Hari Dev Sharma, an archivist at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. | Collection of Ramachandra Guha.
In the third week of January 2020 – exactly a year ago – I was in New Delhi, working in the collections of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. I first discovered the archival riches of the NMML in the early 1980s, and explored them most fully while living in Delhi between 1988 and 1994. In those years I would spend a couple of days a week in the NMML, exploring its repository of private papers of major (and minor) figures in modern Indian history and digging deep into its holdings of old newspapers.
Ramachandra Guha | | Published 16.01.21, 01:33 AM
In the third week of January 2020 exactly a year ago I was in New Delhi, working in the collections of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. I first discovered the archival riches of the NMML in the early 1980s, and explored them most fully while living in Delhi between 1988 and 1994. In those years I would spend a couple of days a week in the NMML, exploring its repository of private papers of major (and minor) figures in modern Indian history and digging deep into its holdings of old newspapers.
In 1994, I moved to Bangalore. I no longer had daily access to the NMML, and made do with a few trips a year. These were generally in January, April, September and November, thus escaping the brutal heat of summer and the sapping stickiness of the monsoon too. I would book myself for a week or ten days in a boarding
LOOKING BACK
DARWEN WELCOME: Coun W Knowles (the mayor), Charles Haworth (of Greenfield Mill who lived at No 3 with his family; behind Gandhi), the Mahatma (front), Mahadev Desai, Miss Slade and Pyarelal Nayar, in front of the municipal offices MAHATMA Gandhi travelled light. When he made his famous visit to Darwen and the Ribble Valley one weekend in late September 1931 he had just the simple white dhoti and chaddar wraps he always wore. No doubt his small entourage carried a change of outfit. But he left a couple of things behind which would today arouse a lot of interest – two autographs. Mohandas K Gandhi, known by the honorific “Mahatma” meaning “Great Soul,” is still revered by millions of Hindus, 72 years after he was assassinated in New Delhi.