1.Sources for the History of Modern India

Sources for the History of Modern India

Abundance of Historical Material (Mid-18th to Mid-20th Century)
- Priority given to archives in constructing the history of modern India.
  - Archives: A collection of historical records and documents (primary sources).
  - They are created as part of administrative, legal, social, or commercial activities.
  - These documents are unique/original, not produced for the purpose of informing future generations.
- An important component of archives related to modern India are official records:
  - Papers of government agencies at various levels.
Records of the East India Company (1600-1857)
- Provide detailed accounts of trading conditions.
- When the British Crown took over administration, it maintained a large variety of official records.
  - These help historians trace important developments stage by stage.
  - They reveal processes of decision-making and psychology of policymakers.
- Records of other European East India companies (Portuguese, Dutch, French) are also relevant.
  - Especially useful for economic history and understanding the political set-up of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Contemporary & Semi-Contemporary Works
- Include memoirs, biographies, and travel accounts.
- Offer insights into the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Newspapers and Journals (Late 18th Century Onwards)
- Very valuable for social, political, and economic information, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Other Sources
- Oral evidence, creative literature, and paintings also shed light on modern Indian history.

Archival Materials

There are four main categories of official records:
1. Central government archives.
2. State government archives.
3. Records of intermediate and subordinate authorities.
4. Judicial records.
Additional archives:
- Private archives (personal and family papers).
- Archival sources available abroad.

1. Central Government Archives

National Archives of India (New Delhi)
- Houses most of the Government of India’s archives.
- Provides authentic and reliable source materials on various aspects of modern Indian history.
- Records are grouped under different secretariat branches: public/general, revenue, political, military, secret, commercial, judicial, education, etc.
Survey of India
- Began with James Rennell as the first Surveyor General of Bengal (1767).
- Survey records include journals and memoirs of surveyors:
  - Offer geographical, socio-economic, and other important historical details.
Proceedings of Public, Judicial, and Legislative Departments
- Useful for studying social and religious policies of the colonial government.
- Educational policies and growth of the education system are documented.
Home Department Records
- Papers on the emergence of the nationalist movement were in the public series initially.
- In 1907, a new series called Home Political was started for political and communal issues.
Reforms Office Records
- Valuable for analyzing constitutional developments from 1920 to 1937.

2. Archives of the State Governments

Source Material in State Archives
1. Records of the former British Indian provinces.
2. Records of the erstwhile princely states (merged into the Indian Union after 1947).
3. Records of foreign administrations other than the British.
Important Collections
- Khalsa Darbar Records (1800-1849) from the Kingdom of Lahore.
- Peshwa Daftar (Alienation Office, Pune):
  - Single most valuable source for Maratha history (a century before the fall of the Peshwas).
- Princely States of Rajasthan (Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Udaipur):
  - Now housed in the Rajasthan State Archives, Bikaner.
- Dogra Rule in Jammu and Kashmir (from 1846):
  - State papers available in Jammu.
- Other princely state archives: Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), Travancore & Cochin (Kerala), Mysore (Karnataka), Kolhapur (Maharashtra).

3. Archives of Three Presidencies

Bengal Presidency (Fort Williams)
- Early records lost during the sack of Calcutta in 1756.
- Archives post-Battle of Plassey (1757) survive in series at:
  - National Archives of India.
  - State Archives of West Bengal.
Madras Presidency
- Records from AD 1670 onward, including those of the Governor and Council of Fort St. George.
- Provide insights into the Anglo-French struggle and English conflicts with Indian powers in the south and Deccan.
Bombay Presidency
- Stored in the Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office (Mumbai).
- Vital for the history of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Sindh, and the Kannada-speaking districts which later merged into Mysore (1956).

4. Archives of Other European Powers

Portuguese Archives (Goa, 1700-1900)
- Valuable for the history of Portuguese possessions in India.
- Orders/dispatches from Lisbon and responses/reports from India.
Dutch Records
- Cochin & Malabar: Madras Record Office.
- Chinsura: State Archives of West Bengal.
French Archives
- Chandernagore and Pondicherry (Puducherry) archives were taken to Paris before French withdrawal.
Danish Archives
- Moved to Copenhagen after Tranquebar and Serampore were sold to the British (1845).
- Remaining Danish records (1777-1845) on Tranquebar: Madras Record Office.

