APPENDIX A (Q) : REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES
The main activities of the Department are explained as follows:
Records Administration The Primary function of this Department is the accessioning, listing, arrangement of the records of the various Ministries
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and the Departments of the Government of India so as to preserve them for future administrative and historical research.
During the year under review the Records Administration Division of the National Archives of India continued its programme of concentrating in its muniment rooms the records of some of the defunct Residencies and Political Agencies which are still lying in the Offices of the Regional Commissioners and other local authorities. During the year under review 1,568 bundles of records belonging to the various Residences and Political Agencies were received in this Department.
Five hundred and seven bundles and 36 volumes were also received from the various Ministries of the Government of India as well as their attached and subordinate offices.
Under the programme of acquisition of historical manuscripts by purchase or gift, several interesting manuscripts were acquired. The most important among these is a collection of papers of Lord Macartney, Governor of Madras (1781-85).
Under the programme of the acquisition of microfilm copies of records of Indian interest from abroad, the Department acquired during the current year as many as 136 microfilm reels of which 86 reels were received from the Algemeen Rijksarchief, the Hague, 39 reels from the British Museum, London, and five reels from the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. These reels cover nearly 1,08,800 manuscript pages of records.
The organisational changes of various Departments, both of the pre-and-post-Mutiny period, were studied and materials were collected for inclusion in the proposed "Summary Guide" to records.
During the year, check-lists of 60,257 files of the various Departments in the custody of the National Archives of India were prepared. Work of reconstruction of disrupted archival series was continued and about 23,480 files were reclaimed and put in their proper place.
Preservation of Records The Department is taking every possible care in the preservation and maintenance of the records which are placed at its disposal. The records in the stack areas of the Department are regularly air- conditioned. The Department has also installed a mechanically operated Fumigation Chamber where the records on their arrival in the Department are treated so as to destroy all fungies and other insects before they are placed over the stacks, The brittle and worn
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out records are regularly repaired and where necessary the old and brittle records are laminated in order to increase their durability. The Department has a separate section where experiments are conti- nuously made for finding out new and effective methods for the proper preservation of records under the usual tropical conditions as we have in India. Experiments are also being carried out to see the durability of various types of papers to be used for writing purposes, inks and other such materials.
Microfilming of Records The Photo-Duplication Section of the National Archives of India is mainly engaged with the microfilming of records in the custody of the Department in order to ensure the safety of records from damage or loss and to alleviate, as far as possible, the handling of the originals by research workers. The Department also handles the work of microfilming of records on payment on behalf of the outside agencies.
Training in Archives-keeping The National Archives of India provides facilities for free training to a limited number of students in scientific methods of Archives-Keeping. For this purpose this Department has introduced two courses of training viz., (i) A One Year's Diploma Course, and (ii) A three Month's Short Training Course. The candidates for the Diploma Course should preferably be M.A. in Modern Indian History or History Honours Graduates with Modern Indian History as one of their special papers. Preference is given to candidates deputed by the State Governments, universities, learned institutions, etc. Written tests are held after the completion of the One Year's Course and successful candidates are awarded Diplomas by the Government of India. The Diploma Course is based on a wide and up-to-date syllabus relating to all aspects of Records Administration and Preservation. The Diploma Examination papers are set and assessed by a Board of Examiners comprising the Director of Archives, Government of India (Chairman) and two State Directors. Two stipends amounting to Rs. 125/- each are awarded to the most deserving candidates for the One Year's Course on the basis of a written test.
The Three Months' Short Course is confined to the employees of the Central and State Governments for whom the minimum qualification is Matriculation. Certificates are issued to these trainees after the completion of the course.
Lectures in the theory and practice of Archives-Keeping are delivered according to a regular time-table lasting from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., with a recess of half an hour from 1 P.M. to 1.30 P.M.
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This time-table applies to both the courses. The mornings are de. voted to practical work on the preservation side while the afternoons are devoted to the theory and practice of records administration. This training also includes seminars during which the trainees exchange views with the officers of this Department on matters relating to their studies.
Publication Programme The National Archives of India has undertaken a publication programme recommended to it by the Indian Historical Records Commission at its Mysore Session in January 1942 and later approved by the Government of India. The programme embraces three schemes.
