A Guide to Navigating Lisbon’s Archives

Over a period spanning from August 2023 to January 2024, I spent time in Lisbon with a dual agenda: to master the Portuguese language at the University of Lisbon and to explore the city’s historical archives.

This post aims to distill key information for those intending to navigate these archives. My explorations were concentrated on two primary archives: the Torre do Tombo (National Archive of Portugal) and the Biblioteca Nacional Portugal (National Library of Portugal), both situated near the University of Lisbon campus in Campo Grande.

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (BNP)

The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal is a central repository of Portuguese history, offering a vast array of records and printed materials. Entry protocols require visitors to store personal items in lockers, while laptops and study materials are allowed in the reading areas. The facility includes a cafeteria in the basement, where lunches are priced around 7-8 euros and coffee at 60 cents.

Operating hours extend to 7:30 pm after the summer, with material requests closing at 4 pm. Access to the library’s resources involves a one-time fee of 12 euros for a library card, necessitating an ID for registration. This card enables access to the digital catalog and material requests, which are made at library computers and delivered to assigned seats in the reading room.

Torre do Tombo
Access to the Torre do Tombo archives is complimentary. Registration enables users to access the digital catalog and request materials, with no reserved seating, allowing flexibility in workspace choice. The archives accept requests until 2 pm and close at 5 pm. While there’s no food service inside the archive’s building, the university campus nearby offers dining options.

Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU)
The AHU, housed in an old palace, stands out for its specialized collections, particularly on Portugal’s overseas territories. Despite its challenging location, it’s a crucial resource for specific research interests. Visitors can request up to five boxes per day from a collection that is in the process of being digitized. Dining options are available across the street, with meals ranging from 10-15 euros. The catalog can be accessed here.

When diving into Lisbon’s digital archives, a couple of key points stood out from my experience, especially as my proficiency in Portuguese improved. Here’s a straightforward guide to help you navigate these resources more effectively.

Understanding Portuguese Spelling Conventions
One crucial aspect to remember is the spelling conventions in Portuguese, particularly the use of diacritics and alternative spellings. This became apparent as I enhanced my language skills. For instance, instead of searching for “Maratha,” I learned to look for “Marata.” Similarly, “Shivaji” becomes “Sivagy,” and this applies to the Marathi language too, referred to as “Marata.” Keeping these variations in mind will streamline your search process in the archives.

Photography and Digitized Records
All the archives I explored permit photographing documents, which is incredibly helpful for researchers. Moreover, many records have been digitized and are available on their respective websites. It’s important to note that if a record has been digitized, physical access might be restricted, and you’ll be directed to the digital copy instead. This policy helps preserve the original documents while ensuring widespread access to their contents.

Exploring More Archives
Lisbon houses several other archives worth mentioning, such as the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa (Geographical Society of Lisbon) and the Portuguese Parliament archives. These places hold valuable information on various topics, including urban planning, forestry, and electoral processes in regions like Goa. While I didn’t visit these archives during my stay, they’re on my list for future exploration.

Kaustubh Somnath Naik is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. He works on the histories of Portuguese colonialism in South Asia from the 18th-20th century, specifically on colonial institutions and their reordering of quotidian life. He is also interested in the Marathi public sphere and the histories of Modern theatre practice in India. His play Avyahat, based on Amita Kanekar’s novel, The Spoke in the Wheel, won the Best Marathi Play at the 58th Maharashtra State Amateur Marathi Theatre Competition in 2018.

Mario puts Goa in a textbook

Goa textbook series 1

While piecing together an account of a rebellion in nineteenth-century Sawantwadi, on the boundary between British India and Portuguese Goa, I thought of what a good story it would make in a children’s textbook on Goan history. I could visualise an illustration of the story of the young prince of Sawantwadi allegedly kidnapped in the night, and taken on horseback by the (to my mind) picturesquely named ‘rebel chieftains’, Anna Sahib and Phond Sawant and his seven sons, into the forests bordering Goa, to hide. This as yet unwritten story led me to think about how often a historical account about Goa appeared in national textbooks.

The NCERT textbooks carry almost no mention of Goa, perhaps unsurprisingly as it occupies an infinitesimally small space geographically, compared to, say, UP, and an even smaller space in the national imagination. When I began to inquire into school textbooks in Goa, I found that the history of Goa did not feature often. This is the case in many regions, in part perhaps stemming from the desire to incorporate students into a national imagination, save that that imagination is always located in a place other than world inhabited by the student. The NCERT textbooks did rectify that to a great degree, incorporating histories and viewpoints from various perspectives.

Women sift flour on the beach

In any case, I was mistaken about the absence of Goa from books.

From time to time I would remember an illustration from a textbook I had read in school, a story about women who came to the beach every day to sift flour. On the last page of the story, I knew they came to the beach to find that it no longer had flour, just sand. I could recall the illustration, the sari pallu, the profile of the women on the beach, the sense of dismay, their livelihood gone. I realised that what I remembered was probably an illustration by Mario. Often recalled for his vivid and joyfully funny portraits of Bombay and its social types, he has many illustrations that convey quiet, or at least, that is how I remember that combination of story and image.

In response to an email, Gerard da Cunha the architect replied, ‘Mario was commissioned to do the English readers for all the classes. I have in my archives 3 of them. I have seen more at the Education dept. Library in Pune.

You are welcome to come and look at them.’

The email exchange was in 2019. I never followed up on it.