5. Judicial Records

Madras Record Office
- Houses archives of the Mayor’s Court at Fort St. George (from AD 1689), the earliest available judicial archives.
Calcutta High Court
- Has records of the Mayor’s Court at Fort William (1757-1773) and the Supreme Court of Bengal (1774-1861).
Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office (Bombay)
- Holds records of the Mayor’s Court at Bombay (est. 1728), the Bombay Recorder’s Court, and the Supreme Court.
Contents of Judicial Archives
- Proceedings, minutes, copies of wills, probates, letters of administration.
- Useful for genealogical and socio-economic research.

6. Published Archives

Parliamentary Papers
- Include excerpts from the East India Company records and Government of India under the Crown.
- Reports of Parliamentary Select Committees, Royal Commissions (on education, civil reforms, famines), Parliamentary debates on the Indian empire.
Proceedings of Indian & Provincial Legislatures
- Weekly Gazettes by central/provincial governments.
- Collections of laws/regulations issued periodically.
- All serve as important source materials for research.

7. Private Archives

Documents/Papers of Individuals and Families of Note
- Includes papers of eminent nationalist leaders and records of organizations like the Indian National Congress.
- Housed in places like the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.
Archives of Banks, Business Houses, and Chambers of Commerce
- Crucial for studying economic changes.

8. Foreign Repositories

England
- India Office Records (London):
  - Minutes of the Courts of Directors(added by Pitt’s India Act Of 1784) and the General Court of the East India Company.
  - Minutes and correspondence of the Board of Control(added by Pitt’s India Act Of 1784) (Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India).
  - Records of the Secretary of State and the India Council.
- British Museum:
  - Collections of papers of British viceroys, secretaries of states, and high-ranking civil/military officials who served in India.
- Missionary Societies (e.g., Church Missionary Society, London):
  - Provide insight into educational/social development in pre-independent India.
France
- Archives Nationale, Paris, and archives of French Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Colonies, War:
  - Records on French possessions and socio-political conditions.
Netherlands
- Rijksarchief, The Hague: Dutch East India Company records.
Denmark & Portugal
- Archives in Copenhagen and Lisbon, respectively.
Pakistan
- Archives in West Pakistan Record Office (Lahore), Record Office (Peshawar), and Sind:
  - Provide information on regional history and India’s relations with neighbors like Afghanistan, Iran, etc.

Biographies, Memoirs, and Travel Accounts

Missionaries, Travellers, Traders, Civil Servants
- Left written accounts of experiences and impressions about India.
- Missionaries wrote to encourage more evangelical missions.
  - Examples: Bishop Heber’s Journal, Abbe Dubois’s Hindu Manners and Customs (details on socio-economic life during the decline of Indian powers and rise of the British).
Notable British Travellers
- George Forster, Benjamin Heyne, James Burnes (Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde), Alexander Burnes (Travels Into Bokhara), C.J.C. Davidson (Diary of the Travels and Adventures in Upper India), John Butler (Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam).
Notable Non-British Travellers
- Victor Jacquemont (Letters from India…), Baron Charles (Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab), William Moorcroft.
Importance of Travel Accounts
- Generally reliable and indispensable.
- Supplement official records in constructing modern Indian history.

Newspapers and Journals

Early Newspapers (Late 18th Century)
- First attempts by disgruntled East India Company employees to expose private trade malpractices.
- 1776: William Bolts planned a newspaper but was suppressed by the Company.
- 1780: James Augustus Hickey published The Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser.
  - Hickey’s press seized within two years due to criticism of government officials.
- Other early publications: The Calcutta Gazette (1784), The Madras Courier (1788), The Bombay Herald (1789).
Growth in the 19th Century
- By the mid-19th century, many powerful newspapers edited/published by fearless journalists.
- One-third of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress (1885) were journalists.
- Examples:
  - The Hindu & Swadesamitran (G. Subramaniya Iyer),
  - Kesari & Mahratta (Bal Gangadhar Tilak),
  - Bengalee (Surendranath Banerjea),
  - Amrita Bazaar Patrika (Sisir & Motilal Ghosh),
  - Sudharak (Gopal Krishna Gokhale),
  - Indian Mirror (N.N. Sen),
  - Voice of India (Dadabhai Naoroji),
  - Hindustan & Advocate (G.P. Varma).
- Other noted newspapers: The Tribune, Akhbar-i-Am, Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakash, Kal, Gujarati, Som Prakash, Banganivasi, Sadharani.
Indian Nationalists & Revolutionaries Abroad
- Indian Sociologist (London, Shyamji Krishnavarma),
- Bande Matram (Paris, Madam Cama),
- Talwar (Berlin, Virendranath Chattopadhyay),
- Ghadar (San Francisco, Lala Hardayal).
Significance of Newspapers
- Depict almost all aspects of life in colonial India (from the 1870s).
- Track major events of the freedom struggle (especially from the 1920s).
- Caution: Newspaper accounts can carry biases (e.g., a pro-British London paper vs. an Indian nationalist paper).

