The records come from four main sources: the English and later British East India Company (1600–1858), the Board of Control (1784–1858), the India Office (1858–1947), and the Burma Office (1937–48). The collection also includes records from many smaller related institutions. Overall, the collection is made up of approximately 175,000 items, including official publications and records, manuscripts, photographs, printed maps and private papers. These items take up approximately nine miles of shelving units.
The historical scope of the records begins in 1600, when the East India Company was granted exclusive rights to trade in much of Asia, including the entire Indian subcontinent. During its first 100 years, much of the East India Company's energy was involved in maintaining its trade privileges, as it faced competition from domestic and international companies.
Although the East India Company was established as a trading company, it became more and more involved in local affairs in India during the early 18th century, and eventually came to hold large swaths of land in the subcontinent. In the mid-18th century, the Company began to undertake a governmental role in large parts of India, in order to organize the nascent colony to better facilitate trade.
In an effort to increase its own involvement in the administration of India, the British Government passed Pitt's India Act in 1784, which established the Board of Control to direct the East India Company in its governing role.
In 1858, in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government abolished the East India Company's right to govern India, and brought the subcontinent directly under the control of the British Empire. The India Office, under the direction of the Secretary of State for India, was established to maintain administrative control over the increasingly important colony. In 1937, a separate Burma Office was established with the separation of Burma from India under the terms of the Government of India Act 1935.
The India Office Records themselves have a very interesting history. There were different levels of care for the records over the years, but interest in preserving them was established very early. A “Keeper” of East India Company records was appointed in 1771, with a mission to arrange current records and to preserve historical records.
Toward the end of the East India Company's governance in India, an increasing number of documents were sent to London and incorporated into the records. In fact, it was one of the most documented administrations ever. However, when the control of India was transferred to the India Office, they set up a committee to review the records provided by the East India Company. On the committee's recommendation, more than 300 tons of records were sold as wastepaper. Although this was certainly a great loss to the collection, there is evidence that many of these records were duplications, or contained very little relevant information.
The first attempt to arrange and describe the records occurred in 1879, when George Birdwood published his Report on the old records of the India Office.
In 1947, the year of Indian independence, ownership of the records transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government. In 1967, the Office decided to move the records to a new facility on Blackfriars Road, where they were merged with the India Office Library. It was during this transition that the records were transformed into a modern archival collection. A classification system for the records was determined, most of which is still being used.
In 1982, the entire collection was moved to the British Library. They are currently a part of the British Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, and they are administered as Public Records, which means that they are available for public consultation in the British Library Reading Rooms.
Arrangement of the Records
The classification system for the records was created with two goals: to preserve the original order of the records as much as was possible, and to clarify the administrative history of the records. Each series of records was assigned a letter, from A to Z, and certain series also have descriptive subclasses. The classes are as follows:[1]
A: East India Company: Charters, Deeds, Statutes and Treaties c1550-c1950
B: East India Company: Minutes of the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors 1599-1858
C: Council of India Minutes and Memoranda 1858-1947
D: East India Company: Minutes and Memoranda of General Committees 1700-1858
E: East India Company: General Correspondence 1602-1859
F: Board of Control Records 1784-1858
G: East India Company Factory Records c1595-1858
H: India Office Home Miscellaneous Series c1600-1900
I: Records relating to other Europeans in India 1475-1824
J&K: East India College, Haileybury, Records, and Records of other institutions 1749-1925
L: India Office Departmental Records
L/AG: India Office: Accountant-General's Records c1601-1974
L/E: India Office: Economic Department Records c1876-1950
L/F: India Office: Financial Department Records c1800-1948
L/I: India Office: Information Department Records 1921-1949
L/L: India Office: Legal Adviser's Records c1550-c1950
L/MAR: India Office: Marine Records c1600-1879
L/MED: India Office: Medical Board Records c1920-1960
L/MIL: India Office: Military Department Records 1708-1959
L/PARL: India Office: Parliamentary Branch Records c1772-1952
L/PO: Secretary of State for India: Private Office Papers 1858-1948
L/PWD: India Office: Public Works Department 1839-1931
L/P&J: India Office: Public and Judicial Department Records 1795-1950
L/P&S: India Office: Political and Secret Department Records 1756-c1950
L/R: India Office: Record Department Papers 1859-1959
L/SUR: India Office: Surveyor's Office Records 1837-1934
L/S&G: India Office: Services and General Department Records c1920-c1970
L/WS: India Office: War Staff Papers 1921-1951
M: Burma Office Records 1932-1948
N: Returns of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1698-1969
O: Biographical Series 1702-1948
P: Proceedings and Consultations 1702-1945
Q: Commission, Committee and Conference Records c1895-1947
R: Records received in London and incorporated in India Office Records
R/1: India: Crown Representative: Political Department Indian States Records 1880-1947
R/2: India: Crown Representative: Indian States Residencies Records c1789-1947
R/3: India: Viceroy's Private Office Papers and other Government Records 1899-1948
R/4: India: British High Commission Cemetery Records c1870-1967
R/5: Nepal: Kathmandu Residency Records c1792-1872
R/8: Burma: Records of the Governor's Office 1942-1947
R/9: Malaya: Malacca Orphan Chamber and Council of Justice Records c1685-1835
R/10: China: Canton Factory Records 1623-1841
R/12: Afghanistan: Kabul Legation Records 1923-1948
R/15: Gulf States: Records of the Bushire, Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat and Trucial States Agencies 1763-1951
R/19: Egypt: Records of the Cairo, Alexandria and Suez Agencies 1832-1870
R/20: Aden: Records of the British Administrations in Aden 1837-1967
S: Linguistic Survey of India c1900-c1930
V: India Office Records Official Publications Series c1760-1957
W, X & Y: India Office Records Map Collections c1700-c1960
Z: Original Registers and Indexes to Records Series c1700-1950
Genealogical research in the collection
The collection is useful for genealogical and family history research, particularly for those who have ancestors who were Anglo-Indian or who were born or lived in British India. Recognising this, the British Library has developed resources to facilitate this process, including biographical indexes, professional research services and close links with the Families In British India Society.