Recently, on the Indo-Portuguese history page on Facebook (yes I am that generation), a member, Debasish Chakraverty shared an image from a schoolbook I remember in detail:

and

Wrong once

Debasish shared more images. Turns out I was wrong about Goa being absent from textbooks. Because here’s a story about going there on a steamer:

Someone often sits quietly in a corner of Mario’s cartoons

What was Mario’s connection with Nasik? Close to Bombay and Pune?

Wrong twice. here’s another story

Finally

Debasish sent me the one I wanted to read again. Thank you for restoring this memory.

she went again and again to the seashore . But she found only sand near the sea

• 

• 

• 

Mario’s Magic Carpet

Debasish was at the inauguration of the Mario Miranda Chowk at the junction of Convent avenue and Hasnabad lane; Santa Cruz West, in Bombay, 2013.

He added a Mario memory of his own:

I am also an aviation enthusiast, and a few years ago, I found this….
Mario Miranda did a special cover for Air India’s employee magazine in December 1977. It was the 20th Anniversary edition of the magazine, and he highlighted the news events at Air India, for the year.
I was about 2 years old or so, & my Dad was an Air India pilot back then. So this is something pretty special for me. Thought I’d share …..

Thanks again for this

For a great story on Mario and memories: https://antoinelewis.com/2018/08/06/remembering-paradises-chicken-roll-and-other-temptations/

Do you have a story about Goa in a textbook? send it to publicarchivesindia@gmail.com

An invaluable librarian

Mrs. Lilia Maria de Souza

an interview

Rochelle Pinto and Sandra Ataíde Lobo in conversation with the former librarian, xavier centre for historical research, porvorim, goa

Pinto: Were it not for the knowledge and generosity of Mrs. Lilia Maria de Souza, the former librarian of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, a research library in Porvorim, Goa, I would have taken far longer to arrive at a perspective on the Portuguese texts that I read with great difficulty during my PhD research. The crucial role of librarians in making knowledge accessible, from the catalogue to their encounter with a reader, never struck me as forcibly as it did during the months I worked both at the Central Library, Panjim and the Xavier Centre for Historical Research, a few kilometres away. 

If I had asked for two titles on education policy in the nineteenth century, which I had found in the exemplary card catalogue, Mrs. de Souza would emerge from the stacks, shortly after, gracefully bearing at least five more texts that I had not requested. As I watched in bewilderment and astonishment, she would slowly advance to my desk and place these books on it and leave. Of course, they would all prove to be useful; more often than not, crucial. I was fascinated with some of the political disputes of that century, played out over a series of issues of newspapers and in printed books. I had no idea which book followed the one I was reading in the moment, but Mrs. de Souza did. Without my requesting it, my desk was soon filled with the sequence of books in which I could read entire bitter quarrels between Goan and Portuguese officials and the intelligentsia, whether over a rebellion of soldiers, or a change in land policy. 

• 

While I read, Mrs. de Souza was usually in her office, creating more catalogue entries, and classifying books. She never once indicated what her opinion might be about the direction my research was taking, or my ability to master the texts I ordered, and helped graduate students from the university with the same calm and neutral efficiency as she did me.

Clearly, she had extensive social knowledge of the milieu about which I was reading but was also well acquainted with different segments of the library’s vast collection, and, luckily for me, with the history of the period I floundered through until I could make sense of it. From women’s education to liberalism, she seemed to know what sources to bring up from the stacks. 

What kind of interests and experience and training had produced such ability? In the following interview, Rochelle Pinto, with Sandra Ataíde Lobo discuss Mrs. Lilia Maria de Souza’s experience as a librarian. 

Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by us.

LMdS: To begin with, I would like to say with the psalmist, “I have a goodly heritage”(Psalm 16). Not because I was born in the milieu of the so-called “Portuguese-speaking” elite (for which I do not care). Rather, it is because my parents were loving and compassionate, and always concerned with the less fortunate. I had a whale of a time growing up along with my brothers. In the primary school, Konkani-speaking girls were my best playmates. I went on to complete the seventh year at the Lyceum (the Portuguese high school system) and two years of the diploma in teaching (the diploma in teaching awarded by the Escola Normal in Goa). 

When Liberation dawned, I had started teaching in a village primary school, near Margão. Most kids here were Konkani-speaking children of labourers who tended fields. I loved them. So affectionate, clever and creative! But teaching them was not an easy task. The medium of instruction was supposed to be Portuguese. Textbooks printed in Portugal were so out-of-place! The kids were the product of their green environment. They knew when the mango trees flowered, how the birds built their nests and bulls ploughed the fields! But they failed to understand the meaning of sheep, snow, strawberries – things they had never seen. Later, a window of opportunity and better educational facilities opened for them.

II

How did you arrive at this work?

LMdS: Post-Liberation, a period of transition; we were at a crossroads. My ex-colleagues and friends had switched over to English studies and joined one of the new colleges. All felt that Portuguese studies were irrelevant in the changed situation. I too enrolled in a college in Margão and finished my B.A. ( Bachelor in Arts). I then got married and took a nice break for almost a decade-and-half to take care of my three precious daughters.

Ironically, the Portuguese studies that we felt were of no use, came to my aid when I decided to go back to work. My younger daughter was eight, all three were engrossed with their school and extra-curricular activities. I confided in a friend that the drudgery of housework was getting to me. We women all know about it. She suggested that I join the newly-founded Xavier Centre of Historical Research (henceforth, XCHR). She had heard that they had an opening for a person conversant with Portuguese!!! 

