Archives intersect with our lives in many ways. We have archives of our own, documenting family memories and histories. Then, there are larger archives that document different aspects of the past — memories, identities, location, time, and space.
This volume explores changing notions of the archive in different areas, to trace the ways in which the archives continue to be used in history. It examines how history, the historian, and the archive interact in many ways to look at the past and record it. The chapters in this volume discuss an array of diverse and important themes regarding the making and usage of archives which include reconstructing pre-modern economic history from the Dutch archives; the role of India Office Records in the British Library; reading the Rungia Gosavi Affair in 1857 from colonial archives; and Uday Shankar’s Kalpana as archive besides the usage of archives to study nationalism, historiography and literature, water and Chola history, Mysorean invasions in Kerala, and cyberspace. The chapters also explore how archives impact and shape our investigations.
First of its kind, this important work will be of interest to scholars and researchers of archival studies, research methodology, archaeology, Indian history, ancient history, medieval history, modern India, anthropology, and history in general.
List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction 1
RADHIKA SESHAN
PART I
Documents, Historiographies 9
2 Reconstructing Pre-Modern Economic History from the Dutch Archives 11
ISHRAT ALAM
3 Demystification and Digitisation: India Office Records in the British Library 21
RUBY MALONI
4 Après Elton and Carr: History, the Historian, and the Archive 34
RILA MUKHERJEE
5 Reading the Colonial Archive: The Rungia Gosavi Affair of 1857 48
AVANISH PATIL
6 Contextualising Archives: Mysorean invasions in Kerala 56
ABDURAHIMAN THOTTEKKAT
PART II
Visual and Literary 73
7 Archives in Tibet and Their Received Understanding 75
M N RAJESH
8 Archive and Beyond: Literature as Archive/Archives in Literature 86
CHANDRANI CHATTERJEE
9 Nationalism, Historiography, and Literature: Water and Chola
History 100
RADHIKA SESHAN
10 History of Everyday Archived in Stone and Clay: Case Studies from Early India 107
SUCHANDRA GHOSH
PART III
Emerging Archives 117
11 The Singing of Genealogies and Jati Puranas: Archiving Cosmologies and Ethical Frameworks within the Universe of an Indian Village 119
SUSHRUTI SANTHANAM
12 Exploring Uday Shankar’s Film, Kalpana, as an Archive 133
SULAKSHANA SEN
13 Archive: A Digital Forensic Investigator’s Perspective 144
SHWETA A. CHAWLA
Index 149
Biography
Radhika Seshan retired as Professor and Head of the Department of History, Savitribai Phule Pune University (formerly the University of Pune). She is now Visiting Faculty at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, Pune. Within the broad area of medieval Indian history, her research focuses on trade, especially in textiles, and maritime networks. Her most recent publication is a monograph, Empires of the Sea: A Brief Human History of the Indian Ocean World (2023). Her other works include Wage Earners in India 1500–1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context, jointly edited with Jan Lucassen (2021), and Connecting the Indian Ocean World – Across Sea and Land, and Merchants and Ports in the Indian Ocean World: Across Sea and Land, jointly edited with Ryuto Shimada (Routledge, 2023).
