Memoirs, Travel Accounts, Newspapers, Oral Evidence, Literature and Paintings as Sources

At a Glance

• What it is The non-archival sources of modern Indian history: memoirs, travel accounts, newspapers, oral evidence, creative literature and paintings
• First newspaper The Bengal Gazette, or Calcutta General Advertiser, published by James Augustus Hickey in 1780
• Famous novel Anandamath (1882) by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, with the song Vandemataram
• Famous painting traditions Company Paintings (Patna Kalam), Kalighat painting and the Bengal School
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Sources of Modern Indian History

Where Does It Fit?

This is the second topic of the category on sources and approaches. The first topic covered official and private archives. This topic covers the sources that show how people lived, wrote and argued, and that help check the official record. Previous topic: Archival Sources: Central, State, Judicial and Private Records.

Why Are Memoirs and Travel Accounts Useful?

Memoirs, biographies and travel accounts give interesting glimpses into the history of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many travellers, traders, missionaries and civil servants who came to India left accounts of their experiences and impressions of different parts of the country.

Missionaries formed an important group. They wrote to encourage their societies to send more missionaries to India. Bishop Heber’s Journal and Abbe Dubois’s Hindu Manners and Customs give useful information on the socio-economic life of India during the decline of Indian powers and the rise of the British.

These accounts are indispensable and generally reliable, especially because they supplement the official papers.

How Did the First Newspapers Begin?

The first attempts to publish newspapers in India were made by disgruntled employees of the English East India Company who wanted to expose malpractices of private trade. In 1776, William Bolts was censured by the Court of Directors for private trading. He resigned and announced his intention to publish a newspaper, but a strong official response ended his plan.

In 1780, James Augustus Hickey published the first newspaper in India, The Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser. His press was seized within two years because of his outspoken criticism of government officials. Other early papers followed: The Calcutta Gazette (1784), The Madras Courier (1788) and The Bombay Herald (1789). The early papers mainly served the intellectual entertainment of Europeans and Anglo-Indians.

Which Nationalist Newspapers Matter for the Exam?

From the second half of the nineteenth century many powerful papers appeared under fearless editors. Nearly one-third of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress in 1885 were journalists.

Other noted papers included The Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab, Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakash, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay, and Som Prakash, Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal.

Nationalists and revolutionaries living abroad also published papers to build nationalist feeling among Indians overseas.

Can Newspapers Be Trusted as Evidence?

Newspapers show almost all aspects of life in colonial India from around the 1870s. From the 1920s they tracked the major events of the freedom struggle. However, newspaper accounts cannot be seen as unprejudiced or completely objective. A report in a London paper by supporters of the Raj was bound to differ from the report in an Indian nationalist paper. A historian must therefore read papers with different viewpoints side by side.

What Is Oral Evidence?

Oral history means building history from non-written sources, such as personal reminiscence. Oral sources let historians widen the boundaries of the subject and check their findings against other sources. However, many historians remain sceptical of the accuracy of oral history, because memory can change with time.

How Do Novels Help Historians?

The most significant outcome of Indo-European contact in literature was the novel, which emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838-94) was the first important writer of that period. His novels are mostly historical. The best known is Anandamath (1882), noted for its lyric Vandemataram and its depiction of the Sanyasi Revolt of the 1760s. His last novel was Rajasimha.

These writers had different backgrounds, but they shared a strong sense of realism and deep interest in the lives of the marginalised and oppressed. Their novels show the social milieu of their days.

What Can Paintings Tell Us?

Paintings of the colonial period give information on socio-economic, political and cultural life. Three traditions are important.

• Company Paintings (Patna Kalam) They emerged under the patronage of the East India Company and picture people and scenes as they were: trades, festivals, dances and dress. They stayed popular until photography was introduced in India in the 1840s
• Paintings of the Revolt of 1857 British and Indian paintings, drawings, etchings, posters, cartoons and bazaar prints are important records of the revolt. Relief of Lucknow by Thomas Jones Barker (1859) and In Memoriam by Joseph Noel Paton show British views of the revolt and help us understand how the British and the Indians saw the event
• Kalighat painting It came to the fore in nineteenth-century Calcutta and showed mythological figures and ordinary people at their daily work. Some pictures commented on social evils and satirised the habits of the time

In the last decades of the nineteenth century a new art movement drew its stimulus from growing nationalism. Nandalal Bose and Raja Ravi Varma were representatives of the new trend. The Bengal School, led by Abanindranath Tagore with E.B. Havell and Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, played a vital role. Many of its paintings focused on Indian mythology and cultural heritage and are important sources for studying the modern art movement.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Adds the people’s view Novels, papers and paintings show how ordinary people and the educated middle class saw their times
• Frequent factual questions First newspaper, editors of nationalist papers and papers published abroad are standard Prelims items
• Cross-checking These sources help test the claims made in official records

What Came Next?

The next topic moves from sources to interpretation and introduces the colonial, nationalist and Marxist approaches to modern Indian history. Next topic: Colonial, Nationalist and Marxist Approaches to Modern Indian History.

Key People and Terms

• Bengal Gazette The first newspaper in India, started by James Augustus Hickey in 1780
• Anandamath Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s 1882 novel that contains Vandemataram
• Company Paintings Paintings under Company patronage, also called Patna Kalam
• Kalighat painting A nineteenth-century Calcutta style showing gods and everyday life
• Bengal School A nationalist art movement led by Abanindranath Tagore
• Oral history History built from personal reminiscence and other non-written sources

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on this theme ask how non-official sources add to the official record. These points help.

• Voice of the people Novels, papers and paintings show social change and protest from below
• Nationalist press Many Congress founders were journalists, so the press was part of the movement and not only a record of it
• Bias Newspapers and travel accounts reflect the writer’s viewpoint, so they need to be cross-checked