Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain:Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records
Nathan SowryUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
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British East India Company in Southeast Asia
SECTION ONE
What the Archives Tell Us: An Attempted Mutiny and an Incomplete History
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British views of Bengali sepoy life in Java:
• 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
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According to Michel-Rolph Trouillot:• “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#SAA12 Session 502-Sowry
Questions about Historical “Completeness” and Power:• 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?
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SECTION TWO
Reading Records Against the Grain: Recovering the Voices of the Marginalized
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Reading Colonial Records “Against the Grain”:
• 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 #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry
Changing Responsibilities of Archivists:
• 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.
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Concerns and Caveats of Postcolonial Theory:
• “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.
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SECTION THREE
Transnational Records: Access, Digitization, and the Future of Archives
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www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-acti…t-of-projects/the-archives-of-the-dutch-east-indian-company-voc-project/
VOC Archives Documents
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All images from www.tanap.net
CONCLUSION
Some Final Thoughts . . .
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According to Jenkinson:
• “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
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We can go further . . .
• 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.#SAA12 Session 502-Sowry
Thank you
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