My interview with the Director of XCHR was arranged. He appointed me as an assistant in their Library. My only qualifications were my courses in Portuguese. I had no idea of library science but my love for reading and books was obvious (in fact, my brothers called me a “bookworm” in my younger days).

III

What was your first experience working in a library?

LMdS: XCHR is a Jesuit institution. When I joined in May 1981, it was temporarily housed in a bungalow (Loyola Hall) at Miramar, Panjim. The library collection included old, never-used books which occupied a hall in the ground-floor of the building. On the first floor, there were two classrooms where Portuguese courses were held during the holidays. Dictionaries and grammar books were displayed so that students could consult them. Surrounded by books, I not-so-happily went through routine library work (recording, stamping, sticking) – but all along I had a hunch it would end up as a fascinating learning experience!!! 

In which libraries and archives have you worked, and what kind of work did you undertake in each?

LMdS: In 1983, XCHR shifted into its new, spacious premises, in Porvorim. The solemn inaugural function was held at the beginning of the Third International Seminar of Indo-Portuguese History. By June 1983, the Institution had finished moving. I too was moving. Equipped with a diploma course in Library Science (not so ignorant now), I had extra and interesting duties. I could issue books to the readers, and thus have a chance to browse through them. My learning process had begun. I was lucky that the XCHR just had a reference library. The boring tasks of lending/ returning books were not part of my work. Moreover, ordering books, budgeting, etc., was all done by the Jesuit manager. 

So I was left with the work of cataloguing, classifying and issuing books which I loved most. As an ardent follower of Dr. Ranganathan, the doyen of Library Science, his laws were my code. He wanted the right book to be given to the reader. So I am not surprised with all our dear researchers thanking me. It was my pleasure to help them. I gave, but I received much more. My knowledge kept on increasing, as I interacted with them. Dr. Teotónio de Souza was at the helm of the XCHR when I joined work. He enjoyed the unflinching support of Fr. Romuald de Souza, the Jesuit Provincial at the time. 

The institution was Dr. Teo’s brainchild and he nurtured it with the knowledge acquired through his PhD studies. He was aware of thousands of books, booklets, and pamphlets lying within the walls of old Goan homes and of families ready to part with them. He knew all the ways that the history of Goa and of the Portuguese expansion overseas had to be re-written. A lot of literature on the Portuguese colonial past came to the Centre through the good offices of the Gulbenkian Foundation. So in 1983, XCHR was to start with a bang!

I should say, re-started with a bang. Thenceforth, an academically fruitful era commenced. Seminars and conferences took place. Researchers from Goa and the Indian subcontinent as well as international visitors availed of the XCHR’s services, and some of them had challenging topics. Simultaneously I got an added qualification, a degree in library science and proceeded in my quest for knowledge. 

What were some of the challenges you faced, and what aspects of the library were your responsibility?

LMdS: I was exposed to new learning experiences. Hitherto, I had poor knowledge of Goan history. As taught in the Portuguese Lyceum, history as a subject implied the history of the world with lot of emphasis on Portuguese history. In our English medium college, we learnt world history as well as the history of India – Goa was nowhere. Here was at last a chance to know about my land. 

I got deeply interested in all literature regarding Goa: colonial period, also pre- and post. The various Goas fascinated me. Coastal Goa (Velhas Conquistas) differed from Goa of the hinterland (Novas Conquistas) with Konkani and Portuguese-speaking people having their unique identities, etc. I loved the colourful many-faceted society and culture of my GOA. Expansion history or maritime history fascinated me too. It sounded like a fairy tale. But a careful insight into it led me to see the deeper plot. 

I think I can never retire. The inactivity during the pandemic drives me mad. After XCHR, in spite of many grandkids, I was itching to go out and consult books and documents. I used to alternate between the new Central Library and the archives at the Bishop’s House. Would have like to bring some order into these archives but frankly, I could not achieve much. The lack of space is a hurdle. The Archives are an additional presence and encroachment into the space of the Chancellery and Communications Office. I offered to organize them and the Bishop and the Chancellor were kind enough to accept. Though they do not play a very important role right now, they could help young priests who want to know more about their parishes trace their history.

Where to go when researching colonial Odisha

by Ujaan Ghosh

An Account…of Orissa proper,… 1822, Stirling, BL on Flickr

What follows is a list of colonial (and some pre-colonial) documents that I encountered while working on Odisha. As this is based on my personal experience, it is not an exhaustive account of all that is available, but attempts to provide a broad overview of historical documents on Odisha.  

Orissa State Archives

The OSA is very well maintained and has some of the important documents on the state. In particular, the post 1911 documents in the archive are quite compelling. These are some of the important collections: 

1. Jagannath Temple Correspondence

The JTC is a very rich and voluminous document that records the East India Company and later the British colonial government’s records and their interaction with the Jagannath Temple. It is digitized but you have to see the documents on site. It is not remotely available. 

2. Bihar and Orissa Gazette

The district Gazetteers of the Bihar-Odisha unit can be found in OSA for the Post-1911 period, when Odisha was separated from the trio of Bengal-Bihar-Odisha- administrative unit. 

3. Utkal Deepika

The premiere newspaper of Odisha is digitized by Srujanika (more on them later) and is now kept in the OSA. From what I remember, the UD from 1860-1920 is available in the archive. 

