Silence, Accessibility, and
Reading Against the
Grain:
Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the
India Office Records
#SAA12 Session 502-Sowry
Nathan Sowry
University of
Wisconsin-Madison
British East India Company in Southeast Asia
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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
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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
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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-vocproject/
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VOC Archives Documents
All images from www.tanap.net
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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.
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Thank you
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