National Mission for Manuscript

Context:

Recently the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shed light on the achievements made in the National Mission for Manuscripts and National Culture Fund.

Relevance:

GS II: Government Policies and Interventions

Dimensions of the Article:

1. National Mission for Manuscripts
2. National Culture Fund (NCF)

National Mission for Manuscripts

• Establishment: 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India.
• Objectives:
  • Documentation
  • Conservation
  • Digitization
  • Online dissemination of India’s manuscript heritage.
• Infrastructure: Over 100 Manuscripts Resource Centres and Manuscripts Conservation Centres across India.
• Collection: Approximately ten million manuscripts, the largest in the world, covering various themes, textures, scripts, languages, calligraphies, illuminations, and illustrations.
• Definition of a Manuscript: A handwritten document on materials like paper, bark, cloth, metal, or palm leaf, at least seventy-five years old, with significant scientific, historical, or aesthetic value.
• Distinction: Manuscripts differ from historical records like epigraphs and firmans, as they primarily convey knowledge content rather than direct historical facts.
• Diversity: Manuscripts exist in hundreds of different languages and scripts.

National Culture Fund (NCF)

• Establishment: 1996, under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890.
• Purpose: To mobilize additional resources through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for promoting, protecting, and preserving India’s cultural heritage.
• Functions:
  • Financing mechanism for donor/sponsor institutions to support the protection, restoration, conservation, and development of India’s cultural and heritage sites, including monuments and cultural traditions.
  • Training and development of specialists and cultural administrators.
  • Expanding space in existing museums and constructing new museums for special galleries.
  • Documenting cultural expressions and forms that are losing relevance or facing extinction.
• Management:
  • Managed by a Council chaired by the Minister of Culture and an Executive Committee chaired by the Secretary.
  • Projects are overseen by a Project Implementation Committee (PIC) with representatives from donors, implementers, and NCF.
  • The Comptroller and Auditor General of India annually audit the accounts of NCF.
• Platform: NCF offers a reliable and innovative platform for partnerships in heritage, culture, and the arts.

What is a Manuscript?

• Manuscript is a composition done in handwriting on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf, and other materials that have come to be at least seventy-five years old, or they are of outstanding significance to science, history, or aesthetics.
• Lithographs and printed volumes are not manuscripts.
• Manuscripts appear in hundreds of different languages and scripts.
• Many scripts are used to write the same language. For instance, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script, etc.
• Manuscripts are different from other historical inscriptions like epigraphs on rocks, firmans, and revenue records as they directly relate to happenings or procedures in historical times.
• Manuscripts carry knowledge.

-Source: The Hindu