Archives of Contemporary India

Supported by HDFC LTD.
17 October 2024:

Sai Paranjpye's visit to the ACI, where she appreciated the careful organization and preservation of her papers.

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6 September 2024:

Ashoka is today India’s #1 liberal arts and sciences university that is home to the most diverse student body, a hub for impactful research and a magnet for best-in-class faculty and staff.

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6 June 2024:

Recent Acquisition: Prof. Savyasaachi has donated the papers of his father, Shri Devdutt (back issues of weekly Point of View) and his father-in-law, Shri Narendra Sharma (back issues of IPA Industrial Relations) to ACI.

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5 June 2024:

Archives Workshop for Young Scholars Programme (YSP) students

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29 May 2024:

Archives Workshop for Lodha Genius Programme (LGP) Students: Day 3

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28 May 2024:

Archives Workshop for Lodha Genius Programme (LGP) Students: Day 2

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27 May 2024:

Archives Workshop for Lodha Genius Programme (LGP) Students: Day 1 Introduction to Archives & Guided Tour of the students

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4 May 2024:

Acquired the papers of Aniket/Ramesh Pahari ji from Rudraprayag.

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2 May 2024:

We received the back issues of Uttara (1990-2023) for digital archiving as well as some papers of contributors to the magazine. Started in 1990 by Dr. Uma Bhatt, the magazine publishes articles related to women's issues, art and culture of Uttarakhand.

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2 May 2024:

Acquisition of the back issues of Nainital Samachar (fortnightly, 1977-2023) for digital preservation and research from its Editor, Rajiv Lochan Sah ji. Published from Nainital, it played a crucial role in public awareness since its inception.

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2 May 2024:

deCLASSIFIED ENGAGING WITH THE ASHOKA ARCHIVES: An interactive exhibition by Visual Arts Department in collaboration with ACI using photography, collages, found images, photo montages, photo narratives and portraits, 2-3 May 2024.


22 April 2024:

Talk by Professor Uma Ramakrishnan, Molecular ecologist and Senior Fellow, India Alliance at NCBS on 'Can genetic data inform tiger conservation?' jointly organised by The Archives of Contemporary India and Department of Environmental Studies.

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16 April 2024:

Talk by Prof. Monia Acciari on ' "Waste that Matters": Bottom-up Film Histories in Maharashtra. Towards an Unconscious Archiving' on 16.04.2024.

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3 April 2024:

Talk by Jahnavi Phalkey on 'Territory, Wealth, and Income of India' on 3rd April 2024 jointly organized by ACI and Department of Environmental Studies.

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2 April 2024:

Talk by Dr. Madhu Verma on 'Economic Valuation of Tiger Habitats in India: A Value Plus Approach'

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1 April 2024:

Donor's visit: Chandrashekhar Dasgupta's family (wife Devika Dasgupta and son Sanjoy Dasgupta) visit to ACI.

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21 March 2024:

Acquisition of Prema Sastri Papers: Sumi Sastri donated the papers of her mother Prema Sastri, a short-story writer and playwright for preservation and research.

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20 March 2024:

Ali Manikfan (ecologist and marine researcher), Dr Ajmal Mueen (Associate Professor, Department of History, M.A.M.O. College, Calicut, Kerala) and Mustafa Moulavi (Islamic scholar) visited ACI on 20 March 2024.

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9 February 2024:

Talk by Joseph S. Alter (Professor of Anthropology at University of Pittsburgh) on 'The "Discovery" of Yoga in the Himalaya: Swami Sivananda, New Asia Connectivities and the Mythos of Orientalism'.

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15 November 2023:

Launch of the MacFarquhar Collection. Hosted by Centre for China Studies and ACI. Archivists in conversation with Nancy Hearst, Librarian, Fairbank Centre for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

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19 October 2023:

Visit of Prof. Patrick Olivelle (Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions, Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin) to ACI.

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19 October 2023:

Talk by Prof. Arupjyoti Saikia (Professor of History, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati, Assam) on his book 'The Quest for Modern Assam: A History, 1942-2000'.

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14 September 2023:

Talk by Prof. Dilip M. Menon (Professor of History, University of Witwatersrand and Founder-Director, Centre for Indian Studies in Africa) on 'An Archives of the Demotic: Thinking Theory from our Spaces' organised by the ACI and Department of History.

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14 September 2023:

Prof. Dilip M. Menon visits ACI

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10 July 2023:

Visit of Latika Padgaonkar (donor of Dileep Padgaonkar Papers) to the ACI.

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19 April 2023:

Visit of Om Thanvi, former Editor of Jansatta and donor of S.H. Vatsyayan Papers visits ACI.

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15 March 2023:

Talk by Dr. K. Ullas Karanth (Emeritus Director, CWS, Bengaluru) on his latest book ‘Among Tigers: Fighting to Bring Back Asia’s Big Cats' organised by the Archives of Contemporary India and Department of Environmental Studies.

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14 March 2023:

Discussion on ‘Growing up Karanth’ by Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, Prof. Malavika Kapur & Ms. Kshama Rau organised by the Department of Sanskrit Studies and Archives of Contemporary India

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28 January 2020:

Talk on ‘Anatomy of Multipolar World’ by Dilip Hiro, well-known historian, author and journalist. (Ashoka Archives was privileged to receive a collection of his papers in December 2019)

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4 & 21 November 2019:

Workshop with undergraduates of ICT (Introduction to Critical Thinking) class regarding the basic aspects of private papers and archival management.


12 September 2019:

In collaboration with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology organised a lecture on ‘India’s Markets: Five Decades of Field Economics’ by Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, Professor Emeritus of Development Studies, University of Oxford.

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19 & 20 August 2019:

Participation in workshop on Archival Standards & Digitization Workflows conducted by British Library, London, and hosted by Archives at NCBS, (National Centre for Biological Sciences) Bengaluru


02 April 2019:

Workshop on the practical working of archives with the students of Johannes Burgers, Assistant Professor, English & Digital Humanities, Ashoka University


06 February 2019:

Workshop on the practical working of archives with Suzanne Edwards of Gloria Naylor archives, Lehigh University

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06 December 2017:

Felicitation function of Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Gandhian social activist. (Ashoka Archives was privileged to receive a collection of his private papers in October 2017)

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13 & 14 November 2017:

Participation in Annual Conference of Oral History Association of India organised by OHAI, Bengaluru, and Department of History, Gauhati University