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Journalism of Courage
Digital archives ease the academics pain. They can also be an instrument of wider change
Frequently,the biggest challenge the researcher on South Asia faces is how to access primary material. With some of the best research centres located overseas,in campuses like Heidelberg and Cambridge,the distance to the archives in India or Pakistan has proved to be a limitation. Now,digital archives have begun to ease the academics pain. The newest searchable database,created by the South Asia Research Foundation,goes online next month and,by next spring,its expected to be marketed to the world through Routledge.
The digital archive is now much more than an academic resource that simplifies access to source material. The internet is coming to be regarded as the universally accessible repository of collective memory,the closest humanity can come to an authorised version of its history. The politics of identity is on the ascendant worldwide,based on region,religion and the fiction of race. Here,the archive can have a calming influence. Original material can expose the lies at the heart of identity politics. The archive is no longer just an element of the knowledge economy. It can be an instrument of change in the service of a modern politics.
