Efforts on to preserve police, govt. records

Over 200 year-old records lying in dusty police stations across Kerala, including those relating to the 1921 Mopalah rebellion of Malabar, may soon get a new lease of life as efforts are being made to preserve them.

'Old records of British officers of Malabar and other regions are still there in the police stations dotting the state. Now we are trying to get in touch with police officers to preserve them', K J Sohan, State Coordinator of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), said here. The British were good at keeping records. But they are all recorded in paper, which would soon wither away if not preserved, he says.

Sohan, a former Mayor of Kochi, said he had accompanied former DGP Kerala, Hormis Tharakan, to some police stations in Malabar, including the Pandikad police station, one of the oldest in the region. The old records of British officers of the Mopallah rebellion were still lying in the police stations in the region, he said.

The government offices and district collectorates are also storehouses of several old records, which also needs to be preserved. They are all kept in boxes and may not last long, he feels.

The aim is to create a police museum and store this for posterity, he said.

Cajoling the government departments to part with their records would not be easy, he admits.

INTACH's Mural Painting Conservation Research and Training centre at nearby Tripunithura, was presently involved in a project for preserving the metal images from 8th to 18th century. The altar of an Latin church at Mathilakam had been restored recently, he said.