| Hi Frederick, It is Cristiana, not Christina. John M. de Figueiredo Sent from my iPhone Dr Vivek, What you say is true: archives reflect power. The archives were often created by states, religious establishments, colonial administrations, courts, state power and elites. They therefore preserve some voices far better than others. Historians recognise this and have developed methods of reading sources "against the grain" to acknowledge that archives are not neutral. (In Goa we see a trend where the archives created by rulers in the sixteenth are read in a way that suit the ideology of our current rulers too.) But, the biases of archives does not negate their value. Without archival records, many of the very structures of power, exploitation, exclusion and resistance would be far more difficult to reconstruct. Just by nature of it being elite-produced does not make it useless; it needs critical interpretation. Oral history is crucial and give space to omitted voices. But oral sources also have limitations: memory is selective and many experiences disappear with the passing of generations. It may not be an either-or option.Oral and archival sources are not opposites but complements. One could build the other. Incidentally, we are also seeing initiatives like the People's Archive of Rural India, set up by noted journalist P.Sainath who also happens to be the grandson of labour leader turned Vice President and President of India VV Giri (1970s). Besides, archives are not composed solely of the voices of rulers and elites. Court records (sadly getting destroyed after some time), petitions, depositions, wills, land disputes, police complaints, religious records, labour records and other documents tell the stories of non-elites too. Why not just be conscious of the strengths and silences of both? How effeciently the archives are being maintained, how many local scholars are using the same, and how open is access to it (specially to scholars from abroad, as Dr Christina has noted) are among the key issues which keep coming up. I feel we should not give any excuse to devalue this centuries-old record or to make it even more inaccessible and forgotten.
FN
With all respect to Dr. Da Silva and others who have labored in various archives,
Archives, no matter where they are located, metropolis or periphery, are not only "elite-centric" but protect, solidify, and justify the power of those who continue (read: us) to exploit (by our writings) those at the bottom of the social, economic and political pyramid, particularly women and children.
We give them undue importance as they are on paper and we use it to aggrandize ourselves, academic positions, and whatever else. Religious orders are no exception to this truth and so let us please stop attributing too much value to the years we have labored there. We will not get any discount when future historians read our works, academic or non-fiction "against the grain."
What is "against the grain"? It is not only crucially interrogating the written record to search for hidden and suppressed truth, but actively searching for oral sources.
The balance can never be restored. It is a myth.
Best regards,
Vivek Pinto
I agree fully with Dr Celsa Pinto. However, there is another side to the archives she speaks about. Archives are of the ruling elites and the powerful writing elites. Everyday archive of people's lives in caste living, occupation, conflictual relations with the higher and purer castes, religious leaders, family, employment and their 'archive' of art and culture - these are equally, if not more, important, and these give a balance to the 'archive' generally so-called. I have paid greater attention to that part of life and, in language research, its yield has been colossal. Thank you. William Robert
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