Ashoka Reflections_May 2023
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Early on, we made persistent efforts to build our trust and goodwill with prospective donors. This entailed
country-wide travel. In a fairly short span of time, we achieved extraordinary success in the collection of the
papers of some notable personalities - Chandi Prasad Bhatt (environmentalist & Chipko movement leader,
Chamoli), Gopalkrishna Gandhi (diplomat and academic, Chennai), Divyabhanusinh Chavda (wildlife
conservationist & lion expert, Jaipur), Girish Karnad (film director/actor, playwright, Bengaluru), Kiran Nagarkar
(English/Marathi writer & novelist, Mumbai) Nalni D. Jayal (environmentalist, Dehradun), Justice A.S. Anand
(jurist, Delhi) and M.K. Ranjitsinh (wildlife conservationist, Delhi).
Then in 2018, came the opportunity to archive the very valuable collection of Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the
philosopher-statesman and the second President of India. The archives team made many trips to Chennai, five
to be precise, and sifted through the precious archival material at ‘Girija’, the house built by him in 1935. The
team achieved the prodigious feat of preparing a preliminary list of the huge collection on the spot comprising
writings, speeches, correspondence and photos of his exceptional academic and public life spanning over six
decades. This is one of our most prized collections and includes a rare collection of books and journals too.
The pandemic was a setback, it stalled our work as in other domains. Yet, we added 12 more collections during
the pandemic as people found ample time to sort the papers in their homes. Having started with one small
room in 2017, the fast-growing archives occupied three big rooms on the campus by the end of 2021. Last year
in April, we moved to the new premises in AC04 where we have now a state-of-the-art Archives Repository for
storing papers and all facilities for archivists to work as well as a Reading Room for scholars to consult the
papers.
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