Administration as source of Information


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Administration as source of Information

Administration produces records: One important source is the official records of the British administration. The British believed that the act of writing was important. Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation had to be clearly written up. Once this was done, things could be properly studied and debated. This conviction produced an administrative culture of memos, noting and reports.

The British also felt that all important documents and letters needed to be carefully preserved. So they set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions. The village tahsildar’s office, the collectorate, the commissioner’s office, the provincial secretariats, the law courts-all had their record rooms. Specialized institutions like archives and museums were also established 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.

In the early years of the nineteenth century these documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists -that is, by those who specialised in the art of beautiful writing . By the middle of the nineteenth century , with the spread of printing. multiple copies of these records were printed as proceedings of each government department.

(The National Archives of India came up in the 1920s)

 
 


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