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Irreparable Damage: Violence, Ownership, and Voice in an Indian Archive

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Irreparable Damage: Violence, Ownership, and Voice in an Indian Archive Libri, 2009, vol. 59, pp. 1 – 13 Copyright Saur 2009 Printed in Germany, All rights reserved Libri ISSN 0024-2267 Winner of LIBRI Best Student Paper Award 2008 Irreparable Damage: Violence, Ownership, and Voice in an Indian Archive The Case of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and the Sambhaji Brigade MICHELLE CASWELL School of Information Studies, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, U.S.A. This paper uses a 2004 destructive incident at the Bhandarkar and caste in India. The paper then explores this incident from an Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, India as a case study to archival studies perspective, looking at archives as both sites of discuss the intersection of caste politics, ownership, and violence in violence and as cultural and political symbols, and explores how the archives. After a brief overview of the events leading up to, issues of ownership, political pressure, and access, if not properly during, and subsequent to the violent destruction of archival addressed, can boil over into violent destruction of the archival documents by an angry lower caste mob, this paper provides the record. Finally, this paper argues that violent incidents such as the historical context necessary to analyze issues of ownership, one described can occur outside of the Indian context, in almost politics, and colonialism within the context of a South Asian any archival setting, and concludes with recommendations on library, keeping in mind the complex interplay of religion, region, how to avoid future destruction in archival repositories. Note Introduction Due to the sensitive nature of the topic discussed in For most days in its almost ninety-year history, the this paper, many of the American scholars inter- Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in viewed have requested anonymity for fear of Pune, India, was a genteel place, fostering the sort of retribution. They are referred to simply as Contrib- quiet atmosphere one might expect in an archives in utor 1, 2, 3, or 4 throughout. Additionally, several which international scholars and aging Indian sources advised against contacting the key Indian librarians diligently work together to collect, pre- librarians and scholars involved in the incident, serve, and translate rare Sanskrit manuscripts. But many of whom are elderly, in poor health, and hope as these scholars and librarians would soon find to put the attack behind them. Those wishes have out, January 5, 2004 would be no ordinary day at been honored and interviews with them are not BORI; indeed, the events of that day would have included in this paper. repercussions for archivists and scholars that would Michelle Caswell, MLIS Student, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Information Studies, Home Address: 2971 N. Stowell, Milwaukee, WI 53211, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1515/libr.2009.001 1 Michelle Caswell be felt throughout the world. That morning, as chisement of a caste group. This paper will then BORI staff opened the gates to the compound, they explore how a marginalized group’s perceived lack were greeted not just by the usual group of of voice in the archives and in the construction of doddering scholars and librarians, but by an collective memory boiled over into violence. This angry mob of approximately 150 young men paper will look at archives and libraries as both sites wielding chains and wooden bats. The well-organ- of violence and as cultural and political symbols, ized group, calling itself the Sambhaji Brigade, and explore how issues of ownership, political chanted political slogans such as “Victory to King pressure, and access, if not properly addressed, can Shivaji!“ in the regional language of Marathi, and erupt into violent destruction of the archival record. forced itself into the reading room, where it began Finally, this paper argues that violent incidents such to smash chairs, desks, and windows, and disman- as the one described can occur outside of the Indian tle the card catalog. The mob began to make their context, in almost any archival setting, and includes way to the storage room, where BORI’s 30,000 recommendations on how to avoid future destruc- manuscripts, including a nearly millennium-old tion in libraries and archival repositories. manuscript of the epic Mahabharata, are kept. What happened next is subject to debate. Both the The history of BORI: Colonialism, caste and Indian and American press almost uniformly archives in India reported that the mob destroyed or stole a number of ancient manuscripts, a painting of BORI’s found- As the story of India’s past is inextricably linked er, Dr. