Army Has Begun Projects To Archive War Histories, With Plans To Complete Them By April Next Year

According to Defence Aviation Post, the Army has undertaken two separate projects as part of its efforts to archive war histories.

According to government sources, the projects were initiated by the Army’s Training Command (ARTRAC). The Army War College in Mhow will serve as the project’s nodal authority, and the Delhi-based think tank United Services Institution of India (USI) will serve as an expert body for research on military history content.

The first project will involve digitising and archiving the Army’s military history. While the digitisation process began in May of this year, the first for declassified content and the second for unclassified content.

Unclassified content is content that has never been classified. Declassified content was previously classified but had its status changed later.

In each command, a Board of Officers (BOO) led by a Major General rank officer will closely examine the historical content selected for archival by various units and formations.

“All units have been asked to compile historical records pertaining to their regiments, operations, and battle honours, among other things.” They will then be shortlisted and scrutinised by the BOO before being archived.

The second project entails writing a military history of the Army and designing a web page for it. According to sources, the web page has already been designed, and work on the history content is currently underway.

The total cost of the projects is approximately Rs 45 lakh. While the first project’s deadline is in April of next year, the second project is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved a policy on archiving, declassification, and the compilation or publication of war histories in June of last year. According to the policy, all records should be declassified within 25 years. As a result, all records prior to 1995 will be declassified after being reviewed by a BOO.

The policy also called for the formation of a panel to compile war histories, led by a joint secretary of the Defence Ministry and comprised of representatives from the services, the ministries of home affairs and external affairs, as well as military historians.