Assembly launches major archival project to digitise, restore old records

In a temperature-controlled room inside the Delhi Legislative Assembly, time settles in the fibres of paper browned by age; in ink that has faded yet refuses to disappear; and in the delicate creases of manuscripts that have outlived governments.

- Snehil Sinha and Paras Singh

Old records and documents at the Delhi assembly library.

(HT PHOTO)

Here, history is being remembered, handled, restored and, now, reborn.

The Delhi Assembly has launched a monumental exercise aimed at preserving over 5,00,000 pages — digitising records into thematic volumes that narrate Delhi's legislative evolution.

At the centre of this effort lies a fragile, handwritten record from 1861: the proceedings of one of the earliest meetings of the Delhi municipality. In cursive so neat it almost looks like calligraphy, it records the approval of a modest budget of ₹25,000 allocated towards a Montgomery Park, drainage systems, a general hospital, and public latrines; decisions that, though modest in scale, marked the early architecture of urban planning in Delhi.

Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel said the project will help preserve the history of the city.