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Unveiling Silenced Histories: Marginalized Voices in Indian Archives

Explore the importance of reading against the grain in historical records to uncover marginalized narratives in British colonial Southeast Asia. Discuss challenges of historical completeness, power dynamics, and responsibilities of archivists in representing diverse perspectives. Reflect on transnational access and digitization for future archival practices.

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Unveiling Silenced Histories: Marginalized Voices in Indian Archives

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  1. Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain: Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records Nathan Sowry University of Wisconsin-Madison #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  2. British East India Company in Southeast Asia #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  3. Section one What the Archives Tell Us: An Attempted Mutiny and an Incomplete History #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  4. The Bengali sepoy garrisons are “but scantily supplied with necessaries and ill-equipped for such lengthy tours of duty.” • - Journal of Colonel Colin Mackenzie, 1812 • “The severity of the discipline, the continued drill, and the breach of promise made to them in detaining them so long in Java” have led to a “disaffected spirit” among the troops. • - Journal of Thomas Otho Travers, 1814 British views of Bengali sepoy life in Java: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  5. “The production of historical narratives involves the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals who have unequal access to the means for such production.” • “At best, history is a story about power, a story about those who won.” • - Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, 1995 According to Michel-Rolph Trouillot: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  6. How accurate are archival records when they only represent the views of the powerful? • Is it possible or realistic to strive for a “complete” historical record? • How have the voices of the “Other” become silenced and forgotten? • Why were certain voices considered more worthy of remembrance? Questions about Historical “Completeness” and Power: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  7. Section two Reading Records Against the Grain: Recovering the Voices of the Marginalized #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  8. Ann Laura Stoler utilized this method to listen for voices of resistance within nineteenth-century colonial reports in Sumatra. • For Stoler, “This upside-down reading goes against the colonial conventions and records of imperial history, empire builders, and the priorities and perceptions of those who wrote them .” • - Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense, 2009 Reading Colonial Records “Against the Grain”: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  9. No longer are archivists “impartial custodians.” • We must recognize and accept our own “biased and political” nature. • We have a responsibility to present the many varying perspectives contained within the archives. Changing Responsibilities of Archivists: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  10. “Can the subaltern speak?” – Is it possible to recover the voice of the marginalized? • We must recognize that we cannot have direct access into the minds of the creator and subject – we are essentially outsiders. • We must avoid “speaking for” and “romanticizing” the marginalized. Concerns and Caveats of Postcolonial Theory: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  11. Section three Transnational Records: Access, Digitization, and the Future of Archives #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  12. www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-acti…t-of-projects/the-archives-of-the-dutch-east-indian-company-voc-project/www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-acti…t-of-projects/the-archives-of-the-dutch-east-indian-company-voc-project/ #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  13. VOC Archives Documents All images from www.tanap.net #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  14. Conclusion Some Final Thoughts . . . #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  15. “The archivist’s career . . . is one of service.” • “The archivist exists in order to make other people’s work possible.” • - The English Archivist: A New Profession, 1948 According to Jenkinson: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  16. Actively seek out and include the voices of the marginalized. • Interpret and re-read current records to uncover silenced voices. • Digitize and make accessible the records in our care to make them available to a wider public. • Work cooperatively and internationally with other archives, libraries, and institutions of learning. We can go further . . . #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  17. Thank you #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

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