New Delhi Declaration adopted to preserve and digitise India’s vast manuscript heritage

Manuscripts are “not merely relics of the past, but a guiding light for the future,” says the New Delhi Declaration, adopted to preserve, repatriate, digitise, and disseminate India’s treasure trove of nearly 10 million ancient texts.

New Delhi: Asserting that manuscripts are "not merely relics of the past, but a guiding light for the future", a global conference on Saturday adopted the New Delhi Declaration to bolster efforts to preserve, digitise and disseminate knowledge embedded in them.

The Declaration was adopted on the closing day of the three-day 'Gyan Bharatam' conference on India's manuscript heritage, hosted at the Vigyan Bhawan here.

The New Delhi Declaration resolved that manuscripts are "living memory of a nation, and foundation of its civilisational identity".

India has one of the richest collections of ancient manuscripts in the world, with nearly 10 million texts that hold the country's traditional knowledge and cultural heritage.

The declaration adopted at the conference also resolved to "acquire and repatriate original manuscripts or secure their digital copies".

"We resolve to preserve, digitise and disseminate this vast treasure. We firmly believe manuscripts are not merely relics of the past, but a guiding light for the future," it said.

The government has launched the Gyan Bharatam Mission as a major initiative under the Ministry of Culture. It aims to survey, document, conserve, digitise and make accessible more than one crore manuscripts located at academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collections across India.

The declaration also resolved to "awaken people and make the Gyan Bharatam mission a 'jan aandolan'.