Items related to Archiving The British Raj C: History of the Archival...

Archiving The British Raj C: History of the Archival Policy of the Government of India, with Selected Documents, 1858-1947 - Hardcover

Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi

 
9780199489923: Archiving The British Raj C: History of the Archival Policy of the Government of India, with Selected Documents, 1858-1947
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0199489920 ISBN 13: 9780199489923
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

Generally the archives are sites where historians conduct research into our past. Seldom are the archives objects of research. Archiving the Raj traces the path that led to creation of a central archive in India. In examining the archival policy of the colonial government, it proceeds to explore the complex relationship between knowledge and power. While a section of British political authorities favoured accurate archiving of historical events and limited access to records for selected non-official researchers, the overwhelming opinion in official circles was against such access. In the last two decades of colonial rule in India there were anticipations of freedom in many areas of the public sphere, and, in many ways, these were felt in the domain of archiving, chiefly in the form of reversal of earlier policies. From this perspective, the author discusses how the World Wars, the decline of Britain, among other factors, effected a transition from a Euro-centric and disparaging approach to India towards a more liberal and less ethnocentric approach.

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About the Author

Sabyasachi Bhattacharya is Tagore National Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. He was earlier Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, and Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has published several volumes with OUP, India, including The Defining Moments in Bengal, 1920-1947 (2014) and Talking Back: The Idea of Civilization in the Indian Nationalist Discourse (2011). For the former, he was awarded the H.K. Barpujari award at Indian History Congress in December 2017.

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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication date
2018
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0199489920
ISBN 13 
9780199489923
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
240