledged one official.The truth is that no one can really account for the havoc that has been caused because nobody has a clue on just how bad the situation is. The officials know the documents in their custody, if stacked side by side, would stretch for roughly 30 kilometres. But many have already been completely destroyed.Dr Shitla Prasad, director-general of National Archives, first insisted that there were no pests in the stack area but refused to comment when told that his colleagues had vouched for the damage caused by them.The CPWD was more forthcoming. ‘‘These archival stack areas and even the building as a whole have never been given a complete pest control treatment, which is obviously required in a building as old as this,’’ said S K Jain, Executive Engineer, CPWD. He said his department had cleaned up some termite-affected areas.So how bad is the situation?• The documents were moved to the current building in 1926, 78 years ago. One official said some documents were fumigated when they were moved and have not been treated since then. This is because National Archives still uses a 1950s chamber for disinfecting books. They have to be manually de-acidified, page by page, so no one has bothered to do it to some documents for decades.• The roof in the stack area above the main building has been leaking for four years now. The annexe, which came up in 1990, is not in much better shape. • In 1949, an official from the department was sent abroad to study preservation methods. He returned to effect some changes. Officials remember the year because that was the last time an effort was made to train staff overseas. Meanwhile, the rot continues to spread.
