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Constitution of India': Preservation of Original: Historical Notes

The original copies of the Constitution of India in English and Hindi were preserved through the development of hermetically sealed glass display cases. The National Physical Laboratory in India collaborated with the Getty Conservation Institute in the US to design cases that could prevent deterioration from oxidation, microbes, and pollution over decades. Two identical cases were constructed to house the English and Hindi versions respectively. The cases maintained low oxygen and stable temperature and humidity levels to protect the historic documents on long-term display in the Parliament Library in New Delhi.

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55 views1 page

Constitution of India': Preservation of Original: Historical Notes

The original copies of the Constitution of India in English and Hindi were preserved through the development of hermetically sealed glass display cases. The National Physical Laboratory in India collaborated with the Getty Conservation Institute in the US to design cases that could prevent deterioration from oxidation, microbes, and pollution over decades. Two identical cases were constructed to house the English and Hindi versions respectively. The cases maintained low oxygen and stable temperature and humidity levels to protect the historic documents on long-term display in the Parliament Library in New Delhi.

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MSYAM46
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HISTORICAL NOTES

‘Constitution of India’: Preservation of original


The ‘Constitution of India’ was adopted obtained from the National Research that was highly significant and challeng-
by the ‘Constituent Assembly’ on 26 Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural ing. The following are edited portions of
November 1949 and came into force on Property at Lucknow, concluded that the agreement signed between NPL and
26 January 1950. It is the longest consti- both volumes were in fairly sound condi- GCI in July 1993 regarding the fabrica-
tution of any sovereign country in the tion. The Parliament Library then began tion of the display cases for the Constitu-
world written under the chairmanship of discussions with the National Physical tion of India. ‘Two identical display
B. R. Ambedkar. The original English Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi for deve- cases will be fabricated, one for the Eng-
version of the ‘Constitution of India’ was loping a case for preserving these docu- lish and the other for the Hindi version of
calligraphed by Prem Behari Narain Rai- ments. NPL developed the concept of the document. The internal volume of
zada, which weighs ~13 kg and consists ‘hermetically sealed glass cases’ for dis- each case will be 96,250 cm3, and the
of 221 calligraphed sheets of hand-made playing and storing these documents dimensions of each case will be 55 cm
parchment paper of size 45.7 cm × under inert-gas atmospheres, so that the wide, 70 cm long, and 25 cm high. The
58.4 cm size. The calligraphed sheets Constitution can be prevented from oxi- documents will be stored and maintained
were decorated and illuminated by Nand dation, microbiological deterioration and at a relative humidity of 40–50% in a ni-
Lal Bose, depicting a journey from the air-pollution damages. The challenging trogen atmosphere with an oxygen con-
Mohen-jo-Daro and Vedic periods to the aspects of constructing such a display centration of less than 1% by volume. A
Indian freedom movement. The Hindi case were to produce a hermetical seal special protective vault like room,
version of the ‘Constitution of India’– with (i) mechanical strength so as to 180 cm wide, 180 cm deep, and 305 cm
comprising of 252 calligraphed sheets withstand changes in temperature and high will be constructed in the Parlia-
and weighing about 14 kg – was atmospheric pressure, and (ii) durability ment Library at the Parliament House for
calligraphed by Basantrao Vaidya. over several decades. After an extensive display and storage of the documents.
Interestingly, the Hindi version was cal- literature search on the subject, the fol- The room will be climate controlled to
ligraphed exactly as its English counter- lowing three available methods for pro- maintain a temperature of 20 ± 2°C and a
part which had been calligraphed by ducing hermetic seals were identified and 30 ± 5% relative humidity throughout the
Nand Lal Bose. Both documents have evaluated: silver-lead soldering, organic year. It was also agreed that the cases
been bound in first-class Morocco leather sealants and mechanical seals using O- would be constructed at the GCI in the
embossed in gold. Both the original cal- rings. During 1988–89, NPL fabricated United States and transported to the Par-
ligraphed copies of the ‘Constitution of cases using tempered glass and appropri- liament Library in New Delhi, where
India’ are with the Parliament Library, ate sealants; however, these cases were they would be installed and jointly tested
and have great autographic and historical not accepted as the durability of the seal by the GCI and the NPL.’
value as they contain the signatures of over many years could not be assured. In March 1994, these cases were
the founding fathers of the Constitution. In parallel, NPL also made efforts to installed successfully at the Parliament
In the mid-1980s, it was felt that these collaborate with various national and Library (Figure 1). The cases were indi-
historic volumes need to be preserved for international institutions for the deve- vidually mounted on polished stainless-
long periods, and therefore, require lopment of hermetically sealed glass steel stands (approximately 1 m in
appropriate preservation solutions. The cases. In 1992–93, NPL scientist Hari height) with varnished teak cabinet-work
Parliament Library based on the scienti- Kishan visited Saint-Gobain Company, that covers the metal frames of the cases.
fic report – consisting the results of opti- Paris, France to develop hermetically The stands and cabinets were constructed
cal testing, brightness of the paper, and sealed glass cases. He was able to fabri- at NPL. A trace-oxygen analyser con-
gloss of the gold on the document – cate two display cases – one sealed by nected to a data logger was installed in
the soldering process and another sealed each nitrogen filled case for monitoring
with O-rings; however, they were also oxygen leakage into it during perfor-
not found suitable as long-term preserva- mance evaluation. The cases were initial-
tion of the Constitution could not be as- ly flushed with dry nitrogen, and oxygen
sured. content was reduced to below 1000 ppm.
In France, Hari Kishan also discussed The performance of the cases was
the issue with Georges Amsel (a special- accepted by both NPL and GCI. The per-
ist in conservation aspects in the famous formance of these display cases is
Louvre Museum, Paris) who suggested to annually evaluated by a team of NPL
contact the Getty Conservation Institute scientists.
(GCI), USA, as in 1989 they had devel-
oped nearly similar cases for the storage D. K. ASWAL*
Figure 1. The original ‘Constitution of and display of the 27 Royal Mummies at RANJANA MEHROTRA
India’ (Hindi and English versions) at Par- the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In
liament Library, preserved in hermetically November 1992, NPL contacted M. A. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory,
sealed glass cases jointly developed by Corzo (Director GCI) who readily agreed Dr K S Krishnan Marg,
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New
Delhi and Getty Conservation Institute, to sign an agreement to jointly develop New Delhi 110 012, India
USA. ‘hermetically sealed glass cases’ – a task *e-mail: dkaswal.npl@nic.in

788 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 4, 25 AUGUST 2018

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