4. District records

The first administrative unit of the East India Company in Odisha was Cuttack-Balasore-Puri. The district records are kept in the Orissa State Archive and are incredibly rich.  I have heard fables about this collection and have never witnessed them personally.  The district records are not indexed which means you will need a stroke of luck to see them.

Srujanika

Srujanika is a private heritage conservation organization. They have digitized almost every rare Odia Periodical and Newspaper since the advent of print in the region. Words cannot do justice to the efforts of the organization to preserve historical records. Utkal Deepika was digitized by them along with Sambalpur Hiteishini, Baleshwar Samba Bahika, Mukur, Indradhanu, etc. If you are interested in the literary history of colonial Odisha, these are invaluable sources. The digitized materials can be bought from Srujanika from their office in Bhubaneshwar. They have also digitized several important books and can be downloaded free from their website. Pretty much every book you can think of and need written in Odia is digitized by them, and even then that is understating it.

 

Odisha State Museum

The Land of Temples, 1882, Brit Lib on flickr

The state museum tends to be overlooked as an archival site but is an incredibly rich collection. Most importantly, the manuscripts of various important pre-colonial texts are available in the OSM. Manuscripts of all of Upendra Bhanja’s major texts, the texts of the Panchasakha poets are available here. Along with these there are several other important texts from pre-colonial Odisha, focusing on, poetry, astrology, liturgy etc. can be found here. Art Historians in particular may be interested in the Records here as the OSM has thousands of illustrated manuscripts. Impressively, most of them are in very good condition. If you know what you are looking for, you can actually, order a digitized copy online. Many of the illustrated ones are digitized so there’s that. Here is one example, of an illustrated Gitagovinda Manuscript that is free to download.

West Bengal State Archives

The Land of Temples, 1882, Brit Lib on flickr

The early colonial documents of Odisha are also available in West Bengal State Archives. 

The Judicial Proceedings 1800-1857  is handwritten, so is difficult to read, but has a wealth of materials on Odisha. The WBSA also has a collection on the Tributary Mahals and the colonial state’s interaction with princely rulers. The Post-1857 Judicial collections are not as robust but there is still ample material to work with. Not all the police reports are available unfortunately.

The Municipal Department (ca1860s- 1910) proceedings of Cuttack, Balasore, and Puri municipality are available. They are in good condition and immensely helpful if you are interested in urban history. As far as I can recollect, the first half of the Municipal proceedings are collated with the General Department Proceedings. Speaking of the General Department, the General Miscellaneous records are somewhat under-researched in the archive but they have bits and pieces of stuff on Odisha as well.  A lot of their index is online.

In general, I also recommend this book  that was compiled by Herman Kulke and Gaganendranath Das. It has a significant resource of primary sources and directions on where libraries are presently housed. There is a mention of the Cuttack Collectorate records in Cuttack. I have personally never explored them but I can only imagine the richness of these sources.

Puri Monasteries

An Account…of Orissa proper,… 1822, Stirling, BL on Flickr

The Puri monasteries have historically had records of their activity, including accounts, genealogical records of leadership etc. It is not certain if this material has survived the recent development drive of the state, though state officials did say that they would take care of these records. We hope they have delivered on the promise. 

Ujaan is a research scholar, working on a dissertation at the University of Wisconsin tentatively titled, “Producing Puri: The Discursive Productions of a Hindu Holy City in Colonial India”, which looks at the ways in which religion was imbricated in art, politics, and pedagogy in Colonial South Asia. Even though his work primarily focuses on Odisha, he has also published on the religious and urban history of colonial Calcutta. Ujaan is interested in the precolonial history of vernacular literary cultures in South Asia. Of particular interest to him is the intersection between Sanskrit and regional literature in Eastern India, at the wake of early modernity. He is also involved in a number of translation projects, and has coauthored a translation of Upendra Bhanja’s Baidehisha Bilasa.

“Refiguring Baidehīśa Bilāsa: Reading the Queer and the Erotic in Upendra Bhanja’s Rāmāyaṇa,” with Amrita Chowdhury. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 88 (2020):569–93.“Combating ‘Filth’: The Temple, the state and Urbanization in late nineteenth century Puri.” Modern Asian Studies 53, no.6 (2019):1849–91., “Temple Sites, Colonial Anxieties, and the Politics of Association in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Kalighat,” in Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Society, ed. Ruby Sain, 71–82. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2021, “Class and Tenancy Relations in Calcutta, 1914–1926,” with Bandyopadhyay Ritajyoti, in Urban Housing, Livelihoods, and Environmental Change in Emerging Economies, ed. Annapurna Shaw and Rajesh Bhattacharya. Hyderabad: Orient B

Documents in transit: Writing vernacular histories of the Second World War

Deepak Naorem

A stray reference or scribbling on the margins of a document in an archive can lead to the discovery of an entirely unknown archive and recovering of neglected histories. Many historians experience such discoveries in their careers.

In 2011, I started working on the history of the Second World War in Northeast India and it took me to the National Archives of India to study the Indian National Army papers (Private paper collections, NAI, 1942-46).

This private paper is indeed a significant source for writing the history of the INA, their actions in Burma, Manipur and the former Naga Hills, and the participation of the locals in the war either on the side of the Allied forces or INA/Japanese forces.

A reference in a Ministry of State (Political Branch) document, dated 1949, to war compensation in Manipur and the Naga Hills for losses incurred in connection with Allied action during the war, however, caught my attention and put me on a research trajectory quite removed from what I originally planned.