Oral Evidence

Oral History
- Constructing history from non-written sources (personal reminiscences, interviews, etc.).
- Broadens historical inquiry and can corroborate findings from written sources.
- Some historians remain skeptical of its complete accuracy.

Creative Literature

Emergence of the Novel (Late 19th Century)
- A significant outcome of Indo-European contact.
- Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838-94):
  - Famous Bengali novelist; wrote mostly historical novels.
  - Anandamath (1882): Known for “Vandemataram” and depiction of the Sanyasi Revolt (1760s).
  - Rajasimha: His last novel.
- Icharam Suryaram Desai (1853-1912):
  - Gujarati literary scholar; wrote Hind ane Britannia (an early novel with political overtones).
- Tamil Writers:
  - Girija Devi (Mohana Rajani, 1931),
  - Ramatirthammal (Dasikalin Mosavalai, 1936).
- Telugu: G.V. Krishna Rao (Keelubommalu, The Puppets, 1956).
- Malayalam:
  - Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Balyakalasakhi, 1944),
  - Thakazhi Siva Sankara Pillai (Tottiyude Makan, Chemmeen).
- Common Features
  - Strong sense of realism.
  - Deep interest in marginalized/oppressed sections.
  - Novels reflect the social milieu of their respective times.

Painting

Company Paintings (Patna Kalam)
- Emerged under the patronage of the East India Company.
- Depict people, festivals, trades, dances, attire of the time.
- Popular until the introduction of photography (1840s).
Pictorial Images of 1857 Revolt
- Produced by both British and Indians.
- Range of forms: paintings, pencil drawings, etchings, posters, cartoons, bazaar prints.
- British paintings often commemorated British heroes (e.g., Relief of Lucknow by Thomas Jones Barker, 1859).
- In Memoriam (Joseph Noel Paton) portrayed English women/children in fear during the revolt.
- These images help historians interpret British and Indian worldviews of 1857.
Kalighat Paintings (19th Century, Calcutta)
- Depicted mythological figures and ordinary people’s daily lives.
- Reflected social changes and sometimes criticized social evils.
New Art Movement (Late 19th Century)
- Stimulated by growing nationalism.
- Artists like Nandalal Bose and Raja Ravi Varma.
- Bengal School: Led by Abanindranath Tagore (nephew of Rabindranath Tagore), E.B. Havell, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
- Focused on Indian mythology, cultural heritage, and modern art trends.

Summary

Sources of Modern Indian History include:
1. Archival Materials (public, private, and foreign repositories).
  - Public Archives: Government of India, state governments, archives of Bengal/Madras/Bombay Presidencies, judicial records.
  - Private Archives: Personal/family papers of prominent figures, records of banks, businesses, and chambers of commerce.
  - Foreign Repositories: India Office Records (London), British Museum, archives in Pakistan, etc.
2. Biographies, Memoirs, and Travel Accounts
  - Written by travelers, traders, missionaries, civil servants.
  - Memoirs of Indian leaders during the Independence movement.
3. Newspapers and Journals
  - Published in India and abroad, crucial for understanding political, social, and economic developments.
4. Oral Evidence
  - Personal reminiscences and interviews, though sometimes questioned for accuracy.
5. Creative Literature
  - Novels, poems, plays highlighting social realities.
6. Paintings
  - Company paintings, depictions of the 1857 revolt, Kalighat paintings, and the nationalist art movement.