Resource: Abhilekh Patal

Guess what? The NAI really did implement a "digitize on-demand" function.

This is just a little update on my National Archives of India post. Judging from e-mails I receive from researchers working in Delhi, a lot of my advice re: accessing NAI collections in person is still true. But the prep stage for research at the NAI has changed a lot in the past few years, as the NAI's digital game has really improved. I added a link to the NAI's online interface to my original post awhile back. Since then, I've discovered the Abhilekh Patal portal, the newest entry point into NAI collections.

The first place to start with the Abhilekh Patal portal is the "5 Step User Guide," as it tells you how to sign up for access and structure searches (you need an account to see the digitized material). Once you're signed up, click the tab for "Digitized Collections".

As you can see, they started with the big guns — Gandi, Kassturbhai Lalbhai, S. C. Dixit. The Cartographic Records section is growing. Delhi maps outnumber maps of other cities/regions, but there are a lot of Punjab and Tinnevelly maps as well. Lucknow, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Hoshiarpur ...

The biggest digitized collection falls under the heading Public Records. Some data entry errors make it seem like they date back to 1551 AD, but those records are really from either 1851 or 1951, depending on the document. We're mostly talking late 19th-century into the 20th (i.e., colonial era) material here.

The tab for "Online Reference Media" seems to be an catalogue for all digitized material.

Anyway, this should give you a good idea of some of the holdings of the NAI — useful for writing your research proposal/grant application.

National Archives of India — Digital?

If nothing else comes of this initiative (described in Economic Times, August 15, 2017), I hope it is the "on-demand" button. That way I wouldn't have to try and convince the person in front of me that, yes, I really do need this photocopy.

Moncoes do Reino (Monsoon Correspondence)

India and Portugal Sign A Historical agreement to promote Cooperation in The Field of Archives (June 20, 2017).

One of the more difficult things I had to do for my dissertation find and read documents in Portuguese (not my best language). As it turned out, most of the documents I needed were available at the British Library. But I always wanted more — surely, somewhere there were more direct discussions of Jai Singh and his embassy to Portugal via Goa. I meant to one day hit the archives in Lisbon to look for more. But I guess I don't need to do that, as the Moncoes do Reino exist in digital form. From the press release:

"These volumes were originally part of over 456 volumes that cover the period from 1568 to 1914 and form the largest of all record collections in the Goa State Archives.  The collection consists of direct correspondence from Lisbon to Goa and is important primary source for the study of the Portuguese expansion in Asia, their trade rivalries with the Arabs and European powers and their relations with neighbourings Kings in South Asia and East Asia."

Still, I'd like to go to Lisboa to look at the originals. After my Portuguese improves.

National Archives of India

Food for thought. I'm not sure I really care deeply about the marginalia and stamps, but I do care about the overall preservation of the documents. And I do care about user access (the hours I wasted trying to get one.single.photocopy). Some of this rings true, but let me know what you think.

How the National Archives of India is Actually Destroying History.

National Archives of India

An update to my 2009 post by Willy Logan, based on his March 2015 experience.

I was pleased to see during my last visit to Delhi how much easier and less stressful travel was by metro. Research is so much more pleasant when you arrive at the archive relaxed after an easy journey.

Other archives discussed by Logan:

• Resources in Assam
• National Library of India
• Nehru Museum and Library (Teen Murti)

National Archives of India (Review)

Derek L. Elliott has reviewed the National Archives of India for the Dissertation Reviews website. I think he found the experience slightly more comfortable than I did, but I also think that gender matters at the NAI, regardless of what others would tell you. Then again, I made a lot of research progress there despite the obstacles, plus it really made me appreciate the archives in Bikaner and Bhopal. Elliott's review can be found at http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1673.

National Archives of India

I've been meaning to come back and update my previous post on the National Archives of India. What I've decided to is pull some links out the discussion originally conducted on the H-Asia listserv since the H-Net search function can be tricky.

The previous post contained a link to Part Two of a four-part series by Dinyar Patel about the state of Indian archives and libraries. I recommend going back to Part One, "In India, History Literally Rots Away." Part Three is "India's Archives: How Did Things Get This Bad?" Part Four is "Parsis, Once India's Curators, Now Shrug as History Rots." Patel has also contributed an opinion piece along the same lines to The Hindu, called "Our Past Is Being Moth-Eaten."

Mushirul Hasan, Directory General of the NAI, features in Patel's assessment of the archive. You can find an interview with Mr. Hasan, "National Archives can't be run as a typical government office," in the The Times of India.

As you might guess, while Patel's descriptions of the current state of Indian archives were accurate, there was some dissension and discussion about his articles. Quite rightly, some scholars objected to Patel's approach: it's very easy to criticize, very difficult to remedy. Many recognize the problem, few provide workable solutions to to it. There's also a question of (Orientalist) exteriority--who has the right to speak for the Indian archive? Foreign scholars? Indian scholars? What is to be gained by this intense focus on everything that's wrong with or lamentable about India's archives?

Mr. David Lunn pointed out that in addition to the negative attention, perhaps we should recognize some of the successful digitisation projects coming out of India. He mentioned the Digital Library of India, which I use quite frequently to look at older material (right now, books from 1904-1910). I've mentioned the Archives of India Labour here; I've also noticed that the website for the National Film Archive of India seems to be updated regularly.

