a number of reasons. The most obvious reason was that for the personnel of
the TNA, the Dutch Records do not hold any relevance. Dating from a past
long forgotten and written in a language impossible to decipher, they could not
be less interested. The irrelevance of the documents was confirmed by the fact
that they were almost never asked for in the reading room. Another problem
was the difficulty to build up good working relations with the management due
to the quick succession of directors. Finally, the elaborate ways of bureaucracy
complicated matters on both sides.
Injanuary 2011, in a last attempt to revive the Dutch Records Project, the
Nationaal Archief returned to Chennai. At that time, out of 64 meters of Dutch
records, only a few volumes were put in boxes. Most documents were covered
with dust or worse. Retrieving the archives was difficult, because numbers had
fallen off and the volumes were not kept in the right order. Most alarming was
the leaking roof of the repository, which had caused serious damage to the
records. On the upside, all preservation materials sent by the Nationaal Archief
were found untouched. For more than ten years they had been gathering dust,
waiting to be used. Realizing that immediate action was required, the Nationaal
Archief and the TNA came to an agreement. With the position of director being
vacant, the Nationaal Archief negotiated directly with the ministry in charge.
To save time and money, the agreement focused on safeguarding the contents
of those Dutch records that are unique, around 37 metres, by digitization. The
preliminary work would be done by the Nationaal Archief and the TNA; scanning
would be funded out of the MCH budget of the Netherlands Embassy in India.
Thus, in March 2011, two employees of the Nationaal Archief went to Chennai
with bags full of cleaning materials. For one month, they worked side by side
with two senior officers of the Tamil Nadu Archives and three record clerks.
All documents were dusted and put in acid free wrappers and boxes. In the
meantime, the leaf casting machines were reinstalled and conservation of those
volumes too fragile for scanning was started. A local scanning company was hired
to digitize the documents on site. Conservation and digitization took more than
one month, but in December 2011, the project, which started in 1999, finally
resulted in 64 metres of VOC records properly packed and retrievable and the
digitization of 37 metres (ca. 300,000 pages).36
Now, let's look at this project from the perspective of the CCHP. To start with:
the claim that the Dutch Records in Chennai can be considered common
heritage hardly holds up. Up to a certain point, the description says it all:
the Dutch Records are more Dutch than Indian heritage. Although in the
Netherlands not many people know that the VOC had establishments in India,
the VOC has become an integral part of the history of the Dutch. That a part
of that history is also shared with India is a realization that needs to be actively
stimulated. From the Indian point of view, the awareness is even less as not only
the Dutch but also the VOC has scarcely a place in social memory. So from both
sides, the Dutch Records are not seen as common heritage. In the TNA, there is
JINNA SMIT TO CLAIM OR NOT TO CLAIM - SHARING ARCHIVES: POLICY AND PRACTICE
36 See also: Smit, 'In goede, geordende en toegankelijke staat', 32-35. As part of the agreement between the
TNA and the Nationaal Archief, the scans of these documents will be put on line by the Nationaal Archief
as long as the TNA is not able to offer this facility.
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