National Archives: Inside Bangladesh's largest repository of historical documents

Mahmudul Hasan, a student from Jahangirnagar University completed his Bachelor's and Master's degree in history and later did an MPhil on the Bengal and Arakan relations from 1404 to 1784. 

Mahmudul has been going to the National Archives for the past five years and using the archives for his MPhil. 

"Whenever I need any information or reference, I visit the National Archives. Most of the time I get the information I need," said Mahmudul Hasan. 

Currently, Mahmudul is in pursuit of his PhD research on the political evolution of Rakhine from 1784 to 1990.

He has been collecting information on the past from the correspondence between the then-British officials posted at Chattogram and Dhaka office about the border situation. Later, Dhaka office would send the letters to the Governor-General in Delhi. 

The Department of Archives and Library in Agargaon is a repository for original documents from the past to be used by researchers and academics. The archive is massive.

Whilst it is commonly visited by researchers in Bangladesh like Mahmudul as well as foreigners –for historical documents like newspapers, maps, gazettes, government publications, political manifestos and land records of historical values – it remains almost unknown by the masses. Many people have little to no idea about the place and the documents it preserves. 

The researchers' reviews

Some years ago, Georgetown University's Associated Professor Tariq Omar Ali wrote a book titled "A Local History of Global Capital: Jute and Peasant Life in the Bengal Delta." Published by Princeton University Press, the book deals with how global capitalism shaped peasant life and society in the Bengal Delta and the resonance it has with present-day Bangladesh. 

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, in a 2022 interview with the New York Times, described the book as "seriously unknown, but a wonderfully interesting book — and a very easy read."

To write the book, Tariq Omar Ali visited many places to seek documents including Dhaka University Library, the National Library of India in Kolkata, and the Vernacular Tracts Collection at the British Library. 

Later, in an interview with TBS, he especially mentioned the capital's National Archives in Agargaon. He said that it is an amazing space to work and the national archive has an extensive collection of official documents from the colonial and Pakistan years.

Mahmudul Hasan, the PhD candidate specialising in Rakhine history, also said that he was able to access a vast number of materials for his research and it was a rare occurrence when he failed to find what he needed.

On 12 December, Shamsul Alam, a private job holder, was browsing a volume of The Daily Ittefaq newspaper file of 1973 to see news related to the communication infrastructure in the 1970s at the table of the research room. The room has a total of nine tables with a seating space for 18 persons. 

He plans to write a book about changes in the communication system in the country. "I am studying the communication system and trade in the past," said Shamsul Alam. He often visits the National Archives in the morning and studies till 2:00 pm. 

What can be found here?

According to the Bangladesh National Archives Act 2021, the National Archives of Bangladesh is mandated to collect, preserve and protect important official documents of 25-year-old and 30-year-old archival documents in collaboration with various private persons or organisations.

So far, the National Archives have collected around 8 crore pages of documents to date. The officials said that many remarkable documents are preserved in the National Archives such as the documents related to indigo cultivation in Bengal.

It also houses valuable documents from different district administration offices and election manifestos of political parties among other things. The archives also include gazettes from different districts and land records, the district records from 1760 to 1900. 

For example, the National Archives of Bangladesh has collected Calcutta Gazettes, Pakistan Gazettes and Bangladesh Gazettes from 1832-2010. The Bangladesh Gazettes have also been regularly collected from the Controller of Printing and Stationary since 1973. 

"These are the original copies, you will never get the original copy in any other places," said Abdur Rashid, director of the National Archives.

The National Archives has a repository of newspapers, estate Records, proceedings, government publications and some important private collections.

Estate Records are another valuable collection of the National Archives. These are mainly old land records of two leading Zamindar families of East Bengal: Dhaka Nawab Estate Records (1806-1947) and Bhawal Raj Estate Records (1884-1946).

National Archives has preserved rare government publications between 1800 and 1972. Administrative reports, rules and parliamentary papers can be found at the institution. 

Alongside the historical documents, the National Archives has collected and preserved old maps. Old maps of Bengal and the Sub-continent of the period from 1854-1967 have been collected from the office of the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner and various District Collectorate Records Rooms. 

The map includes Survey maps of Rennell: District of Dhaka 1780, Chattogram 1778 and other district maps, river survey maps. Maps of several old thanas of Dhaka and maps of several old districts (1911-1914); Pargunah maps of various districts (1839-1861); maps of several char areas are also there.

Other maps include important Rivers (1980-1982), maps of Assam and Bengal, topographical map of Assam and Bengal 1923, maps of Bengal in the 19th century of Dhaka, Tipperah, Bakerganj, Faridpur, 1878-79 and map of Dhaka Municipality: University plan 1912-1915.

The holdings of newspapers in the National Archives cover the period from 1947-2013. The important amongst these are the Daily Azad (1947-1988), The Daily Ittefaq, The Daily Janakantha, The Daily Bhorer Kagoj, the English newspaper The Pakistan Observer, The Holiday and New Age among others. 

Foreign Newspapers like The Dawn, The Economist and The Statesman among others are also stored here.            

The National Archives of Bangladesh has acquired some papers and documents of the late Khan Bahadur Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury, a Muslim leader and a former Minister of undivided Bengal. It has also collected private papers from eminent historian Professor Mohammad Ishaque and Emeritus Professor Dr Sirajul Huque among others. 

The turning point 

Professor Sharifuddin Ahmed at the North South University, also the former director general of the Department of Archives and Library, said that the enactment of the Bangladesh National Archives Act 2021 is a turning point for the collection of documents of archival value. 

Even though there were some legal frameworks to collect and preserve important old documents, the Bangladesh National Archives Act 2021 has given the institutions more power to collect important documents from different government organisations and district administration offices across the country.

"Before the enactment of the law, many offices showed reluctance to provide important documents to the National Archives, but now they are obliged," said Professor Sharifuddin Ahmed. 

He said as a result many important documents had been lost and damaged before the law was enacted. Now National Archives officials are visiting different district offices and collecting important documents and preserving them.

"As the number of documents of archival value is increasing, researchers and the common people have been getting more and more documents to conduct research work," said Professor Sharifuddin Ahmed.     

The officials said that they had recently visited the district commissioner's office in Patuakhali. There are some important documents there including the Second Five-Year Plan of the Pakistan period and the names of the villages in the Pakistan period. A document related to irrigation has also been found. They will collect those documents.

People know little about the National Archives

Dr Salma Momtaz, the Director General of the Department of Archives and Library said that  people hardly know about the National Archives and its function. 

She said that she had been transferred to the National Archives in the first week of December and before that she did not have any idea of the function of the National Archives. "I just knew that there is a National Archives, I did not know much else," said Dr Salma Momtaz. 

She said that they are planning to install a billboard in front of the National Archives so that people can know the institution. 

To read the documents of the National Archives, one will have to apply to the authorities with a fee of TK100.

On average, 1,000 researchers visit the Department of Archives and Library every year. However, Dr Salma Momtaz believes that it is also a problem to publicise the National Archive that much because if the number of people increases, there may not be space to accommodate them all.