what are the sources of studying morden period indian history
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Answer:
The various sources for studying modern Indian history include autobiographies, official records, newspapers, magazines, books, photographs and other literary sources. These sources can be primary or secondary sources.
An abundance of historical material is available for studying India from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century.
In constructing the history of modern India, priority needs to be given to archives.
Archives refer to a collection of historical records and documents, usually primary source documents, i.e., those documents that have been created as a necessary part of some activity—administrative, legal, social or commercial.
They are unique/original documents, not consciously written or created to convey information to a future generation.
An important part of archives relating to modern India are the official records, i.e., the papers of government agencies at various levels.
The records of the East India Company provide a detailed account of trading conditions during the period 1600-1857.
When the British crown took over the administration, it also kept a large variety and volume of official records.
These records help historians to trace every important development stage-by-stage and follow the processes of decision-making and the psychology of the policy-makers.
The records of the other European East India companies (the Portuguese, Dutch and French) are also useful for constructing the history of the 17th and 18th centuries.
There are also many contemporary and semi contemporary works such as memoirs, biographies and travel accounts which give us interesting as well as useful glimpses into the history of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Newspapers and journals made their appearance in the later part of the 18th century, and they provide very valuable information on almost all aspects of the Indian society in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Other sources of modern Indian history include oral evidence, creative literature and paintings
Archival Materials
There are four categories of official records
central government archives,
state government archives,
records of intermediate and subordinate authorities, and
judicial records.
Apart from these, there are private archives and archival sources available abroad.
Central Government Archives
The National Archives of India, located in New Delhi, contains most of the archives of the Government of India.
These provide authentic and reliable source materials on varied aspects of modern Indian history.
The records with the National Archives come under various groups, representing different branches of the secretariat at different stages of its development.
This happened as the work of the East India Company was distributed among various branches—public or general, revenue, political, military, secret, commercial, judicial, education, etc.—and a separate set of records was kept for each of these branches or departments.
With the appointment of James Rennell as the first Surveyor General of Bengal in 1767, the Survey of India began to scientifically map the unknown regions of the country and its bordering lands.
The records of the Survey of India as well as the journals and memoirs of the surveyors provide valuable information not only on geographical matters but also on contemporary socio-economic conditions and other important historical aspects.
The proceedings of the public, judicial and legislative departments provide ample data for studying the social and religious policies of the colonial government.
The government’s policies on education and the growth of the education system during the colonial rule are mentioned in the educational records of the central archives.
The papers bearing on the emergence of the nationalist movement were part of the public series of the home department records but, in 1907, a new series of records—Home Political—was started to deal exclusively with political and communal issues.
The records of the Reforms Office are very useful for an analytical study of the constitutional developments from 1920 to 1937.