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• The Director-General of the National Archives of India (NAI) said that “the NAI does not have records of 1962, 1965, and 1971 wars or of the Green Revolution”.
  • The statement was criticized by many historians, with many calling this a plot by successive governments to control the narrative, and saying that the country is losing its history.

National Archives of India (NAI)

• It functions under the Union Ministry of Culture, and is the storehouse of all non-current government records, maintaining them for the use of administrators and scholars.
• In 1891, NAI was established as the Imperial Record Department in Calcutta (The capital of British India).
  • In 1911, it was transferred from Calcutta (Kolkata) to New Delhi.
• It keeps and preserves records of the government and its organizations only.
• It does not receive classified documents.
  • Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected.
  • Its access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and needs to know, and mishandling of the material can incur criminal penalties.
• As per the Public Records Act, of 1993, various central ministries and departments are supposed to transfer records (more than 25 years old) to the NAI, unless they pertain to classified information.
  • It is up to the respective ministries and departments to authenticate what is classified information.
  • Various ministries and administrations have their definitions of what is classified and what is non-current.
  • Opacity and lack of accessibility are the common problems faced by researchers at the archives.
• There are nearly 151 ministries and departments, but the NAI has only records of 64 agencies, including 36 ministries and departments.
  • Several Union ministries and departments have not shared their records with NAI.
• It also holds regular exhibitions the display of declassified files.
• In 2021, the Union Defense Minister ordered his ministry to declassify and transfer war records older than 25 years to the NAI.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/national-archives-no-record-of-1962-1971-wars-role-issues-8348848/

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