Congress to digitise archives of party records

With a view to reaching scholars worldwide, the Congress is building a digital archive that will carry reports of its sessions from 1885 onwards, along with documents analysing the party’s electoral performance and policies in government.

The archives will feature manifestos dating back to 1952, AICC (All India Congress Committee) session reports from 1885 to 1993, speeches of Congress presidents from 1885 onwards, and resolutions passed by the Congress Working Committee since its formation. It will also include Socialist India, a weekly published from the Congress office at 5, Rajendra Prasad Road, between 1970 and 1977, following the party’s split in 1969.

Many of the books it carries have been recovered from storage at 24 Akbar Road, such as 1922 report on ‘Civil Disobedience Enquiry Committee’ of the Congress, resolutions on foreign policy of the party from 1947 to 1966 and Resolutions on “States reorganisation” from 1920-1956 among others.

Selected books from the Dr. Manmohan Singh Research Centre and Library will also be digitised. The library, inaugurated on Friday by Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the presence of Dr. Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, houses around 1,200 books. These include works by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Vithalbhai Patel, Rammanohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Dev, G.B. Pant, N.V. Gadgil, Motilal Nehru and B.R. Ambedkar, among others.

“A digital or physical library is not a substitute for political activism, but is certainly an instrument of information to support political activism,” Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said. Mr. Ramesh, who has driven the project and donated a significant number of books, noted, “The ideological debate is currently polarised between the Left and the Right. We have to reclaim that central space.”

The library also houses several volumes of The Encyclopaedia of the Indian National Congress, a compilation of party history, commentaries, speeches, and minutes of Working Committee meetings. The work was put together by Abdul Moin Zaidi, a librarian at the Congress office, and his wife, Shahida Gufran Zaidi.