Ashoka Archives of Contemporary India

Ashoka Archives of Contemporary India

The Ashoka Archives of Contemporary India was set up in 2017 with a vision to archive and preserve primary source material for the study of modern and contemporary history of India with major thrust on polity, economy and society. The basic aim was to create a major centre for historical and social science research in the country.

Keeping in mind the latest trends in social science research, the main focus of Ashoka Archives is to collect documents related to economic reforms initiated in the 1990s, science and technology, environment and climate change, women empowerment, social, educational and political developments in the country, growth of media in various forms and all other related themes.

Private Papers Collection

Ashoka Archives has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the collection of primary source material in the form of private papers from all over India. The archives team engaged with prospective donors in Delhi and undertook several outstation trips to facilitate the transfer of private papers to Ashoka Archives. In a short span of time, the archives achieved the distinction of acquiring the private papers of a former Prime Minister and President of India, eminent diplomats, journalists, authors, environmentalists/wildlife conservationists, historians, activists, artists, etc. A concerted effort was made to sort and list collections and prepare catalogues for the ready reference of scholars. A team of trained archivists fulfilled the task of preparing scholar-friendly catalogues.

Academic Research

Ashoka Archives enables research and facilitates engagement with academics based on content and research, and encourages students to appreciate primary source material through innovative use in curriculum. Workshops and talks are conducted for students to give them practical knowledge of archives and acquaint them with the basic principles of archival management.

Ashoka Archives engages and collaborates with various other archives in India and abroad for exchange of ideas and wider dissemination of historical research. Recently, the archives entered into an agreement with the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Initiative “PCRes”, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University for co-hosting the papers of Shah Commission on Ashoka Archives website and the Archive on the Legacy of Conflict in South Asia.

Relocation

Presently, Ashoka Archives is operating from two rooms (AC02-215 & AC02-355) and a storage facility in the administrative block. The archives will be relocated in the basement of the new library building under construction.  We shall have there a fully functional scholars’ reading room for consulting private papers, a display panel for exhibiting rare archival documents, a repair unit for restoration of brittle documents using the latest preservation techniques. Space has also been designated for the digitization project. We propose to digitize the archival documents with the aim to preserve them for posterity and to make the collections available to scholars worldwide for historical research on the Ashoka University website.