Further digging in the National Archives led me to a series of correspondences between the Assam Government and the Ministry of Defence, which constantly referred to nearly a hundred thousand petitions from Manipur and the Naga Hills, seeking monetary compensation from the state for losses and damages during the war.

This revelation made me anticipate the possibility of locating these petitions in some dust-covered boxes in dark and damp record rooms of provincial archives of the region, and inspired my visits to the record rooms of District Collector’s offices and State Archives in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

My encounters with these archives led to the beginning of a long process of unlearning and relearning about the complexities of local archives which were created in the frontier of the British Empire, and are now located in the borderlands of a state-nation.

For months, I looked for these petitions in the State Archives without any success.

None of the local historians I consulted had encountered or heard of these petitions. Their presence in the archives is also not indicated by the inadequate catalogues and cataloguing systems used in these local archives.

After much socializing with the staff of the State Archives in Imphal, and sharing my disappointment with them over cups of tea served in the quintessential glass cups, they informed me that the archives also store a large volume of documents which remained unarchived and uncatalogued.

It was in these categories of files that I made my subsequent discovery.

A large volume of files from various state departments, district collector offices, the old secretariat library and private custodians had been transferred to the State Archives since its establishment in 1982. Such transfer to the archives does not necessarily mean that they will be made accessible to the historians and public.

In fact, a large number of such documents, which are on the archive premises remain unarchived, and a significant number remained uncatalogued.

Here I am reminded of Haitian historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s work Silencing the Past, where he argues that the roots of silencing in history are structural, and begin even before the birth of the historian. Silencing happens at many crucial moments, and one of them is ‘the moment of fact assembly’ or the making/constitution of the archive.

Documents and manuscripts remain stuck in transit between the departments and donors who transferred the files and manuscripts and the shelves or dark storerooms in the archive building.

Since they are either unarchived or uncatalogued, they remained inaccessible to historians and this significantly contributed to the silencing of various histories. The silencing is exacerbated when files are disposed of by burning and disposing of volumes before they could be transferred to any kind of archive.

Monetary compensation and the Claim office

Before the end of the war itself, thousands of people from Manipur state and the Naga Hills started writing petitions seeking monetary compensation from the state. This led to the creation of the Claim office in Shillong and later with branches in Imphal and Kohima, a separate office to deal with this large number of petitions.

In Manipur, the files of the Claim Office along with these petitions were transferred to the State Archives (date of transfer unknown). These files have been given row and shelf numbers, indicating that they were archived. However, these files have not entered the pages of the catalogues of the archive.

Writing a vernacular history of the war

As a result, scholars are not aware of the existence of these files and petitions, and they cannot be requisitioned. Histories of the Second World War in the region are dominated by imperial and national histories. Oral accounts have been used by historians recently to recover vernacular histories of the war. However, these thousands of petitions in a state of transit in the archives of the region provide an alternative and quite an extensive source for writing a vernacular history of the war and help in recovering certain histories of the war which remain silenced.

Negotiating state and bureaucracy

Writing petitions emerged as a popular strategy for negotiating the colonial state and the bureaucracy in the everyday lives of people in the region since the early twentieth century. The local archives are hence full of different types of petitions. Seeking monetary compensation from the states is also not new in the region.

Thousands of individuals and villages in Manipur and the Naga Hills wrote petitions seeking compensation, monetary and in-kind, from the state. These petitions were either written by individuals or by a class of professional petition writers who wrote these petitions for a small remuneration. They were written in English or Meeteilon (Manipuri) in either Roman or Eastern Nagari script.

These petitions (some of them lengthy), are testimonies of their experience of the war and narrated their experience of displacement, deaths, bombing, destructions and loss of their movable and immovable properties, hunger, an outbreak of diseases, intimacies, encounters with the Allied and the Japanese armies and the failed relief and rehabilitation works of the state.

According to the Chief Claim officer in Shillong, a total number of 107747 and roughly 18000 petitions were received from Manipur state and the Naga Hills respectively, and they offer an alternative non-national and non-imperial history of the war.

The bureaucratic responses of the successive states in the region to these petitions also tell us about the complicated process of decolonisation and the transfer of power in the region. In the former Manipur state, the wartime colonial administration invited petitions from the distressed population. After 1947, the Manipuri administration started the process of assessing the petitions and distributing monetary compensation to some of the petitioners.

Once the Indian state took over the administration of the region in 1949, it introduced changes in the process of assessing compensation, which included introducing a form called ‘Form A for Claim Petition’ to replace the older lengthy unmanageable petitions.

To process their compensation claims, the petitioners needed to fill up this form. The purpose of this form was to isolate the information which was crucial for handling the dire issue of war compensation from the existing lengthy petitions. These large number of petitions and the subsequent bureaucratic writings and documentations as a response to these petitions, which are mostly in a state of transit in the archives of the region, are indeed exciting sources for not only recovering vernacular histories of the Second World War in Northeast India, but also an unconventional political history of the region.

DEEPAK NAOREM is Assistant Professor at Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. His research interests include the history of colonial Northeast India and the Trans-Himalayan Region, history of literary cultures and of the Second World War in SOUTHEAST Asia.

