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Old District Records in Pakistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Martin  and
Zawahir Moir
Martin
Affiliation:
India Office Library and Records
Zawahir Moir
Affiliation:
India Office Library and Records
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Extract

Imagine you are in a dark and lofty interior. All around you can dimly see huge racks piled high with cloth bundles—blue, red, green and white. In the middle of the space a rickety ladder leads up to another level also filled with racks and bundles, over and above which rises another ladder and another level. If you decide to move you must step carefully between piles of old papers strewn across the floor and, perhaps, small channels of water. If you try to grasp hold of one of the coloured bundles to see what it contains you will be assailed by clouds of gritty dust that catch at your eyes and throat and may even force you to retire quickly from that dark and inhospitable place. Is this a dacoits' hideout or perhaps the cave of Ali Baba? No—as you've certainly guessed by now—it is or could be almost any district record room anywhere in Pakistan.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 1990 , pp. 195 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 We would like to record our thanks to Mr Atique Zafar Sheikh, Director of the Pakistan National Archives, and his staff, for cooperation and assistance throughout this project. In particular, we are grateful to Mr Fazal Ahmad, Deputy Director at the National Archives, for accompanying us on our visits to the Punjab districts.

2 For details of the procedures followed by the tapedars in Sind in the collection of land revenue, see Manual of Village Revenue Accounts for Sind (Government Press, Karachi, 1946).Google Scholar

3 Any serious study of rural crime etc. would also involve an examination of the relevant records of district sessions courts and provincial high courts.

4 Dewey, Clive, ‘Patwari and Chaukidar: subordinate officials and the reliability of India's agricultural statistics’, in Dewey, C. and Hopkins, A. G. (eds), The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India (London, 1978).Google Scholar

5 In carrying out this survey we gratefully acknowledge the help we received from the Charles Wallace Trust for Pakistan and the British Academy.