Records of the Raj

Catalogue record

Notes

India, the emerging economic superpower of the twenty first century, has throughout history attracted successive waves of traders and colonisers. Indeed, such was India's wealth and importance to British colonisers and imperialists that, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the Raj was thought to epitomise the high point of British imperial achievement.
The focus of this MAP series is the collected papers of prominent colonial administrators and soldiers appointed to protect Britain's commercial and strategic interests in India from the 16th century through to independence in 1947. Research carried out on the British colonial period to date has been mainly based on the rich and varied archives of the former India Office Library and Records (IOLR), now held at the British Library in London. The rationale for the present series is to publish for the first time those Raj-related archives deposited elsewhere in the British Isles.
Among the first collections for publication are the papers of:
1) Baron Robert Clive (1725-1774), known as Clive of India, held at the National Library of Wales;
2) Earl Charles John Canning (1812-1862), who was the last governor general appointed before the power of the East India Company was transferred to the British crown, whereupon he became India's first viceroy. These papers from the Harewood Estate are now held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
Under general editorship of Dr William Gould of the School of History, University of Leeds, the underlying editorial approach adopted will maximise the recognised benefits of microfilm to scholarship: preservation, comprehensiveness, and accessibility.