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VOL. XXV NO. 4, June 1-15, 2015
Keeping the record straight

To celebrate 375 years of Fort St. George, Sriram V, Associate Editor of Madras Musings, recently spoke at the Madras Book Club on ‘Books on Fort St. George’. Much of the research for those books was done in the Madras Record Office, now the Tamil Nadu Archives. Ramineni Bhaskar Rao sent us this piece on the Record Office which appeared in the Madras Year Book, 1923.

Grassmere – home of the Tamil Nadu Archives

A separate Record Office was constituted in 1805, when Lord William Bentinck recommended the location of the records in a set of apartments of the old ‘Fort Square’ in Fort St. George, and placed them in charge of a Record-keeper assisted by 3 writers. In 1826, they were removed to the ‘Pillar godown’, known as the ‘Old Banqueting Hall’, the site of the present Council Chamber. In 1888, the records were shifted to the ground floor of the Secretariat buildings (vacated by the Government Press on its removal to the Mint buildings), and arranged in open record racks. The office was then known as the “General Record Office” (by reason of its being common to and serving all departments of the secretariat); and its establishment formed part of the Chief Secretariat. In 1902, the idea of centralising all important records of permanent interest in one place was started by S.C. Hill, officer in charge of the Records of the Government of India, during the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon; and the Government of Madras in 1907 materialised the proposal, by sanctioning the construction of a separate building for the housing, of not only the secretariat records, but also those of the Board of Reveue and the Collectorates. The inauguration of the present office was carried out by C.M. Schmidt, the Registrar of the Chief Secretariat who continued in charge. In 1909, the Madras Record Office was constituted on an independent basis with a separate establishment; and in 1910, a full-time Curator was approinted, Henry Dodwell, M.A., an officer of the Educational Department, being the first incumbent of that office.

* * *

The Madras Record Office contains the records of –

1. The Government Secretariat (except those of the last 5 years which are retained in the Record Branch of the Secretariat). The earliest date back to 1670.

2. The Board of Revenue – older ones.

3. The Collectorates, upto 1820.

4. Dutch and the Danish; Carnatic (in Persian);

High Court (Select);

Accountant-General’s Office (Select); and Specificiations, etc.

It also contains sets of Gazettes of the Government of India and of the Fort St. George, Almanacs, Directories, Army and Civil Lists and departmentl reports.

The main functions of the Record Office are as follows:

(i) Preservation of records. – The records are arranged in open racks, either as volumes or bundles of loose papers between wooden planks. There is a specially trained staff to mend the older records.

(ii) Supply of records. – Records are furnished to the offices concerned on requisitions; but applications from private persons for copies of records have to be made to the departments concerned and not the Madras Record Office direct. Research scholars are afforded special facilities.

(iii) Publications – The following have been issued:

(1) Press Lists (brief abstracts) of all Government records from 1670 to 1800, issued in 35 volumes.

(2) Reprints (exact reprodcution in print) of and selections from the ancient records of the 17th, 18th and the early 19th Centuries, comprising Consultations, Despatches, Letter-books, Sundries, etc. 112 volumes.

(3) Calendars (i.e. chronologically arranged abstracts to facilitate historical research) of the Madras records subsequent to 1740, 2 volumes.

(4) Translation of the Diary in Tamil of Ananda Ranga Pillai, Dubash of Dupleix, commencing from 1736. 8 volumes.

* * *

As the repository of a continuous record, comprehending more than 250 years of British connection, the Madras Record Office affords ample facilities for research work. R. Clerk in 1789 and William Elliot in 1830 examined the records to compile their Standing Orders, Garrow in 1837 and Huddleston in 1856 examined them for antiquities and the latter produced his Notes and Extracts from the 17th century records in five small volumes. In 1860, Talboy Wheeler was deputed to examine the records with a view to shroff them. The result of his examinations is embodied in his Handbook to the Madras Records, and Madras in the Olden Times (containing interesting extracts from the very beginning up to 1748). He made a collection of Sir Thomas Munro’s Minutes, afterwards published by Sir A.J. Arbuthnot. The next enquiry into the records was initiated in 1886 by C.G. Master (Member of Council, and a descendant of Sir Streynsham Master, Governor of Madras from 1678); and C.D. Macleane, Under Secretary to Government, was selected to examine the records. The ‘Disposal number system’ was the one fruit of his labour. About 1894, A.T. Pringle, Assistant Secretary, undertook to continue the work of Huddleston, and produced four more annotated reprints of the 17th century records. The translation of Ananda Ranga Pillai’s Diary was undertaken by Sir Frederick Price, and is continued by Dodwell. In 1908-11, A. Galletti edited and published 15 volumes of Dutch Records. Dodwell, as Curator, prepared a Report on the Madras Records and issued two volumes of Calendars of records covering 1740 to 1754. Among the outsiders who utilised the Madras Records for historical purposes may be mentioned: Professor Forest who made copious extracts regarding Clive, Colonel Love who produced in 1913 his monumental Vestiges of Old Madras, and Mrs. Frank Penny for her work on Fort St. George.

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Keeping the record straight
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An early American connection

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