Sources of the History of Modern India
In constructing the history of modern India, priority needs to be given to archives.
Archives - Unique original documents, Official records.
Archival Materials - There are four categories of official records (i) Central government archives, (ii) state government archives, (iii) records of intermediate and subordinate authorities, and (iv) judicial records. Apart from these - Private archives and archival sources available abroad.
Central Government Archives - The National Archives of India, located in New Delhi.
With the appointment of James Rennell as the first Surveyor General of Bengal in 1767, the Survey of India began to scientifically map the unknown regions of the country and its bordering lands.
Archives of the State Governments - The source material in the state archives comprise the records of (i) the former British Indian provinces, (ii) the erstwhile princely states which were incorporated in the Indian Union after 1947, and (iii) the foreign administrations other than those of the British. Apart from these,
The archives of the Kingdom of Lahore (popularly known as Khalsa Darbar records from 1809 to 1849).
The pre-British public archives in India is the Peshwa Daftar housed in the Alienation Office, Pune. it forms the most valuable single source for the study of Maratha history for a period of almost a century before the fall of the Peshwas.
Princely states of Rajasthan - Rajasthan State Archives at Bikaner.
The history of Dogra rule from 1846 in J&K can be studied in the valuable collection of state papers housed at Jammu.
Archives of Three Presidencies -
Bengal Presidency after the British victory at Plassey - National archives of India and partly in the State Archives of West Bengal.
Madras Presidency begin from AD 1670 and include records of the Governor and Council of Fort St. George.
The archives of Bombay Presidency, housed in the Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office, Mumbai
Archives of Other European Powers
Archives related to the Portuguese preserved in Goa.
Dutch records of Cochin and Malabar in the state archives of West Bengal.
The French archives of Chandernagore and Puducherry were taken to Paris by the French authorities.
Archives of the Danish possession were also transferred to Copenhagen.
Judicial Records
Housed in the Madras Record Office, the archives of the Mayor's Court at Fort St. George, from AD 1689.
The pre-Plassey record of the Mayor's Court at Fort Williams have been lost, but those for the Years 1757-73 are kept in the record room of the Calcutta High Court, along with the archives of the Supreme court of Bengal.
Mayor's Court of Bombay established in 1728 - Maharashtra Secretariat Record Office.
Private Archives
The papers of eminent leaders of the nationalist movement and the records of organisations like the Indian national Congress are housed in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.
Foreign Repositories
In England the India Office Records, London and the Records kept in the British Museum.
The archives of the missionary societies, for instance of the Church Missionary Society of London.
The Archives Nationale, Paris, and the Archives of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs
The Dutch East India company is available in Rijksarchief.
Archives preserved in Pakistan are of utmost importance. West Pakistan Record Office, Lahore, Record office, Peshawar, Records available in Sindh, etc.
Biographies, Memoirs and Travel Accounts
Bishop Heber's Journal and Abbe Dubois's Hindu Manners and Customs
famous British travellers who wrote travel accounts were- George Forster, Benjamin Heyne, James Burnes, Alexander Burnes, C.J.C Davidson, John Butler
Newspapers and Journals
The first attempts to publish newspapers in India were made by the disgruntled employees of the English East India Company who sought to expose the malpractices of private trade. For instance, in 1776, William bolts, being censured by the Court of Directors for private trading.
In 1780, James Augustus Hickey published the first newspaper in India entitled The Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser.
One-third of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress in 1885 were journalists.
The Hindu and Swadesamitran - G. Subramaniya Iyer
Kesari and Mahratta - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bengalee - Surendranath Banerjea, Sudharak - Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Voice of India - Dadabhai Naoroji
abroad published newspapers and journals - Indian Sociologist (london, Shyamji Krishnavarma), Talwar (Berlin, Virendranath Chattopadhyay), and Ghadar (San Francisco, Lal Hardayal)
Creative Literature
The first important writer of that period was the Bengali novelist, Bankim Chandra Chatterji. His novels are mostly historical, the best known among them being Anandamath (1882), noted for its powerful lyric 'Vandemataram' and depiction of the Sanyasi Revolt (1760s). His last novel Rajasimha can be called the grand finale to his remarkable career.
Icharam Suryaram Desai was a fine scholar of medieval Guarati literary history. his first novel Hind ane Britannia was one of the earliest Indian novels with political overtones.
Other writers.
Painting
The Company paintings, also referred as 'Patna Kalam' emerged under the patronage of the East India Compnay.
Relief of Luckow, painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859.
In Memoriam by Joseph Noel Paton, recorded in painting two years of the revolt of 1857.
Kalighat painting (Calcutta) - These paintings made a comment on social evils of the time.
In the last decades of the nineteenth century - Artists like Nandalal Bose and Raja Ravi Varma.
Rise of the Bengal School led by Abanindranath Tagore (nephew of Rabindranath Tagore).
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