Descriptive List of Acquired Documents: Volume VI (1831-1850)
The National Archives of India (estb. 1891) is the apex repository of public records of the Union Government. Besides, it also regularly acquires precious historical documents, rare books and other archival material through gifts, donation and purchase. In its endeavour to facilitate the academic utilization of this valuable source material it had been publishing the reference media of this material. So far four volumes of the acquired documents have been published while another volume in this series is being compiled.
This Volume contains 432 letters all of which are in Persian/Urdu. These documents are in the form of farmans, parwanas, sanads, bainamas, tamliknamas, iqrarnamas, rahnnamas, rubakars, arzis, yaddasht, tamassuk, etc. and cover a period of thirty years during the first half of the nineteenth century (i.e. from 1831 to 1850). They contain a rich source of information on the socio-economic and political condition of India during this period. A majority of these documents represent the working of an agricultural economy in India.
Dr. Sanjay Garg (b. 1965) joined the National Archives of India in 1988 and is presently serving as Deputy Director of Archives. He specializes in the monetary history of the medieval and colonial India and has authored/edited several books. He has also written over eighty research papers that have been published in reputed journals and presented at learned fora. In recognition of his research contributions, in 2010 Dr. Garg was awarded the prestigious Robinson Visiting Fellowship by the University of Oxford (UK), which he held in conjunction with Kraay Visitorship at the Wolfson College, University of Oxford.
Nighat Shagoofa completed her Masters Degree in History and Persian from the University of Delhi and one year diploma course in Archives and Records Management from the National Archives of India, New Delhi. She has been associated with this prestigious institution since 1981 and is presently serving as Archivist (OR). She has compiled Descriptive List of Miscellaneous Persian Documents 1633-1864 (1992), Catalogue of Seals, Vol. II (1992) and Lahu Luhan Baisakhi in Urdu (1995). Her association with the Historical Documents Purchase Committee has helped in acquiring numerous records of tremendous significance.
Muzaffar-e Islam (b. 1961) completed his Masters in History from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1985 and in 1987 he joined the Oriental Records Division of the national Archives of India. He has been associated with the Historical Documents Purchase Committee (HDPC), through which the National Archives of India acquires documents and other archival materials from the private sources. He has also compiled the Descriptive List of Persian Correspondence, Vol. IV (1804). He is presently posted as Archivist (OR) at the National Archives of India’s Regional Office at Bhopal.