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, and a with colonialism, so too is the story of its archives in statue of a Hindu god. The exact number of general and BORI in particular. Fueled by a grow- manuscripts that were destroyed or stolen during ing interest back home in all things Indian, British the incident is unclear; press accounts vary from civil servants stationed in India during the late thousands, to hundreds to twenty-five damaged 1700s and early 1800s played an important role in manuscripts; one news report even claimed that procuring Sanskrit manuscripts from private own- over 30,000 ancient manuscripts and an Assyrian ers throughout the Subcontinent. It was not until clay tablet from 600 BC was destroyed. [1] In 1868, however, that the British colonial government contrast, several American scholars who were in in India issued an official order calling for the Pune during the time of the attack claimed that the systematic collection and preservation of Sanskrit actual damage to BORI’s manuscript collection was literature. [3] In accordance with the Order of 1868, grossly exaggerated in the press; some even sug- the Government of Bombay authorized ongoing gested that not a single manuscript was destroyed. searches for manuscripts in its jurisdiction, result- [2] Soon thereafter, the police arrived on the scene. ing in the procurement of approximately 8,000 While some of the attackers fled on foot, seventy- manuscripts from the time period of 1868–1904, a two remained and were subsequently arrested and cache that would eventually form the basis of charged with disorderly conduct. BORI’s collection (Johnson 1980, 130). This violent incident in one of India’s premiere The most productive manuscript searches during research libraries begs the following questions: and subsequent to this period were led by Ram- What is the Sambhaji Brigade, who is the King akrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, a Sanskrit professor at Shivaji they were shouting about, and why would Deccan College whose attempts to transform the anyone attack an archival institution? This paper growing collection into an active research library attempts to answer those questions, using the 2004 were repeatedly rebuffed by the government, attack on BORI as a case study to discuss the which halted its manuscript searches in 1896 intersection of politics, ownership, and violence in (Johnson 1980, 135). By 1900, the manuscript the archives. After a brief overview of the events collection amassed by the Government of Bombay leading up to and subsequent to the violent was relegated to storage and rendered inaccessible incident, this paper will discuss how the historiog- to scholars. Bhandarkar continued to build his own raphy of a 17th century Indian king became a hot private manuscript collection. button international political issue in the 21st In 1915, a group of Bhandarkar’s colleagues century, and how both archival sources and the formed a committee to honor him with the creation politics of the archive contributed to the disenfran- of a private library bearing his name. Three years 2 Irreparable Damage: Violence, Ownership, and Voice in an Indian Archive later, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute “modern-day Brahmin temple,“ which no lower opened. Not only did Bhandarkar donate his own caste Indian would dare enter and which “seeks no manuscript collection, but the Bombay Director of educational role in local society, has no outreach to Public Instruction authorized the transfer of the local institutions, and caters primarily to foreigners entire Government of Bombay collection, number- whose books everyday Indians have no access ing some 20,000 manuscripts, to the new library. to“(interview with Contributor 3, April 11, 2008). In Thus, as Donald Clay Johnson (1980, 176) has noted, the mind of most of the citizens of Pune, BORI is for “the Government of Bombay collection of manu- Brahmins and foreigner researchers only. scripts passed from public into private hands.“ This transfer was not an unusual fate for the Shivaji, historiography, and Laine’s book colonial government’s manuscript collections. Vir- tually all of the manuscripts collected by the British Having given some background on the history of colonial government in India were either trans- the BORI collection and its perceived caste affili- ferred to private collections, shipped to London ation, this paper will turn to the scholar whose (where they still reside), or were destroyed. [4] work sparked the violent episode at BORI on While India has had a National Archives since it January 5, 2004. Like many international scholars gained independence in 1947, public archives have of India, James Laine, the Arnold H. Lowe Profes- historically been under-funded in independent sor of Religious Studies at Macalaster College, had India and have had to compete with literacy grown to rely heavily on the archives and archiv- organizations for resources, as S.D. Prasad has ists at BORI. Over his thirty-year career, Laine had noted (1978). Thus, this transfer of publicly owned visited BORI on several occasions for months at a manuscripts into the private hands of BORI may time, developing close professional and personal have ensured their ongoing care and preservation. relationships with many of its librarians, most The transfer of the collection from public to notably the senior librarian, V.L.
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