The East India Company, the Board of Control and the India Office kept extensive ecclesiastical records concerning British people in India. These records, including documentation of births, baptisms, marriages, and burials are all contained in the "N" series of the collection. For those who know the occupation of their ancestor in India, the British Library provides a guide to records produced by various positions, facilitating the discovery of material that an ancestor created in the course of his work for the British administration in India. Most of these records can be found in the "L" series.
The collection can be used to bolster research on almost any topic involving the history of India from 1600–1947 by providing unique information relating to the British administration's understanding of events. Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the collection is the set of records pertaining to Mohandas Gandhi. Much is known about Gandhi's life and ideas through many sources, but these records provide interesting insight into the development of his ideas, as well as his personal life. Information on the Indian administration's feelings and frustrations concerning Gandhi is also in the records.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
The material relating to Gandhi can be found in folders R/3/1/289–334. There are two particularly interesting sets of documents in this series. The first of these are administrative records containing reactions to Gandhi and plans concerning his activities. Most of these were originally classified as "Most Secret", "Very Secret", or "Top Secret". (This detail in itself gives insight into the administration's increasing concern with secrecy, as well as their fear of Gandhi and the threat he posed to British authority.) Many of these records are proposals for responses to Gandhi's actions, including plans to prepare for riots in the event of his death during one of his fasts.
The second set of documents consists of correspondence to and from Gandhi. Gandhi wrote extensively to various British government officials, and there are 93 letters from Gandhi, as well as 48 letters to Gandhi from the administration personnel. Many of the letters currently held in the collection are copies from originals, but as the records have been so well-kept in the 20th century, their authenticity is not in question. The time period of the correspondence is 1922 to 1945.
Many of the letters from Gandhi express criticism of British policies in India and reveal Gandhi's sophisticated analysis of world politics, as well as his commitment to peace. In many, he appeals to the British to work with him to end the oppression of the Indians.
Perhaps the most unusual of Gandhi's letters in the collection is a copy of a letter sent to Adolf Hitler, in which Gandhi expresses admiration for Hitler's passion for his nation, but urges him to seek non-violent means to address Germany's concerns. He also refers to some of Hitler's writings as "monstrous", and makes it clear that he has no interest in seeking German aid for the end of British rule in India.
The most personal of letters from Gandhi in the collection relate to the illness and death of his wife in 1944. In these letters, one can see Gandhi's frustration at watching Kasturba Gandhi's condition worsen as he was powerless to help her. He repeatedly appealed to the British to send medical aid, including an Ayurvedic physician, and when it became clear that she would not survive, he lashed out at them, complaining that her treatment was inadequate.
Most of the letters written to Gandhi contained in the collection are accusatory, complaining that Gandhi did not live up to his rhetoric about non-violence. The letters reflect a belief that Gandhi's fasts and other dramatic forms of protest stirred up violence among the Indian population. Many of the letters also deny Gandhi's accusations that the British government was involved in systematic repression of the Indian people and failed to live up to its role as a steward of India and the Indian people.
There is also one letter in the collection from Franklin Roosevelt, who was the President of the United States at the time. In the letter, he acknowledges Gandhi's concerns about India, but suggests that World War II and the defeat of the Axis powers should take precedence. He asks Gandhi to support the British regime so that they will not be forced to divide their attention.
Farrington, Anthony, ed. (1976). The Records of the East India College, Haileybury, & other institutions. London: H.M.S.O.
Farrington, Anthony, ed. (1999). Catalogue of East India Company ships' journals and logs: 1600–1834. London: British Library. ISBN978-0-7123-4646-7.