The application deadline has passed, but Dr. Rashmi Sawhney pointed out that the India Foundation for the Arts was already directing resources toward fixing some of the highlighted problems by funding Archival Fellowships. What I particularly liked about the call for applications was that the materials could be submitted in any Indian language (including English). I hope this will direct attention to the preservation/accessibility of resources in Indian languages.

National Archives of India

Read along with the Delhi Walla as he visits the NAI.

National Archives of India

[ETA: Please check out the new website for the National Archives of India. You will find updated contact information, etc. on the website.]

I'm hesitant to post any advice about using the collection at the NAI in Delhi, because I'm still struggling through the experience myself. But the ArchivesWiki on the NAI is completely empty, and the Archives Made Easy site for India only has one entry, Erica Wald's description of her experience. Actually, Erica Wald's description summarizes my experience at the NAI pretty well, so I'll just add a few details now. I'm sure I'll have more to add in three or four weeks, so check back later.

First, being accepted at the NAI as a researcher is not particularly difficult. You need a letter of introduction from your home institution (in my case, University of Illinois and JNU), any other letter of support you can provide (in my case, a letter from USIEF), a letter from the relevant Embassy (see previous post), and copies of your passport and research visa. You fill out a registration form,* available online at the NAI website, and hand all these papers to the fellow inside the Research Room. Once you are approved to do research, you sign the entry book (at a table just inside the RR door), and then you are ready to work.

But wait. First you have to get to the RR. Here's my advice:

Have your autorickshaw drop you at the NAI gate. Take a blue or black pen out of your pocket. Walk into the Reception Office (guard house) just at the gate, look confident and indicate you are going to the RR, and make a signing gesture. This should make the guard think you know what you are doing. If you look confused, you might have to go into a very elaborate exercise over your ID, and why you don't have an I-card (because you're not Indian), and some phone calls will be made, and you will be very annoyed and upset. Don't get upset! Be silent! Just stand there with your pen in your hand and wait. Eventually, enough people will consult about the matter, and you will be able to sign the entry book.

Here is what you need to write:

Your name IN BLOCK LETTERS. Your Delhi address (don't abbreviate!). In the next space, confidently write DDAR MG. In the next space, boldly write RR. Check the time on the clock over your shoulder and note the time in the next space. Don't make a mistake, or this detail might be cause for more delay. Sign your name on the last space on the line. Don't ask any questions, just act like you know what you're doing.

Then stand and wait, and the guard, who is actually a very nice guy once he knows you're not trying to break in, will write you out a daily security pass. Take the pass in hand, and go through the gates into the NAI complex. Sometimes the guard right inside the gate will want to look at your pass, but usually not. Make sure you say "Namaskar" politely to them, it is good if they recognize you and let you in every day with a smile.

So, you're in the gate, but where is the RR? Confidently walk forward. The museum is on the left, and there is a sign on the building saying it is the National Archives Museum. Keep walking straight, the path leads right to the building that has the RR. Sometimes there is a guard outside this building, so you might want to keep your security pass in hand until you are inside.

Once inside this building, you will need to step around the various construction projects (trust me, they will be still be going on 2 years from now), and take a left through the first left door. You will be seeing some elevators. To the left of the elevators is another door. That is the RR!

You have been reading this, and asking yourself, is this level of detail really necessary for a blog post? But yes, it is, because there is not a single sign to tell you where you are going or what to do. So take notes on this stuff.

The fellow who issues the reading passes is usually in the office to the left just inside the RR door. Sometimes he is sitting at a desk in the middle of the RR, next to a pillar. You will know him because he is facing the door, more or less, and the readers are all facing the opposite direction.

Okay, here is some practical stuff. No bags are allowed in the RR, but there are some lockers just outside the door. They don't lock, and often they are all full so you have to just dump your bag on the floor, so make sure everything valuable fits in your pockets because you will have to take it into the RR with you. Using a laptop at the NAI is no problem. There are several power points, but not enough for every researcher. So far, I have had to run on laptop battery power twice in three weeks, so be prepared for that. Either that, or make sure you get up earlier than I do.

The RR is open from 9:30-6:00. You can stay all day, but the staff go to lunch from 1:15 to 2:30, and you can get no help from them during that time. Sometimes it is difficult to find someone to help even during working hours, and I have no good solution for that problem.

There is a canteen on site (as you leave the RR building, it is to your left), but I haven't used it. Another thing, I don't know how it is for the men, but you have to be pretty courageous to use the women's restroom at the NAI. There is a water leak in the restroom, so...well, it's useable, but not comfortable. The restrooms are on the 3rd floor, by the way.

On your way out at the end of the day, you need to give the security pass back to the fellow in the guard house. One or two days of this routine and he will get to know you and it will all be very pleasant. He also goes to lunch from 1:15 to 2:30, so don't expect to gain entry to the NAI complex during those hours.

Just one other small thing. It is difficult to get an autorickshaw in the late afternoons, so be prepared to wait for one. It's easier to get one headed north than south. Don't let the rickshewallahs fool you--you're not very far from CP, so if they ask you for 100 rupees, they are being bandits. It's more like 20 rupees, but if you can get there for 30-40, you're doing pretty good for a foreigner.


*You will be asked for your research topic--make it as broad as possible, encompassing as many years as possible. I have already been refused access to some PWD records because they do not match my original research inquiry (although they definitely do!). So don't write down your dissertation topic. Write down instead a time period well beyond your actual focus, and a very general topic.