Some of his publications are ‘Japanese invasion, war preparation, relief, rehabilitation, compensation and ‘state-making’ in an imperial frontier (1939–1955)’ in Asian Ethnicity,  ‘A Contested Line- Implementation of Inner Line Permit in Manipur’, in Kafila on September 15, 2015, ‘Myth Making and imagining a Brahmanical Manipur since 18th century CE’, and ‘Remembering Japan Laan: Struggle for Relief, Rehabilitation and Compensation’, in NE Scholar Journal (July 2018)

A personal catalogue – collections in Kerala by K. P. Girija

K. P. Girija has contributed her personal catalogue notes from two archives in Kerala

The following state archives hold materials and correspondence between the princely states and the newly formed united Kerala. Administrative reports of the former Travancore, Cochin , British Malabar states, and the Kerala state, and a few from the Madras Presidency are available along with the reports of various departments

The State Central Archives, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram

The following records of British Malabar are available in the State Central Archives, Thiruvananthapuram:

1) Records transferred from Government Secretariat Cellar (AD 1728-1956)

2) Malabar Collectorate records (1803-1898) and records transferred from Tamilnadu State Archives.

Some sample files that I had referred to during my work on indigenous knowledge are below:

General Section, Cover files 1765-1903

1. B17 Sl.No.211/1839 File.15955 Medical regulations of the
   Madras government.
2. B25 405/1853 15540 Abolition of the annual festival
   of Onam Padah celebrated among the lower castes on account of endangering the public peace.
3. B53 816/1863 16083 Establishment of a medical
   school in Travancore.
4. B218 3970/1896 8340 The constitution of the Medical
   Board
5. B147 707/1890 Medicine for Cholera-found out
   by Muthuswamy Pillai.

General Section, 1912-22, Vol. III

6. B102 Sl No.2096 C.No,628 Cholera Rules, changes proposed by
   Durbar physician.
7. B105 2142 8/7 Cochin-Malayalam Calendar
8. B108 2200 XIV/9 Petition for Ayurveda dispensary at
   Kunnathur
9. B138 2777 11-2/7 Petition for a Vishavaidya shala at
   Nedumangad
10. B172 II-4/1 Inspection notes of Director of Ayurveda
11. B172 Vol.I & II II-17 Reorganisation of Ayurveda
    Pathashala (1918)

Confidential 1936-56

12. B1037 505 All Travancore Ayurveda Vaidya
    Mandalam, Quilon.

State Central Archives (Annexe), Kottakakam, East Fort, Thiruvananthapuram

The Central Archives (annexe building) houses records from the princely State of Travancore including Census records, Education codes, etc. Most of the records are from the period 1400 to 1900 AD. The library contains records from the departments of Education, Revenue, Legislature, Local Government, Judiciary, Land Revenue, Public works, etc. It also has administrative records for Travancore and Cochin from the late 1800s.

The Regional Archives, Ernakulam

Consists of materials relating to the erstwhile Cochin state like gazetteer, administration report, census reports, palm leaf manuscripts, royal proclamations, materials in Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian, Dutch, Portuguese, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam etc.

The Regional Archives, Kozhikode

Apart from materials relating to British Malabar, the Regional Archives of Calicut has a list of old books which includes the following:

• Book No. Name of Book Year
• A/1501 Report on Sanitary Measures 1868-69
• A/1577 Annual Report of Madras Medical College 1856-57
• C/99 The Civil Medical Code 1913
• Education
• E/20 Progress of Education in India, Vol.I, 1902-1907 1909 (H.W. Crange)
• E/21 Progress of Education in India, Vol.II,1902-1907
• E/22 Progress of Education in India, Vol.I, 1907-1912 1913 (H. Sharp)
• E/23 Progress of Education in India, Vol.II, 1907-1912
• G/86 Guide to the Records of the Malabar District, Vol.I 1714-1885
• G/94 Guide to the Records of the Malabar District, Vol.IX 1906
• S/03 Proceedings of the International Sanitary
• Conference of 1866 1868
• C/200 Pulayar Nootandukalil (Malayalam), Kunnukuzhi Mani 1989

Compiled by: K P Girija & Teena Antony

K P Girija is an independent scholar based out of Kerala. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Her area of research interest includes gender studies, development practices, questions that explore the politics and history of knowledge formation and their philosophical and psychological foundations. Her recent book is Mapping the History of Ayurveda: Culture, Hegemony and the Rhetoric of Diversity (2022, Abingdon: Routledge).

Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Irinjalakuda, Calicut, and a personal collection by Shiju Alex

Another contribution by K. P. Girja, with inputs from Teena Antony

Kerala Council for Historical Research: Library and Research Resource Centre, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram – 695003

The library has books on social science theories, Indian history, and Kerala history. It has a local history archive of biographies, village histories and family histories. Gazetteers, administrative reports, manuals and Census of India reports are also available in the KCHR library.

St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara Archives and Research Centre, St. Joseph’s Monastery, Mannanam, Kottayam-686561

Contains magazines, books and manuscripts from the 1800s. Some of the manuscripts are in Syriac, while others are in Malayalam. They also have materials in English, Latin and Tamil. Most of the books are related to church history, accounts of the monastery, and the first printed materials from the monastery. There are also letters, works and other books related to Kuriakose Elias Chavara. More details about the archive are available on their site.

Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam-686001

A collection mostly relevant to biblical studies, religious studies, ministry, and historical documents connected to the Malankara Syrian Church. They have manuscripts, Palm leaf manuscripts, etc. However, the collection is not extensive as this is a relatively new library.

The Collins Library, CMS College, Kottayam-686001

One of the most extensive collections of missionary records, gazettes, and books from the early missionary period in Kerala. The entire collection of the Diocesan Gazette published by the CMS, The Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Record, and missionary records by CMS members who worked in other parts of the world are available here.

