Archives from afar: a review article of J D
Pearson, comp., A guide to manuscripts and documents in the British Isles
relating to South and South-East Asia, 2 vols, London, Mansell, 1989, 1990.
John Roxborogh[1]
Introduction
Researchers
quickly discover - and suffer do they not - that the most efficient finding aid
in any archive, as in any library, is likely to be the librarian. But when
research is contemplated from a distance such assistance is difficult and more
is required than knowledge of one depository, however personable.
These volumes compiled by James Pearson and indexed
by his wife Hilda are part of a succession of publications facilitating more
informed and efficient access to the riches of British archives. They
supplement, and must be used in conjunction with, the volume by Doreen
Wainwright and Noel Matthews published in 1965 with which Pearson was also
associated. Together these provide a major research tool for locating archive
holdings in the British Isles. A parallel volume relating to the Far East was
produced by the same team in 1977.[2]
As a scholar-librarian whom one hopes is not the
end of a line; Pearson has spent more than a career producing, and stimulating
others to produce, finding aids which many have reason to be grateful for.
Formerly Professor of Bibliography at the University of London and before that
Librarian at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Pearson has been best
know for his Index Islamicus and other Middle-Eastern studies. As far as
India and Sri Lanka (South Asia) and Southeast Asia are concerned, he was
associated with the South Asian Bibliography. A handbook and guide,
1979, and various other publications relating to Oriental manuscripts and
bibliography.[3]
It is striking how much he has worked alongside
others, though it might have been wished that more of these others were from
the countries the manuscripts relate to. In the case of Australasia, Pearson's
advice is acknowledged, but Australia and New Zealand managed to provide
researchers for the task - the result being Phyllis Mander-Jones, ed., Manuscripts
in the British Isles relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific,
ANU, Canberra, 1972.
British
archives and colonial history
As
one would expect the archives described reflect the scope and nature of British
involvement in different parts of the world. Even without the India Office
records (one of the major additions in Pearson compared with Wainwright and
Matthews) the weighting of British archives towards India is apparent. India
was the jewel in the crown and every landed family of note seems to have papers
referring to it, including a surprising number of tickets to the impeachment of
Warren Hastings.
There are massive references to regiments, but next
to India, present-day Malaysia appears to rank the most entries - including the
large collection at Rhodes House, Oxford[4]
- followed by Burma, Ceylon and Indonesia. There is some material on Siam, a
little on Indo-China, China, Japan and the Philippines.
As revealed by Pearson, Wainwright and Matthews,
British archives also reflect who tended to produce literary remains and who
were associated with the institutions and individuals most likely to retain
them. Politicians and the military are to be expected, and appear to have felt
the greatest need for self-justification - as well they might. There are also
records from those in business, medicine, education and missions, botany, and
engineering. The overall quantity seems astonishing, no doubt helped by the
fact that Britain has not been invaded since 1066 and all that, although
subsequent war-time damage has nevertheless resulted in some important losses.
The nature of the holdings and the depositories
means that some types of material can be found more readily than others. A
well-known name, place, event, or institution is easier than a concept such as
mission or even education. Questions relating to social history, not just the
big names and events, are much more subtle - unless the researcher has
identified figures who provide windows into the sort of information he or she
is after. One could wish for more ordinary correspondents among the grandees.
Pearson,
Wainwright and Matthews in their own terms
The
preface to the original volume still applies and like the first, the additional
volumes do not claim to be more accurate or comprehensive than the sum of their
parts - dependent as the compilers were on what was available within each
depository to describe its contents.
The volumes follow an established format and appear
to be models of clarity, though some initial effort is needed to sort out how
they work in relation to one another. Where it is a not an altogether new
depository, Pearson gives reference to the entry in Wainwright and Matthews by
the letters WM and the page numbers - though it was not immediately obvious
that this was the case. A shade more effort indicating how to use Pearson would
not have been amiss. Where Pearson makes a correction or addition for a
particular collection that also has the "WM" page numbers given. The
more thorough general descriptions in Wainwright and Matthews tend to be
assumed. Indication is given where microfilming has taken place and where the
address or designation of the depository has changed. It may be understandable
that the labour of replacing rather than supplementing the original volume of
"MW" was considered too great, nevertheless it would have been easier
on the user if that approach had been taken.
Some criticisms about the index in "MW"
still apply. For instance there is still "no cross-referencing between
Brunei, North Borneo, Sarawak and Borneo," as Chua Sui Gim noted in 1981.[5]
While the indexing is comprehensive, some things are only likely to be found by
scanning entries generally - suggesting that the whole text on computer would
be an asset, and probably the next and necessary development. Birds are listed
under Borneo and Ceylon for example, among other places; yet the list of those
sighted in Bombay in 1806-7 would not be among those readily found via the
index. A computer search would have been successful however - for that and no
doubt other items as well.
