A Significant Order on Record Management

Abstract

f^ripHE RECORDS of the East India Company's governI ments in India are probably the best historical materials in the world. So begins the introduction to William Foster's Guide to the India Office Records, 16004858, quoting from the History of the Mahrattas, by the famous historian James Grant Duff.1 What led Duff to appreciate the wealth of material available in the archives of the East India Company and Foster to echo him is the availability of the records of the company in a sufficiently intact form both the records in India and their counterparts, now preserved in the Commonwealth Relations Office, London. This, however, does not mean that like any other records in the world the company's archives did not suffer from the usual hazards of fire, rain, theft, and human negligence. These were there. For example, the company's records at Calcutta had suffered some destruction in 1737, during a flood and cyclone, and some in 1756, during hostilities when Calcutta was captured from the British by Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah'.2 As early as 1682 mention was made in the Court of Directors' minutes of the uold books and papers which are in a confused manner layd in the upper garret of the [East India] House. 3 Again in January 17 17 it was reported that one of the Surat journals had been removed from its covers and stolen, and that great quantities of the Company's packets and other papers were thrown on heaps in the Back Warehouse. 4 But, in spite of all this, it is to the credit of the directors of the East India Company that they began to bestow the necessary attention to the management and safety of their records at a comparatively early period. Thus we find that in 1769 the company had * The contributor of this article is an archivist on the staff of the National Archives of India, New Delhi. 1 Foster, Guide, p. (i) (London, India Office, 1919) ; Duff, History, 2:185 (London, 1826). 2 A Hand-Book to the Records of the Government of India, 1748-1859, p. 2. 3 Foster, Guide, p. (i). *Ibid.