Introduction

• An abundance of historical material is available for studying India from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century.

• Priority in constructing the history of modern India should be given to archives, which are collections of historical records and primary source documents.

• Archives contain original documents created as part of activities like administrative, legal, social, or commercial processes.

• Official records are a crucial part of archives, including the papers of government agencies at various levels.

• The records of the East India Company provide a detailed account of trading conditions from 1600-1857.

• After the British crown took over administration, it maintained a large volume of official records, helping historians trace important developments and understand the decision-making processes of policy-makers.

• The records of other European East India companies (Portuguese, Dutch, and French) are useful for understanding the economic history and the political set-up during the 17th and 18th centuries.

• Contemporary and semi-contemporary works, such as memoirs, biographies, and travel accounts, provide useful glimpses into the history of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

• Newspapers and journals appeared in the later part of the 18th century, offering valuable information on various aspects of Indian society, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries.

• Other sources for studying modern Indian history include oral evidence, creative literature, and paintings.

Archival Materials

• There are four categories of official records:

  1. Central government archives

  2. State government archives

  3. Records of intermediate and subordinate authorities

  4. Judicial records

• In addition to these, there are private archives and archival sources available abroad.

Central Government Archives

• The National Archives of India, located in New Delhi, contains most of the archives of the Government of India, providing authentic and reliable source materials on various aspects of modern Indian history.

• The records in the National Archives are organized into various groups, representing different branches of the secretariat at different stages of its development.

• The work of the East India Company was distributed among various branches such as public or general, revenue, political, military, secret, commercial, judicial, and education, with a separate set of records kept for each department.

• James Rennell was appointed as the first Surveyor General of Bengal in 1767, marking the beginning of the Survey of India, which mapped the unknown regions of the country and its borders.

• The records of the Survey of India, along with the journals and memoirs of the surveyors, provide valuable information on geographical matters, socio-economic conditions, and other important historical aspects.

• The proceedings of the public, judicial, and legislative departments provide ample data for studying the social and religious policies of the colonial government.

• The government's policies on education and the growth of the education system during colonial rule are mentioned in the educational records of the central archives.

• The papers related to the emergence of the nationalist movement were part of the public series of the home department records; however, in 1907, a new series called Home Political was started to deal exclusively with political and communal issues.

• The records of the Reforms Office are useful for an analytical study of constitutional developments from 1920 to 1937.

Archives of the State Governments

• The source material in the state archives comprises the records of:

  • Former British Indian provinces

  • Erstwhile princely states incorporated into the Indian Union after 1947

  • Foreign administrations other than those of the British

• The records of Indian powers taken over by the British, such as the Kingdom of Lahore (also known as Khalsa Darbar records from 1800 to 1849), are important source material.

• The Peshwa Daftar, housed in the Alienation Office, Pune, is a valuable collection for the study of Maratha history for a period of almost a century before the fall of the Peshwas.

• For studying the history of the princely states of Rajasthan, such as Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Udaipur, etc., the archives of these states, now housed in the Rajasthan State Archives at Bikaner, are valuable.

• The history of Dogra rule from 1846 in Jammu and Kashmir can be studied in the valuable collection of state papers housed at Jammu.

• Other significant archives of the princely states include:

  • Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh

  • Travancore and Cochin in Kerala

  • Mysore in Karnataka

  • Kolhapur in Maharashtra.

Archives of Three Presidencies

• The early records of Fort Williams (Bengal Presidency) were lost during the sack of Calcutta in 1756, but the archives of the Bengal Presidency after the British victory at Plassey have survived in a more or less complete series.

  • These records are partly available in the National Archives of India and partly in the State Archives of West Bengal.

• The records of the Madras Presidency begin from AD 1670 and include records of the Governor and Council of Fort St. George.

  • These records provide substantial information on the rise of the English East India Company as a political power in the south and the Deccan, including the Anglo-French struggle and English conflicts with other Indian powers.

• The archives of Bombay Presidency, housed in the Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office, Mumbai, are extremely useful for studying the history of Western India—Maharashtra, Gujarat, Sindh, and the Kannada-speaking districts of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, which were incorporated into Mysore in 1956.

Archives of Other European Powers

• The archives related to the Portuguese, preserved in Goa, mainly belong to the period from 1700 to 1900, and are valuable for studying the history of Portuguese possessions in India.

• The most significant historical material among the Portuguese archives includes orders and dispatches from Lisbon received in Goa, and the responses and reports sent from India to Portugal.

• The Dutch records of Cochin and Malabar are housed in the Madras Record Office, while those of Chinsura are in the State Archives of West Bengal.

• The French archives of Chandernagore and Pondicherry (now Puducherry) were taken to Paris by the French authorities before relinquishing these settlements.

• The archives of the Danish possessions were transferred to Copenhagen when the Danes sold Tranquebar and Serampore to the English East India Company in 1845.

• The remaining Danish records, primarily related to Tranquebar (1777–1845), are now housed in the Madras Record Office.

Judicial Records

• The archives of the Mayor’s Court at Fort St. George begin from AD 1689 and are the earliest available judicial archives, housed in the Madras Record Office.

• The pre-Plassey records of the Mayor’s Court at Fort Williams have been lost, but records for the years 1757-73 are kept in the Calcutta High Court record room, along with the archives of the Supreme Court of Bengal (1774-1861).

• The Mayor’s Court records at Bombay, established in 1728, are available in the Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office, which also houses the archives of the Bombay Recorder’s Court and the Supreme Court.

• These judicial records contain proceedings and minutes, as well as copies of wills, probates, and letters of administration, useful for genealogical studies and investigations into the state of society and economic conditions in the respective regions.

Published Archives

• The most significant archival publications are the Parliamentary Papers, which include many excerpts from the records of the East India Company and the Government of India under the Crown.

• The reports of parliamentary select committees, various royal commissions on specific subjects like education, civil reforms, and famines, and the parliamentary debates on the Indian empire are indispensable sources.

• The proceedings of the Indian and provincial legislatures, weekly gazettes published by the central and provincial governments, and collections of laws and regulations issued from time to time also serve as valuable source material for historical research.

Private Archives

• Private archives comprise papers and documents of individuals and families of note, who played a significant role in the development of modern India.

• The papers of eminent leaders of the nationalist movement and the records of organizations like the Indian National Congress are housed in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.

• The archives of banks, business houses, and chambers of commerce are extremely helpful in the study of economic changes.