Satyadeepam, Lisie Hospital Road, Ernakulam North, Kochi-682 018

All the old issues of Satyadeepam newspapers starting from the mid-twentieth century.

Sree Narayana (S.N) Public Library and Reading Room, Mukundapuram, Irinjalakuda-680125

Founded in the memory of C.R. Kesavan Vaidyar, an industrialist and an SNDP (Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam) organiser. He was a disciple of Sree Narayan Guru.

The library has bound volumes of Vivekodayam magazine, the mouthpiece of SNDP, from 1950 onwards. Magazines such as Mathrubhumi, Bhashaposhini, Kalakaumudi and selected works on Sree Narayana Guru are also available.

Desaposhini Public Library, Kuthiravattom, Calicut -673016

The Desaposhini public library was established in 1937 and it has a vast collection of books, magazines, reference books and newspapers. A catalogue of the library is available on their website.

Desaposhini catalogueDownload

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Shiju Alex collections

Apart from the above-mentioned collections, Shiju Alex has taken a personal interest in digitising old and rare materials about Kerala.
With the support of a few friends, he painstakingly digitised magazines, school textbooks, and other materials pertaining to indigenous medicine, literature, vasthusastra, culture and science. This is a valuable repository of all kinds of knowledge practices from the eighteenth century onwards.
Unfortunately, he recently declared that he has stopped this activity because of the lack of time, labour and assistance from a larger group of people to scale up the project.
Most of his collections are available at https://archive.org/details/kerala-archives

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Compiled by: K P Girija & Teena Antony

K P Girija is an independent scholar based out of Kerala. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Her area of research interest includes gender studies, development practices, questions that explore the politics and history of knowledge formation and their philosophical and psychological foundations. Her recent book is Mapping the History of Ayurveda: Culture, Hegemony and the Rhetoric of Diversity (2022, Abingdon: Routledge).

Teena Antony is a freelance editor and web content writer. Her research area and interests include women’s history, women’s education, literature for women, and the history of Kerala. Her work has focused specifically on periodicals for women published from pre-Independence Kerala. She is currently part of the editorial team of the forthcoming magazine, Samyukta Journal on Cinema.

Between Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram – libraries in Kerala

by K. P. Girija

with inputs from Teena Antony

This list of libraries and institutions provided by K. P. Girija and Teena Antony provides an overview of various kinds of library and archives, includes lists of magazines and old texts in Malayalam and Sanskrit (also in Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada) and is especially useful for researchers interested in various aspects of Kerala from the nineteenth century onwards.

Appan Thampuran Memorial Library (Appan Thampuran Smaraka Vayanashala), Kairali Gramam, Ayyanthole, Thrissur-680003

The Appan Thampuran Memorial Library has a collection of more than 3000 magazines including old and contemporary magazines.

The bound volumes of magazines such as Sharada, Vidya Vinodini (1890 -1902), Bhashaposhini (1894-1934), Rasikaranjini (1903-1907), Vivekodayam, Mathrubhumi, Mangalodayam, Athmaposhini, Gurunathan, Paurasthyadoothan, Rajarshi, Unni Nampoothiri and a number of magazines on indigenous medicine such as Dhanwantari (1903-1926), Arogyachandrika, Arogyabandhu, Ayurvedaratnam, Ayurvedic Gazette, Vaidyasarathi, Sukhasamsi and Nattuvaidyan are available in the library.

A writer’s museum is also attached to this library.

The magazine section consists of 7160 bound volumes as per the Kerala Sahitya Akademi enumeration. The Appan Thampuran Memorial Library functions under the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.

Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur-680020

Kerala Sahitya Akademi contains a huge collection of Malayalam books and hundreds of Sanskrit books in diverse areas. It also has bound volumes of periodicals, palm leaves, microfilm rolls and audio-video cassettes. The library has a few books that were used as textbooks in schools in the early twentieth century in the princely states of Cochin and Travancore. The catalogue of books available in the Kerala Sahitya Akademi can be accessed through the link provided.

The Chithira Thirunal Grandhashala, Vanchiyoor Junction, Near District Court, Thiruvananthapuram–695035

The library has a collection of books in Malayalam literature and history, some palm-leaf manuscripts, and many old magazines such as Lakshmibai, one of the oldest women’s magazines and Dhanwantari, an Ayurveda magazine. They have a catalogue that is not current and can be accessed only physically.

The State Central Library, Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram-695033

The State Central Library in Thiruvananthapuram is another resource centre for old and new books. They have a closed reference collection of rare books from 1600 onwards which includes a book on Latin from 1569. Another interesting collection is that of the gazettes of Travancore and Cochin from 1903 onwards and the Fort St. George gazette of Madras Presidency. Magazines and newspapers are preserved from 1975 onwards. The library consists of Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada language collections. Some of their older collections are digitized and available online. Check the link provided.

When the British Library, Thiruvananthapuram decided to close down their service in the city in 2010, they had handed over their entire collection of 25000 books to the State Central Library and it is kept as a separate section. This collection includes books on literature, science, technology, law, history etc. from British authors in main.

Kerala Legislature Library, Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram-695033

This library is attached to the new Legislative Assembly building in Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram. The library houses legislative assembly proceedings of Travancore and Cochin from the late nineteenth century. Many of these are available online. There are copies of assembly committee reports, government committee reports, census reports, government gazettes, parliamentary reports of the government of India, and a few rare books and manuscripts. It also has back issues of several newspapers, magazines, and periodicals from the mid to late twentieth century.

