Exactly one
month ago, the whole world watched shocking images of the Museu Nacional in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil engulfed in flames. The destruction of the fire was so
severe that most of the museum’s rare and precious collections of fossils,
natural specimens, audio documentation, and archives were destroyed. The most
devastating image that brought home the severity of the fire was the aerial
photo of the hollowed out building, the majestic former Paço de São Cristóvão,
the erstwhile residence of the Portuguese royal family. For Brazilians reeling
under a series of political and economic crises, the fire was symbolic of all
that is wrong with the present government.
Tragedies like
these are not new and usually happen because of poor care. However, in our technologically-advanced
times, there exists know-how to prevent them. Keeping aside the importance of
good infrastructure, such tragedies occur also because there is a neglect of
these resources by cultural and educational institutions. One could think of
lack of facilities for research, or the general apathy towards research, even in
universities, as contributing to the neglect.What does apathy do? It takes away
from us our ability to seriously understand our history and culture, forcing us
to rely instead on myth and casual opinion. Think of it in these terms: if one
has to claim ownership to a property, one must have proper (documentary) proof.
Without which it is seen as simply a baseless claim. Likewise with the history
of a people. It is the institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums
along with monumental heritage that preserve this proof of our history and
allow us, in the present, to devote time and energy to the understanding of the
factors and forces that have exerted the pressures and the pulls to create our
culture and society.
Take the case of
Goa. Most Goans will assert that Goa has a rich history and culture. But how
many of us are aware of Goan history beyond the touristy narrative of Goa as a
paradise? To pose this question in another way: was Goa always a paradise or did
someone, at a particular point in time, suggest that it was? We can answer
these and other questions only if students and researchers have easy access to
the materials contained in our cultural institutions.
Recognizing the
importance of having easy access to archival, cultural, and artefactual
material forces us to talk about the virtues of digitization. Goa is sadly
lacking in this regard. Access to this material in digital form and through the
internet is not available. The global trend, nowadays, is for established and
well-known libraries and museums to make many of their collections freely available
to the public – researchers or anybody else. As an illustration that would
resonate with the general Goan public, the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU) in
Portugal recently digitized and made freely available a large
cache of old photos of Goa of the 1950s/60s taken by Mr. Percival
Noronha.
The photographs
freeze a moment in time; we get a glimpse of how things looked back then. It
gives a glimpse of the past that is immediately relatable because the likeness
is not like that of a sketch or painting. Just like a photograph can give a
glimpse of the past, written/printed documents too can be similarly useful,
though one has to spend countless hours reading and, in some cases, deciphering
these documents. And precisely, for this reason, one needs to have easy access
to such material. The point is that the lay public and the researcher alike
benefits with an ease of access to these resources. What one does with this
material depends on, as stated earlier, the educational opportunities
available. This also can open up exciting new ways to teach students about
history, culture, and politics, not just in schools but also in higher
education. Suppose Mr. Noronha had not donated his collection to AHU? Suppose,
despite the donation, AHU had not digitized and given free access to the
collection?
One can also
view ease of access in the digital form as part of a larger practice of
furthering (or in some cases starting from scratch) practices of transparent
governance. When cultural institutions of public importance open themselves up
to the general public, one could argue that it fosters a culture of public
participation in the debates and operation of society at large. This could be
true for governmental institutions as well, as now a culture of access to
valuable information regarding policies and laws will be encoded in the
administrative practices. It is true that the Right to Information law
addresses this issue to a certain extent; but the governmental bodies do not
seem to be very forthcoming. Perhaps because, in India, we have only recently
started demanding ease of access to information.
More
specifically, and perhaps a bit personally, it is important for researchers to
have digital access as not all researchers are able to access libraries,
archives and such, because traveling to these institutions requires money and
time. Many researchers also find it difficult to travel and do research at the
same time; the time that one spends in procuring visas and/or traveling to
reach these institutions can be saved if these resources are available in
digital form.
The case in Rio
de Janeiro is a wake-up call for us. Seeing historical and cultural heritage as
belonging, and therefore accessible, to the general public is important for a vibrant
and diverse democracy.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 3 October, 2018)
