India and Oman agree to cooperate in field of archives

New Delhi, Feb 23 (PTI) India and Oman have "agreed to cooperate" in the field of archives during a visit by a delegation of the National Archives of India to the Gulf country on February 21-22, the Culture Ministry said on Friday.

In a statement, the ministry said a draft on cooperation was "discussed and agreed upon".

It said the members of the Indian delegation, led by NAI Director General Arun Singhal, was shown around various sections and divisions of the National Records and Archives Authority (NRAA) of Oman.

The purpose of the visit was to explore the areas of bilateral cooperation in the archival field, it said.

In bilateral discussions with NRAA chairman Hamad Mohammed Al-Dhawyani, Singhal dwelt upon the historical ties between India and Oman and informed him about the existence of a large number of records pertaining to Oman in the NAI as well as in other repositories of India, NAI officials said.

As a gesture of goodwill, Singhal handed over "a list of 70 select documents pertaining to Oman" that are available in the NAI in Delhi. These documents cover a period from 1793 to 1953 and deal with a wide range of subjects, they said.

Also, 523 pages of copies of records were handed over to the NRAA chairman, covering several important subjects such as "change of Omani Flag from red to white (1868); succession of Sayyid Faisal bin Turki as ruler of Oman after the death of Sultan Sayyid Turki (1888); official visit of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to the Viceroy in India (1937); and the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the Republic of India and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman signed on the 15th March 1953 at Muscat (English, Hindi and Arabic versions)", the statement said.

In addition, facsimile prints of three important treaties between the two countries were gifted to the NRAA.

These are the treaty between the British India government and the Sultan of Muscat (in Arabic and English), dated April 5, 1865; and two treaties concluded with the Imam of Muscat: one by Mehdi Ali Khan, dated October 12, 1798 and another by Sir John Malcolm, in his capacity as Envoy of the Governor General of India to the Court of Persia, dated January 18, 1800, the officials said.

During the visit, presentations were given to the delegation by the in-charges of various divisions of the NRAA, including the Electronic Records and Document Management Systems (EDRMS) section, microfilm department, private record section, access to record department, electronic storage, and the conservation section. The delegation also visited the permanent exhibition of records, and the document destruction lab, the ministry said.

"Both the DG of the NAI and the chairman of the NRAA underscored the need for formalising the institution-to-institution cooperation between both the countries. After the discussions, the draft of an Executive Programme of Cooperation (EPC) was finalised, which would now be submitted for approval by the competent authorities of both parties and formally signed in the near future," the statement said.

Some of the activities agreed upon and included in the proposed EPC include organising a joint exhibition based on curated archival materials from both the archives, together with a conference highlighting the historical relations between India and Oman; and exchanging digital copies of documents that hold mutual interest to enrich both collections.

Also, it include facilitating a framework for exchange programme involving experts in the fields of digitisation and preservation to share knowledge on best practices of both institutions; and bringing out a joint publication based on curated archival materials from both the archives, the statement said.

The delegation also interacted with the representatives of the Indian diaspora who have been living in various parts of Oman for several generations, and many of whom have rich private archives, it added.

The director general of the NAI encouraged the members of the Indian diaspora to take care of the physical preservation of archival wealth in their possession as it serves as an authentic source of shared history between the two nations.

He also offered NAI's technical help in conservation of their documents as well as in its digitisation so that the valuable information is preserved for posterity, the statement said. PTI