K.N. Raj Library, Centre for Developmental Studies, Prasanth Nagar, Medical College P.O, Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram-695011

Most of the materials in the library are recent studies and research in the field of cultural studies, economics, development studies, education, statistics, sociology, history etc. There are also copies of statistical reports, and administrative reports from the princely states of Travancore, Cochin and British Malabar. The library has a complete collection of the Census of India Volumes from 1872 to 2011. There are several maps and microform (microfilm and microfiche) documents on social sciences available in the library.

Mahakavi Ulloor Memorial Library and Research Centre, DPI Junction, Jagathy, Thiruvananthapuram-695014

The library has nearly complete collections of issues of many magazines, especially women’s magazines like Sharada, from before Indian Independence. It also houses the reference materials used by the poet Ulloor for the biographical collection he wrote.

also see: Ulloor general catalogue – Aparna Balachandran

Ashokan Nambiar on the Ulloor collection

Catalogue of the Ulloor Memorial LibraryDownload

Compiled by: K P Girija

with inputs from Teena Antony

K P Girija is an independent scholar based out of Kerala. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Her area of research interest includes gender studies, development practices, questions that explore the politics and history of knowledge formation and their philosophical and psychological foundations. Her recent book is Mapping the History of Ayurveda: Culture, Hegemony and the Rhetoric of Diversity (2022, Abingdon: Routledge).

Teena Antony is a freelance editor and web content writer. Her research area and interests include women’s history, women’s education, literature for women, and the history of Kerala. Her work has focused specifically on periodicals for women published from pre-Independence Kerala. She is currently part of the editorial team of the forthcoming magazine, Samyukta Journal on Cinema.

JNU pamphlets 1997

I preserved some of the pamphlets that were circulated during the years spent in JNU. Hope someone can use them.

april-1997.pdf

These are from the month after Chandrashekhar was killed

1. Chandrashekhar Smriti Andolan, 4/8/1997, Sanyojan Samiti,

2. Siwan Chalo, 6/4/1997, AISA

3. The fight has just begun, 8/4/1997, JNU Students Co-ordination Committee

4. Mandi House, 10/8/1997, Friends of Chandrashekhar

5. CPI (ML) Liberation Foundation Day, Why we need an M-L politics today, 22/4/1997, AISA

6. Arrest Sadhu Yadav, Enquiry into police atrocities on protesting students at PM’s residence, 22/4/1997, JNU Students Co-ordination Committee

September 1997

https://publicarchives.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/september-1997.pdf

Nationalism at fifty 25/9/1997 AISA

Unity against a politics of fear 28/9/1997

Chandrashekhar Smriti Andolan

Assert student power in solidarity with the JNUTA 28/9/1997, AISA

ABVP Election Manifesto 1997

Relive the Legacy of United Struggles 29/9/1997, AISA

Rout forces of lumpenism and compromise 08/10/1997, PDSU

Need for the Bahujan Unity for Complete Transfer of Power 13/10/1997 Bahujan Students’ Front – Rashtriya Chhatra Janata Dal

The platform for United Students’ Struggle 13/10/1997 Free Thinkers

Anniversary of Com. Shakeel Ahmed Baksh 14/10/1997 SFI-AISF

ABVP 14/10/1997

Regional Archives, Ernakulam

Ashokan Nambiar

This is the second in the series by Ashokan Nambiar on different collections and libraries in Kerala that aid the study of its print history.

Image taken from website:https://www.keralaarchives.org

The following is a list that indexes a select few archival materials (books, documents, government acts) available in the collection in the Regional Archives, Ernakulam. It is a rather sparse list. I have not found many materials here that are directly connected to my area of research – early Malayalam print artefacts and related materials to write a history of the Malayalam print culture at the time of its inception. A copy of one of the early periodicals in Malayalam titled Vidya Samgraham (1864-66), printed at the CMS Press, Kottayam, and published by CMS College, Kottayam is available in the collection (V series, V 5). 

Download: Brief index of the Ernakulam archives

Other documents that aroused my general curiosity include a document in the C series (C 133) – the Correspondence between the Raja of Cochin and the British – 1891- 44 – which might be helpful in understanding the power dynamics between the British Empire and the now compromised power of the sovereign of the Princely State of Cochin during the crucial period between 1890 and 1945. 

In the H series (H 27) the document “Historical background of the Konkani language movement in Kerala” might be useful for those who look at the linguistic composition in South India. 

Regional Archives, Ernakulam

Superintendent	Sri.P.K.Sajeev Regional Archives, Ernakulam Phone: 0484 2369686
Archivist	Sri E.V.Vasudev Regional Archives, Ernakulam Phone: 0484 2369686

Ashokan Nambiar is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Manipal Centre for Humanities. He currently teaches courses on narrative and the novel. His doctoral thesis, ‘Print, Communities and the Novel in Nineteenth-century Kerala’ was completed in 2015 at the University of Delhi. Areas of research interest are literary history, literary cultures, print culture, and the historical interface between the disciplines of literature and history. His publications include, ‘Translation as Production of the New: Some Reflections on the Nineteenth-century Malayalam Literary Space’, 2018, Caesurae: Poetics of Cultural Translation, Vol 2:2, ‘Missionaries and Making of a Malayalam Print Culture in Nineteenth-century Kerala, 2017, M. Sreenathan ed. Missionary Linguistics, Tirur, Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, 2017.