Pune: The personal and official correspondence of social activist and anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare will be preserved at the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML). A team from the library visited Ralegan Siddhi from Monday to Thursday this week to collect the documents.
“The PMML archives will preserve documents related to Anna Hazare’s social work, the historic 2011 Jan Lokpal movement in Delhi, his initiatives in rural development and water conservation, and his lifelong crusade against corruption for historical research,” said Neeraj Kumar, a member of PMML’s team that visited the village, while speaking to TOI. A press statement issued by Hazare’s office said that these documents will be made available to scholars for their research. Nearly 10 files would be given for archival purposes. According to members of the team, PMML is an autonomous educational institution of international repute. As part of its various initiatives, it conducts and promotes research into modern and contemporary Indian history. The institution’s archives house collections of documents from various organisations and many eminent personalities of modern India. Typically, the documents preserved in these archives include original correspondence, copies of letters on vital subjects, diaries, and unpublished documents such as memoirs, notes, statements, speeches, and articles. The archives currently hold institutional collections from the All India Hindu Mahasabha, AICC, DAV College Trust and Management Society, and the Janata Party. It also has the personal papers of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Mahatma Gandhi, Jayprakash Narayan, Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, and others. The institution is also implementing a project to digitise archived documents, which will soon be accessible to users.
