What sources do historians use in writing about the last 250 years of indian history? How were this preserved?
Answers
Answer:Historians use different sources in writing about the last 250 years of Indian history. One important source is the official records of the British administration. The British believed that the act of writing was important.
⚫ There are several sources which historians use in writing about the last 250 years of Indian history.
1. Official records of the British administration:
-The British wrote every instruction, plan, poliey, decision, agreement andinvestigation.
- When this was done, things were properly studied and debated.
- This produced an administrative culture of memos, notings and reports.
2. Preservation of important documents and letters:
-The British preserved all important documents and letters.
- They set-up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions.
-The village tahsildar's office, the collectorate, the commissioner's otfice, the provincial secretariats and the law courts had their record rooms.
-Specialised institutions like archives and museums were also set-up to preserve important records.
-Letters and memos that moved from one branch of the administration to another in the early years of the nineteenth century can still be read in the archives.
-The notes and reports that district officials prepared, or the instructions and directives that were sent by officials at top to provincial administrators are still preserved and can be read/studied.
-In the beginning of the 19th century these documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists.
-By the middle of the 19th century, with the spread of printing, multiple copies of these records were printed.