It was on November 15, 1899, when a man named Jiwan, son of one Sarupa, entered Tihar Central Jail to serve a sentence for robbery. By the time he was released on February 12, 1900, he had lost 2 kg and paid ₹2 as fine, but that wasn’t too bad compared to what some other inmates faced. In the prison records preserved by the Delhi Archives, the column which documents the date of when a prisoner was “whipped and number of stripes inflicted” says “nil” for Jiwan.
Like Jiwan’s records, the Delhi Archives, maintained by the Delhi government’s Art and Culture department, has documentation of all prisoners at Tihar from 1890 till 1990. The list also includes freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
From the seemingly mundane to the highlights of the city’s history, lying forgotten by most are 10 crore pages of archives of the Delhi government and its predecessors. Starting with the farmans of Shah Alam from 1803, the Delhi Archives include everything from jail records, confidential police reports sent to top British officials about the movement of freedom fighters, land acquisition records for what later became New Delhi, expansion plans for the new Capital, about 4,500 photographs of the city and property registration records from 1870 till 1990, as per an official.
Documents to go digital
Spread over five floors at Special Institutional Area near Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the archives are open to students, researchers and the general public through a free-of-cost enrolment form. Visitors can go through catalogue of materials and make requisitions.
Treasure trove: Among the rare books housed in the archives is the original court proceedings of the trial of last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar after the First War of Independence in 1857.
The records are then brought to the reading room for use. But officials at the archive say they only see a handful of serious researchers every day. With the government on September 1 launching the project to digitise and microfilm four crore pages in the next 30 months, a large volume of documents will be available online for the first time.
Among the rare books housed in the archives is the about 530-page original court proceedings of the trial of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, after the First War of Independence in 1857. Starting January 5, 1858, the court proceedings covered charges against the former ruler and testimony of witnesses, ending in a guilty verdict on March 9 that year.
As the freedom movement gathered steam, the fortnightly confidential reports sent by the police to the Chief Commissioner of Delhi began documenting the movements of freedom fighters, apart from the law and order situation in the city.
Rare glimpses
Included in this collection are letters written by Mahatma Gandhi to British officials that were passed on along with confidential reports. In one of the confidential reports, Subhas Chandra Bose’s speech to the Delhi Students’ Federation in Tikri Kalan village in 1939 has been documented.
Treasure trove: Among the rare books housed in the archives is the original court proceedings of the trial of last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar after the First War of Independence in 1857.
After Independence, these reports documented the movement of Partition refugees. For the October 1 to October 15, 1948, report, the progress of construction of 3,200 refugee quarters in the “North Extension Area” was discussed. As per that report, 43,424 refugees were living in the camps of the Delhi Administration at that time.
Another interesting collection at the archives covers the development of infrastructure of New Delhi, from the acquisition of land for Lutyens’ Zone in 1911 to maps and plans of future landmarks. In the register documenting compensation for land, names and amounts paid out are recorded. Whether the villager accepted the money with or without protest is also mentioned. There are photographs of the construction of North and South Block or the Secretariat Building, complete with temporary railway tracks for transporting heavy stones that give a glimpse of how Delhi’s corridors of power came to be.
One photograph shows workers levelling a hill to make way for the Capital. Later, the maps began documenting the hurdles faced by the administration. For instance, one map from 1931 traces encroachment on Railways’ land at “Patpur”.
Records after 1970
After Independence, the records document the expansion of Delhi from the 1950s to 1970. After that, however, officials say Delhi’s history through the archives comes to a stop since Delhi government departments have not submitted their public records. All public records that are 25 years old are supposed to be sent to the archives, as per the Public Records Act, 1993. But apart from Tihar’s prisoner records and property registrations, none of the government departments have submitted records beyond 1970, a senior official at the archives said. In fact, the most recent acquisitions, records from the sub-registrar in Seelampur obtained a few months ago, were handed over in a bad condition, with termite-ridden files and damaged pages.
Rare records: A notice on a protest against the proposed house tax hike in 1949.
When asked about this, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also Art and Culture Minister, said the government recognised the need to strengthen the archives and that there were “many things to be fixed”.