Moir, Martin (1988). A General Guide to the India Office Records. London: British Library. ISBN9780712306294.
Seton, Rosemary (1986). The Indian "Mutiny" 1857–58: A Guide to Source Material in the India Office Library and Records. London: British Library. ISBN0712300414.
Singh, Amar Kaur Jasbir (1980). Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: Documents in the India Office Records 1922–1946. London: India Office Library and Records. ISBN0903359278.
Stern, Philip J. (2009). "History and historiography of the English East India Company: Past, present, and future!". History Compass. 7 (4): 1146–1180. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00617.x.
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies, and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world by various measures and had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time.
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India secretary or the Indian secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of the British Indian Empire, including Aden, Burma and the Persian Gulf Residency. The post was created in 1858 when the East India Company's rule in Bengal ended and India, except for the Princely States, was brought under the direct administration of the government in Whitehall in London, beginning the official colonial period under the British Empire.
The Governor-General of India was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor/Empress of India and after Indian independence in 1947, the representative of the Monarch of India. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William. The officer had direct control only over his presidency but supervised other East India Company officials in India. Complete authority over all of British territory in the Indian subcontinent was granted in 1833, and the official came to be known as the "Governor-General of India".
Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British conquered the Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company gradually annexed the other powers on the sub-continent and brought into existence a British administrative system over most of modern-day India, with a need to establish and maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
Company rule in India was the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah was defeated and replaced with Mir Jafar, who had the support of the East India Company; or in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar; or in 1773, when the Company abolished local rule (Nizamat) in Bengal and established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance. The Company ruled until 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Government of India Act 1858, the India Office of the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj.
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the society has been a forum, through lectures, its journal, and other publications, for scholarship relating to Asian culture and society of the highest level. It is the United Kingdom's senior learned society in the field of Asian studies. Fellows of the society are elected regularly and include highly accomplished and notable scholars of Asian studies; they use the post-nominal letters FRAS.
India Post is an Indian government-operated postal system in India, and is the trade name of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into a service under the Crown in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country.
The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India.
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of the Indian Subcontinent as well as Yemen and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The India Office was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.
The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India, was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. Until its independence, India had been ruled as an informal empire by the United Kingdom. The empire, also called the British Raj and sometimes the British Indian Empire, consisted of regions, collectively called British India, that were directly administered by the British government, and regions, called the princely states, that were ruled by Indian rulers under a system of paramountcy. The Dominion of India was formalised by the passage of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which also formalised an independent Dominion of Pakistan—comprising the regions of British India that are today Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dominion of India remained "India" in common parlance but was geographically reduced. Under the Act, the British government relinquished all responsibility for administering its former territories. The government also revoked its treaty rights with the rulers of the princely states and advised them to join in a political union with India or Pakistan. Accordingly, the British monarch's regnal title, "Emperor of India," was abandoned.
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods:
The British Raj was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; it is also called Crown rule in India, or Direct rule in India, and lasted from 1858 to 1947. The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and areas ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British paramountcy, called the princely states. The region was sometimes called the Indian Empire, though not officially.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Government took over the administration to establish the British Raj. The British Raj was the period of British Parliament rule on the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947, for around 89 years of British occupation. The system of governance was instituted in 1858 when the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria.
Sir William Foster was a British historiographer and civil servant who was Registrar and Superintendent of Records in the India Office. He was a member of the Hakluyt Society and was "the foremost authority on the detailed history of early British relations with India and other countries in Asia."
The Burma Office was a British government department created in 1937 to oversee the administration of Burma. The department was headed until 1947 by the Secretary of State for India and Burma, a member of the British cabinet, and then for a few months until January 1948 by the Secretary of State for Burma.
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries have one of the most important and largest collections of research material pertaining to the study of South Asia in the United States of America. Starting with the nineteenth century, when Sanskrit was first taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the Libraries have collected material for the study of South Asia.
In political science, direct rule is when an imperial or central power takes direct control over the legislature, executive and civil administration of an otherwise largely self-governing territory.
The Punjab Archives is a repository of the non-current historical and cultural records of South Asia, located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established in 1924 under British Punjab and is currently under the jurisdiction of the Government of Punjab, Pakistan.
The India Papers collection is an archive containing roughly 4,200 bound volumes (40,000 individual reports) dated from the post-Mutiny reorganisation of the Indian government up until Indian Independence in 1947 and is essentially a collection of almost all things relating to British India. There are large sections devoted to the state's medical history, human rights, military history, education, industry and trade, travel, politics, religion, arts, and various other subjects. Notable documents in the archive include important documentation concerning eye-witness accounts of the Partition riots and the police reports on Gandhi's political meetings. The rare collection is held at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh, Scotland. Only one other collection of similar size and content can be found in the UK, the India Office Records, which are held at the British Library in London. The India Papers are complemented further by more the substantial collections in India and in the United States.
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