The National Manuscripts Bill 2023

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What is a Manuscript?
• What is the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM)?
• About the National Manuscripts Bill 2023
• Significance of the National Manuscripts Bill 2023

Why in News?

• According to the sources in the Ministry of Culture, the government is planning to introduce the National Manuscripts Bill 2023, possibly in the Winter Session of Parliament.
• According to the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), India possesses an estimated 10 million manuscripts in 80 ancient scripts like Brahmi, Kushan, Gaudi, Lepcha, and Maithili.

What is Manuscript?

• A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf or any other material dating back at least 75 years and has significant scientific, historical or aesthetic value.
  • Lithographs and printed volumes are not manuscripts.
• Manuscripts are found in hundreds of different languages and scripts. Often, one language is written in a number of different scripts.
  • For example, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script and many other scripts.
• Manuscripts are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, firmans, revenue records which provide direct information on events or processes in history.
• Manuscripts have knowledge content. For example, the Bakhshali manuscript is an ancient Indian mathematical text written on birch bark, and is considered to be the earliest recorded example of the use of zero.

What is the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM)?

• An autonomous body under the Culture Ministry, NMM was launched in 2003 with the mandate of identifying, documenting, conserving and making accessible the manuscript heritage of India.
  • These cover a variety of themes, textures and aesthetics, scripts, languages, calligraphies, illuminations and illustrations.
• The NMM is a national level comprehensive initiative which works towards fulfilling its motto, ‘conserving the past for the future’.
• According to the NMM, while 75% of the existing manuscripts are in Sanskrit, 25% are in regional languages.
• The NMM has digitised 3.3 lakh manuscripts, containing about 3.1 crore folios. Even though more than 1.18 lakh manuscripts have been uploaded, only about 70,000 have been made available online for public access.

About the National Manuscripts Bill 2023:

• The primary aim of the Bill is to –
  • Document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be, in India or abroad,
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date information about them, and
  • Detail the conditions under which they may be consulted.
• The Bill envisages setting up a 10-member National Manuscripts Authority (NMA), with the Union Minister of Culture would be the Chairperson of this body.
  • The NMA would be the apex policy making body with regard to digitisation, conservation, preservation, editing, and publication work of manuscripts.
  • The NMA would have the powers of a civil court to regulate the allocation of access to manuscripts and would also have an investigation wing for the purpose of conducting an inquiry into thefts and desecration of texts.
  • It would also ensure that the manuscripts are not lost by damage or theft.
  • It can collaborate with universities and other educational institutions or agencies to provide fellowships and scholarships for study of manuscripts.
  • The NMA will also prepare a dedicated digital portal for indexing, cataloguing, uploading, and downloading copies of manuscripts.

Significance of the National Manuscripts Bill 2023:

• There is a need to link studying and interpreting of manuscripts with livelihood.
• Only then the importance of ancient manuscripts into the socio-cultural milieu can be brought back.
• The Bill tries to achieve this objective. For example, the survey and documentation of Indian manuscripts abroad will definitely give a boost to an increased global interest in Indian manuscripts.

Q1) What is the difference between a manuscript and an inscription?

Manuscripts are written by hand on palm leaf or on the specially prepared bark of a tree while inscriptions were engraved either on hard surfaces such as stone and metal.

Q2) What are the inscriptions of Ashoka called?

The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE.

Source: Government plans law on protection of Indian manuscripts