'Our archives are memories of our human, institutional, and national progress in the global sphere’

On International Archives Day, city-based art conservationist Anupam Sah delves into the perennial importance of the art and science of archiving. Archivists need to be objective and mindful while being detached and inclusive, and carry out the process without any prejudice, he reminds

Each of us performs archiving in some small way. In lockdown, more than before, people have had time to go through and preserve their family history of photographs, letters, diaries, and recipes. These clues are how we are able to trace our roots and learn not only about our families but also about other cultures and societies in the world. At the institutional level, governments, private organisations, and museums take up archiving so that culture and history enthusiasts can deep-dive into precious historical repositories. 

While these records exist throughout the year, one week — starting June 9 or ‘International Archives Day’ —has been carved out annually to support the archiving community and to boost the visibility of their work. Archives and archivists play an important role in accountability, transparency, democracy, heritage, memory and society, according to the International Council on Archives (ICA). 

In Mumbai, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, has been actively documenting the history of India for over one hundred years and hosting exhibitions to make it engaging for people. Mid-day reached out to Anupam Sah, who has been heading art conservation, research and training at the museum since 2008, to understand the importance of archiving and how it has changed over the years. 

Sah, who has been in the field for over two decades, is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Himalayan Society for Heritage and Art Conservation. He received the Sanskriti Award, and the title of the Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy in 2016. Here are edited excerpts from the interview: 

Conservation and preservation are an important part of the archiving process. How have you seen archiving grow in India since you started out? 

The elders at the National Archives and the National Museum set the tone for establishing the growing profession of care of collections. Today, after 50 years, art conservation and archiving collections have developed into recognisable professions. As more people and institutions acknowledge the significance and value of historic records, the science of archiving is gaining currency and rightly so, as our archives are memories of our human, institutional and national progress in the global sphere.

Do you think there is enough being done in the conservation, preservation and archiving space in Mumbai and India? How can people be encouraged to take it up? 

A lot is being done, first of all, by those who own these records, by allocating resources and time to look after these collections. This has led to those individuals and institutions trained in archiving and conservation to contribute their services. The growing training courses in museology, archival studies, and conservation are testimony to the sense of social responsibility that heads of educational, philanthropic, and cultural institutions are demonstrating by supporting such courses and ventures.

Anupam Sah is also founder of the non-profit organisation Himalayan Society for Heritage and Art Conservation. Photo: CSMVS Museum 

Why is archiving important and what is the most difficult aspect of restoration and archiving? 

The most important aspect is to be objective and mindful that our responsibility is to conserve, restore, and archive with detachment, inclusivity, without being prejudiced or allowing our opinions to colour our choices or our actions. It is also to pass things down in a pristine condition and form to our intelligent younger generations, for them to engage with and negotiate their histories.

What is the current scope and focus of work at CSMVS? Has it changed due to the pandemic?

For the cultural heritage of the world, the march of time remains unaffected by human crises, and so care of collections in archives, museums and homes remains a priority perennially. During this pandemic the CSMVS Museum, in fact, not only took exemplary care of its cultural collections with support from Citi India, but also created an exhibition on Tanjore paintings, hosted art history lectures in collaboration with the Italian Consulate, trained art conservators in partnership with Tata Trusts, reorganised its archives, as well as launched a nationwide programme for developing a Heritage Conservation Science Training and Research programme in collaboration with the Laxmi Mittal Institute, Harvard University. This time was gainfully used as our contribution to nation building. The pandemic is to excuse ourselves from physically gregarious behaviour, not to excuse ourselves from our responsibilities.

Instagram has seen many accounts become independent archives on different kinds of topics. Do you see the medium of archiving changing for the younger generation?  

The medium of archiving was palm leaves, copper plates, and birch bark at one time and then paper, photographs, audio tapes, film, microfilm and microfische and then floppies, compact discs, and now servers and the cloud. The media will progress inexorably - some will fall by the wayside; some will stand the test of time and the memories of human progress will abide, and the role of both youngsters and elders will be equally pertinent and necessarily in tandem.

Is the process of being interested in conservation, preservation and archiving only limited to particular set of people or do you think you it is now evolving?

As long as the significance and value of our common, diverse and composite heritage is transmitted and acknowledged, humans will be interested in preserving it. As conservation evolves it is necessary for systems to be in place, or else, in our enthusiasm we might actually, inadvertently contribute to its destruction with half-baked skills and inadequate infrastructure.

How did you become interested in conservation and restoration? Please tell us more about it.

As a schoolboy in Nainital, I read an article on art conservation, and because one was interested in both the arts and the sciences, I pursued it, trained at the National Museum Institute at Delhi, and in Florence and UK, and the rest is a personal history in the making, that even I might consider archiving (laughs). 

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