New Delhi, November 21 (IANS). The Congress Party has completely digitized and made public millions of pages of material related to India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. This open-access digital platform named ‘The Nehru Archive’ is now available to common citizens, researchers, students and history lovers.
Nehru’s letters, speeches, notes, book drafts and other documents can be viewed and downloaded without any charge. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi made this announcement in a post on social media platform X.
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote, “Facts are facts and will not disappear because of your likes. In this era of deliberate distortion, misinformation and fake news of Pandit Nehru and his great achievements for India, it is right to digitize his writings for the sake of truth and future generations.”
He added, “I am delighted that ‘The Nehru Archive’ is now live. It is India’s first large, open-access digital archive of the writings of Jawaharlal Nehru, including letters, speeches, notes and much more, all linked together and freely available for easy access.”
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote in the X Post, “Nehru’s writings are not just history, they are a record of India’s changing mindset. For anyone who wants to understand our country’s democratic journey – its courage, its questions, its dreams, his words offer a powerful path. I am glad that this legacy is now open, accessible and free to all. It will be further enhanced.”
According to the Nehru Archive website, it is an ongoing digital library project to preserve Nehru’s writings, speeches, documents, visual materials and audio recordings. 100 volumes of Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, covering the period 1903 to 1964, have now been uploaded. They are fully searchable and available for free download.
Earlier on November 20, Jairam Ramesh had highlighted a new digital archival facility launched by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund to access documents related to the freedom struggle and the early years of independent India.
The website The Nehru Archive (nehruarchive.in) has about 35,000 documents and about 3,000 illustrations. From Volume 44 onwards, i.e. from September 1958 onwards, his speeches are also available in original Hindi and English translation. The documents include his letters, speeches, interviews, administrative notes on files, diary entries and even doodles.
–IANS
PSK/AS
