NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Budget.-Funds to the extent of Rs. 14,86,600 were placed at the disposal of this Department and its Regional Office at Bhopal for 1958-59 against Rs. 14,16,000 for 1957-58. A provision of M. 14,93,000 (Plan and non-Plan items) has been 'Proposed for inclusion in the budget estimates for 1959-60.
To effect economy certain posts were left unfilled and certain others were surrendered.
Accessions.-The records. acquired during the year included 862 files and six volumes from the Secretariat, 137 files (1839-1942) of the Collector of Customs, Baroda, 160 authenticated bills relating to various States, 119 volumes of Railway records (1848-1923) from India House, London, 33 autograph letters of Mahatma Gandhi, the original type-script of the second part of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's autobiography, a contemporary manuscript of Elphinstone's report on the settlement of Peshwa's territories and ten old documents, relating to economic matters of the period 1796-1800 received from the Ministry of Finance.
Exchange difficulties continued to impede the implementation of the Department's programme of acquiring microfilm copies of records and historical manuscripts from abroad. Acquisitions made during the year include one reel of microfilms of French documents received from the Bioliotheque Nationale, Paris relating to some aspects of the Indian history during the 17th and 18th centuries, one reel of microfilms from the New York Public Library in regard to the life and work of the late Lala Lajpat Rai and 142 Persian documents and manuscripts from private owners.
Checking and Arrangement of Accessions.-Progress was maintained in checking and arranging newly accessioned records and about 52,000 files were examined and integrated with their proper series. The arrangement of printed maps according to the Dewey Classification system was continued.
Research Facilities.-122 research scholars availed themselves of the facilities for consulting records and published materials available in this Department. 11,045 pages of excerpts were released to research scholars for their use. In order to facilitate the work of research scholars, particularly those who could not visit this Department during office hours, the Research Room was
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kept-open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on week days and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Materials continued to be compiled for the bulletin started by the Department for maintaining a complete register of information on research work in progress on modern Indian History.
Fellowship Scheme.-The National Archives of India Research Fellowship Scheme was revised and the scale of the Fellowship was raised from Rs. 150 p.m. to Rs. 200 p.m. The Fellows are to be selected from universities on the basis of an all-India competition. The number of Fellowships has also been increased to five a year.
Training in Archives-Science.-Sixteen candidates of the three- month course and six candidates of the Diploma course were given training in archives-keeping. Two of the Diploma course trainees were awarded a scholarship of Rs. 125 p.m. each on the basis of a written test.
To raise the standard of training, the syllabus of the courses was revised, and arrangements for delivering lectures on archives- history of Europe and America as also for inviting eminent archivists to address the trainees on different archival subjects were made.
Exhibition.-The Department continued to maintain a permanent exhibition of select records illustrating various phases of the modern period of India. Over 680 visitors came to the Department to see exhibits, On the occasion of the Tenth Death Anniversary of Gandhiji the Department organised an exhibition of Gandhian documents at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. In addition to the documents preserved in the National Archives of India, the exhibition also included significant writings of Gandhiji lent by Sabarmati Ashram Memorial Trust, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Rabindra Sadana, Santiniketan, and the President of India.
Some of the interesting items of the Survey of India maps in the custody of the Department were exhibited in the 'India 1958' Exhibition in the 'National Archives of India Section' of the Ministry of Education pavilion and on the occasion of the 34th session of the Indian Historical Records Commission held at Trivandrum.
Publications.-Volume I of the Fort William-India House Correspondence was published. The text, 'prelime', introduction, notes and bibliography of Volume XIII were printed and the index was made ready for the press. The major portion of the text of Volume IX was also printed. The work of editing the text of Volume XV of the series was completed.
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Volume X of The Indian Archives was published as the consolidated issue for 1956 and Volume XI was made ready for the press.
This Department has undertaken the publication of selections from educational records covering the period 1860-1947. The Advisory Committee set up for the purpose held its first meeting on 24th June, 1958 and gave certain directions. Accordingly work on the period, 1860-81, was taken up and a general appraisal of the material was completed" Further, more than 15,000 pages were carefully examined and a selection of documents considered fit for inclusion was made.
Records in Persian.-The text of Volume X of the Calendar of Persian Correspondence was printed. The calendaring of Volume XI of the series was completed, while work on Volume XII made further progress.
The preparation of handlists of the original Persian Letters received for the year 1817, the Persian and Urdu newspapers Jam- i-Jahan-Numa" (1841-45), Sultanul Akhbar (1841), 'Mah-i-Alam. Afroz, Aina-i-Sikandar, Delhi-Urdu-Akhbar, Mehri Munir and Akhbar-i-Ludhiana, (1836-41) was completed and work on Mitahuz-Safar (1897-99) was taken up. Besides, Indexes of the hand lists for 1799-1805 and 1817-18 were prepared.
Two thousand eight hundred and fifty one seals found on the Persian documents of this Department were catalogued.
Preservation.-The normal repair and rehabilitation programme of the Department was continued. In addition to this, service was rendered to sixteen outside agencies and individuals. Of these special mention may be made of the rehabilitation of a manuscript of Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru's autobiography and two brich-bark manuscripts belonging to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
Technical Service.-The Department continued 'to give technical advice to individuals and institutions.
To meet the requirements of the Department arising from the non- availability of good quality foreign repair materials and to find, out suitable substitutes for imported ones, the research laboratory continued testing indigenous supplies.