Scheme I-envisages printing of the General Letters to and from the Court of Directors from 1748 to 1800 in 21 Volumes. The series is entitled Fort William-India House Correspondence and the volumes are being edited by Honorary Editors appointed by the Government of India. Out of these Volumes, Vol. V(1767-69) edited by Dr. N. K. Sinha was published in 1949. Volumes I, II and XVII are in press. Volumes IV, VI, IX and XIII will be sent to press shortly. Volumes III, VII, XVI and XVIII have also been received from the Honorary Editors and are at-present under departmental scrutiny.
Scheme II-which is to be edited exclusively by the Director of Archives with the help of his staff comprises publication of (1) The Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri; (2) Major Browne's Correspondence with Warren Hastings and Major John Shore's Minutes. Of these the first was published in 1949 and Browne's Correspondence is ready for press.
Scheme III-envisages publication of (a) Records in Oriental Languages and (b) Selections from Records in collaboration with outside agencies. Under item (a) of the scheme, Prachin Bangla Patra Sankalan and Sanskrit Documents were published by the Calcutta University and the Ganganath Jha Research Institute in 1942 and 1951 respectively. The volume of Marathi Letters, which has been undertaken by the Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandal, Poona, is in press. Under item (b) Selections from Orme Manuscripts and Punjab Akhbars were published by the Annamalai University and the Sikh Historical Society, Amritsar respectively in 1952. The Elphinstone Correspondence which is being published by the Nagpur University Historical Society, is in press. Work in connection with the other volumes is in progress.
Besides the above, the Department has undertaken the programme of compiling indexes of the Foreign and Political De-
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partment records for 1756-80. The above volumes are almost ready for the press. The compilation of the indexes of records from 1781 will be taken up early next year. In addition to this, the Department is compiling Calendars of Persian Correspondence and Volumes VIII and IX of the Calendars of Persian Correspondence covering the Persian records for the years 1788-89 and 1790-91 have already been printed, while Volume X for the years 1792-93 is ready for the press.
Research Section The main functions of the Research Section of the National Archives of India are: (1) to find out information from records on behalf of the Government of India and the State Governments as and when such cases are referred to the Departments (2) to deal with private search cases on payment of usual search fee and (3) to help the research scholars who come to consult records at the National Archives of India. Besides this, the Department scrutinised 16,178 pages of excerpts taken from records by the research scholars and of these 8,032 pages were released. The remaining pages of excerpts are being scrutinised by the respective Ministeries of the Government of India, as required under the Historical Research Rules of the Government of India.
In order to further help the cause of historical research the Government of India have been pleased to sanction in December 1953 the scheme of granting every year six fellowships of Rs. 150/per month to the post graduate research students of such of the Indian Universities who agree to abide by the terms of the scheme and to promote research in Modern Indian History. The scheme has been put into operation in the current year. Out of the six scholars selected in this connection by the Government of India, five have already joined the Department and started their work.
Preservation of Maps and Cartographic Records A separate Map Section was opened in the National Archives of India with effect from the 26th October, 1953 with a view to preserve the maps and other cartographic records of the Government of India to organise a proper reference service by getting them listed. Out of 1,500 printed maps in the custody of this Department, 972 maps have already been accessioned. A valuable collection of about 10,000 Survey of India maps of the Historical Series were transferred to this Department in February 1954 for better preservation. These maps are being checked with their transfer lists and those in the advanced stages of decay are being renovated. It is pro-posed to accept a further lot of about 22,000 Survey of India maps of the Miscellaneous Series early next year. It will be the endeavour of this Department to emphasise the value
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of investigations into the background of these cartographic records from the relevant Survey reports and from allied record groups.
Exhibition of Records An Exhibition Section with a whole-time Officer in Charge has been opened in the National Archives of India from November 1953 as a permanent feature of the Department. The main purpose is to impress upon the general public as well as the students of history the utility of maintaining and preserving records as source materials of Indian history. With this purpose in view selected documents of all India and topical interest have been displayed in a number of show cases. The Exhibition Section has also undertaken the publication of a number of pamphlets under two different series viz. "Source Material" Series and "Our Neighbours" Series. The former are based on English records while the latter are based on Persian, Arabic and Urdu records in the custody of the Department.