Primary Sources - Archival Sources

 

Archives are the depositories of official and private primary documents. Archival sources are the most important sources for the reconstruction of the modern period. Archives have two important responsibilities:

1. Preservation of historical materials
2. To make them available for studies

Archives can hold both published and unpublished materials, and those materials can be in any format. Materials in archives are often unique, specialized, or rare objects, meaning very few of them exist in the world, or they are the only ones of their kind. Archives differ from libraries in both the types of materials they hold and the way materials are accessed.

Official or Government Documents

Government documents are the widest and the most important type of archival source. These are the official documents relating to local, state, or national governments. Thus, Government archives are the most important depositories regarding historical research. Government archives hold all government documents – both published and unpublished.

Unpublished Documents

The unpublished materials are generally known as Archival Files. The important types of archival files generally found in various government archives are:

• Confidential files
• PWD files
• Proscribed literature
• Daily reports
• Political Files
• Files of various social movements, speeches, etc.

Published Documents

The published materials consist of various official publications. The important among them are:

• Census reports, tax records, and other statistical data: These records provide information such as demography, gender, education, health, caste, community and religious groups, per capita income, and all other data to understand the socio-economic trends over a period of time.
• Government Orders: These include various administrative orders issued by the government departments. It provides evidence for the working of the government system.
• Reports of the various committees constituted by the government: These include various study reports, inquiry committee reports, and all other study reports submitted to the government. Manuals and proceedings, etc.
• Legislation and resolutions
• Debates and speeches by government officials: Speeches by government officials helps to understand various issues relating to the working of the government. It may offer insights into the strength or weakness of a particular government or political figure.
• Records of various government agencies
• Minutes of various government meetings, cables, intelligence, court records, etc.

In India, the British government established an Imperial Record Department for the preservation of official documents in March 1891 in Calcutta. In 1911 it was transferred to New Delhi. There are a number of regional archives working across India. The important among them are Poona State Archives, Madras State Archives, Kerala State Archives, etc.

Private Documents

Private documents are kept in various private archives and most important among them are:

• Special collections: These are found in academic institutions and consisted of personal diaries, manuscripts, photographs, and rare publications.
• Corporate documents: These are the business records preserved in a company or corporation.
• Religious documents: These include documents relating to various religious faith and institutions. These provide information regarding religious practices, the establishment of religious centres, organisation of religious orders, etc.
• Local or Regional Documents: These are locally produced documents and preserved in local libraries and organisations to promote interest in the history of a region. These documents help to reconstruct the local and regional history.
• Community Documents: These are the statistical data, reports, and minutes of various communities and social organisations.

Digital Archives

Modern technological development gave way to the introduction of new methods of preservation and circulation of documents. The digital archives provide scanned copies of all types of rare documents, including rare books, manuscripts, photographs, etc. The documents in digital format are easier to preserve and access. The wide use of the internet provided an opportunity to access these documents from all over the world. Several academic websites provide digital copies of rare books and documents that form the largest archival documents collection in digital format.

Sources of History

Sources are the foundations upon which history is built. Sources differentiate history from myth and story. Sources are the medium for the historian to relook at the past. Polish historian Joachim Lelewel, considered “anything that could contribute to the reconstruction of the past was a historical source”.  Ernst Bernheim, a German historian in his work on Historical Method (1889) refers sources to as “all those data from which the historian draws his knowledge". In this sense, historical source covers all sources of historical knowledge, that is, all information about the human past, in whatever type or form. Thus a potential source is anything from which a historian can draw information about the past. When E H Carr defines ‘history is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts’, he also underlines the importance of historical facts. Thus, true historical research blends the sources and its interpretations. 

Classification of Sources

J. LeleweI, in his Historyka (The Methodology of History, 1815) classified the sources into three:

                    1         Tradition (oral relations);

                    2         Non-written sources, that is, silent monuments of the past";

                    3         Written sources

He also realized that there may be direct and indirect sources from the point of view of a given research problem. In the modern period, generally, historical sources are mainly classified into two:

a)     Primary Sources, and

b)     Secondary Sources

In simple words, a primary source directly relates to an event; the secondary source indirectly relates to an event. Both are equally important as they complement and supplement each other. It is generally accepted that good historical works are built on primary sources. However, secondary sources are also essential to the historian’s task. The distinction between primary and secondary sources is complicated. Many sources can be categorized either as primary or secondary depending on the subject being studied.

The actual existence of either primary or secondary historical sources does not guarantee their accuracy or validity. Sources tend to be inaccurate, incomplete, and biased because of prejudices or personal interests. The historian's answer is to collect as many independent, well-placed, contemporary sources as possible. Keith Jenkins argues that “certainty is impossible because there are no ‘deeper’ sources to draw on to get things right”. Sources are mute, they speak only when called upon by the historian. Historical research depends on how the historian interprets and organizes these sources of the past. A historian must be constantly critical of the historical materials obtained and examined.