Photo-duplication.-Photo-duplication service was rendered to at number of scholars and institutions both in India and abroad. The microfilming programme of the Department and the microfilming and repairing.of fragile and rare manuscripts in the Raza Library, Rampur were continued. The Mobile Microfilm Unit of the Department visited Broach, Ankleshwar and Ahmedabad and took about
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8,000 exposures of some rare documents and manuscripts found in private custody. 177 documents in Persian and Bundelkhandi relating to Panna were also microfilmed. The collection of microfilms produced here and acquired from abroad was stored in an air-conditioned space. The schedule of rates for photo-duplication was revised.
Indian Historical Records Commission.-The twenty-seventh meeting of the Research and Publication Committee of the Indian Historical Records Commission was held at the National Archives of India, New Delhi on 1st September, 1958. Among the important resolutions passed by the Committee mention may be made of the following: (i) publication in 'Indian Archives' of a list of subjects on which researches can be undertaken together with information about availability of materials on them; (ii) collection by the Government of India of all materials relating to the activities of the Indian National Army; (iii) publication by the Record Offices in India of reprints of important out-of-print publications; and (iv) release of excerpts from pre-1917 records by State Governments to bona fide scholars.
The ninth meeting of the National Committee of Archivists was held at New Delhi on 2nd September, 1958. The Committee recommended a number of measures for the benefit of the State Record Offices.
The thirty-fourth annual session of the Indian Historical Records Commission was held at Trivandrum on 30th and 31st December, 1958 and 1st January, 1959 under the auspices of the Government of Kerala.
Hyderabad Records.-The question of taking over by the Government of India of the old Marathi and Persian records of the former Hyderabad Record Office and opening a Branch Office of the National Archives of India at Hyderabad has been finalised and the new office is expected to start functioning shortly.
Publication of Central Government Records.-The Research and Publication Committee at its twenty-sixth meeting held in March, 1958, appointed a Sub-Committee to reassess the Twenty-Year Publication Programme of the National Archives of India which was already approved in principle by the Government' of India earlier. The first meeting of the Sub-Committee was held on 1st September, 1958 and the second meeting, on 8th December, 1958. It recommended publication by the Government of India of extracts from records bearing on the social, political and economic history of India. The details of the scheme are being worked out.
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Documents Purchase Committee.-In pursuance of the recommendation of the Estimates Committee of the Parliament, the Government of India appointed in August, 1958 a Document Purchase Committee to advise the Director of Archives, National Archives of India in regard to purchase of documents and manuscripts in private custody. The Committee consists of the Joint Educational Adviser as the chairman, the Director of Archives and two non-officials as members and the Deputy Director of Archives as the Member-Secretary.
National Archives of India, Regional Office, Bhopal.-The work of acquiring the records of the late Government of Bhopal and checking, listing, repairing, rehabilitating, cleaning and arranging them on shelves was continued.
Programme for 1959-60.-It is proposed to concentrate on compiling information on archival accumulations in various central agencies and to accelerate the programme of checking, arranging and listing records, and acquiring microfilm copies of documents from abroad. The preparation of the lists of microfilm copies of records received from abroad and those to be acquired in 1959-60 will be continued. Efforts to provide more facilities to conduct research among records will be made. The work of surveying, checking, arranging, listing and studying the organizational set-up of the records of the different Departments and agencies of the Government of India will be continued.
Index-cards will be prepared according to catalogue-slips and the rearrangement of the Survey of India historical and miscellaneous maps will be taken up. The renovation of these, maps will be continued. If space position improves, the revenue maps, plans traverse etc. will be taken over from the Survey of India, Dehra Dun. Efforts will be continued to locate and fill up gaps in the map-service of the Department. Attempts will be made to acquire historical maps from abroad, if necessary.
Further improvement will be made in the work of the training in Archives-science.
There is at present an acute shortage of storage space and during the Second Plan period it is proposed to provide additional stack, area so that more records now lying with various agencies can be centrally stored and looked after.
Volume I of the Fort William-India House Correspondence will be issued for sale. Printing of Volumes IX and XIII of the series will be completed and that of Volume VI taken up. Volume IX and Volume XV will be sent to the press.
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Volume XI of the 'Indian Archives' will be published and Volume XII, sent to the press. The annual reports of the National Archives of India for 1956 and 1957 will be published and that for 1958, made ready for the press.
The preparation of an index and compilation of the 3rd volume of the Index to Foreign and Political Department Records commencing from 1784 onwards will be taken up.
The examination of the typescripts prepared of the selections from educational records and their annotation including preparation of biographical and topographical notes will be done. The introduction to the first volume, which is to be written by an honorary) external editor, being completed, the volume will be sent to the press and its index will be prepared. The examination of the records from 1882 onwards will also be started in 1959-60.
The printing of Volume X of the Calendar of Persian Corres- pondence will be completed and the volume will be published. Volume XI of the series will be sent to the press and the compilation of Volume XII will be continued. The press-listing of the Persian Correspondence from 1801 onwards will be taken up. Campaign for acquiring manuscripts and documents in possession of private owners will be continued and microfilming arrangements for obtaining copies of rare manuscripts and documents will be made. Accessioning of acquired manuscripts and documents will be continued. Preparation of a list of oriental seals found on the original letters up to 1800 A.D. will be completed.
In pursuance of the recommendation of the twenty-sixth meeting of the Research and Publication Committee, the Department propose to undertake a systematic programme for the compilation of the National Register of Records. The proposal for the time being will be confined to records in private custody only. A sum of Rs. 42,000 has been provided in the budget of the Department for 1959-60 for grant-in-aid to State Governments for the purpose.