Inevitably there will be material missed and
mistakes made - hardly a serious criticism for a work of this size. From a
missions history point of view there are a few gaps. It seems a pity that the
collection at the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the non-Western World
is not listed, and neither are the archives of the Mill Hill Fathers in North
London, relating as they do to the Borneo Catholic mission from 1881 onwards.[6]
The USPG collections are not noted, though these are a large and important one,
now added to other Malaysian material at Rhodes House.
In the case of the comparable work relating to New
Zealand and Australia, Mander seems to list a greater range of sources, and one
wonders if some of these might also have material relating to South and
South-East Asia.
Issues
raised
The
preparation of guides such as these serves not only the interests of those in
the countries where the archives now reside, but the interests of those out of
whose historical experience the archives arose and in whose countries those
events took place. There may or may not be demands to return the manuscript
equivalents of the Elgin marbles, and fortunately, if not the originals then at
least copies can be provided to help reconstitute the history and culture of
countries which once were colonies.
Questions asked of the past change in every
generation. Although archives are themselves the products of accidents,
selectivity and the hazards of transmission, yet they are just about all we
have got. If we lose the way to the archives, a vital control over the
understanding of past events and their significance is lost.
In matters of contextual theology and religious
history, the archives of first world institutions are unusually vital.
Frequently they will be practically all that exists. In the contemporary,
though hardly new, concern to encourage expressions of Christianity which are
as much as possible authentic in the host country, it is impossible to get to
the root of what matters and does not without a basis of accurate narrative
history. Contextual theology depends on contextual history, and contextual
history depends on going to the archives.
For South and Southeast Asia, as for other parts of
the world, the British provided only part of the colonial experience and there
are a bewildering number of countries, languages and depositories which need to
be considered in a comprehensive survey. It is not so immediately apparent that
as far as South and Southeast Asia is concerned there is quite the wealth of
anthropological and cultural material in Britain one might hope for. Outside of
trade, war and politics, it appears that the British were better at botany than
anthropology as far as this part of the world is concerned. It may be that
there are in the important and unmentioned USPG archives at Rhodes House, as
there most certainly are in those of the Centre for the Study of Christianity
in the non-Western World in Edinburgh, resources which balance this picture and
further indicate that missionaries often despised as destroyers of culture,
whatever may need to be said about that, have also successfully sought to
understand and document the religion and life of those they worked among.
Users
in South and Southeast Asia.
Western
publishers still seem to find difficulty ensuring that writing about other
countries and people is produced in forms which are accessible and affordable
for those in the countries concerned. It would seem to be a courtesy and a
break from seeing others as a laboratory for Western theorising. These volumes
are not much of an exception, although those who want them are likely to have
access to libraries which are better able to afford their purchase. Again a
computer version - and it is hard to believe that one does not exist - would be
some remedy.
Providing then that their existence is known and a
researcher has access to them, Pearson, Wainwright and Matthews provide a
necessary starting place for any serious historical project relating to eras
and areas of British influence in the region. Those tracing well known figures
or events or places will quickly find them in the index. Addresses are given
for each depository. Letters can be written to check further what exists, what
is available on microform already, what is small enough to justify photocopying
"on spec" and what might justify the cost and adventure of a visit in
the hope of being there at a time when things are open. Daylight saving and
long summer evenings are a trap for those from other climes, not to mention
unexpected closing times. British depositories on the whole are not too bad
about opening hours, though flexibility goes a long way in international public
relations. If the stereotype remnants of imperialistic arrogance is discovered
alive and well by sensitive overseas researchers, one should not be suprised when
those same researchers ungratefully ensure that these attitudes are better
documented and disseminated from the archives than those other qualities by
which the British would prefer history to remember them.
Study of the Guide should greatly improve
the productivity of visits around Britain. Written preliminary enquiries will
also produce guidance about fees charged and the letters vitally necessary to
even get in the doors of British libraries - having in 1988 seen a colleague of
some standing in a Scottish University refused entry to Cambridge University
Library because he did not have a letter, I speak with some feeling. I got in
through having one - addressed not to me, but to a friend. A testimonial from
someone with an important-looking letter-head can be a useful backstop in
emergencies.
Third-world researchers and archival
research generally
The
issues which arise for a Third-world researcher are many. An advanced level of
study demands the consultation of primary sources. Failure to do so may be
acceptable at an alarming number of academic institutions, but it is to give in
to the temptation of writing out the ideology of the moment, however orthodox.
Major sources are increasingly available in microform, but it is not the same
as original manuscripts. Yet study, if not travel, in Britain is prohibitive
unless there is government funding or a prospective position justifies payment
of huge overseas fees. History is not a priority area for funding. It and
religious studies are disciplines which are politically sensitive where the
dominant group in society will exercise control through selective funding if
not the formal or informal imposition of censorship. Those who have to arrange
their own funding, may need to enrol for something locally and visit UK on a
research trip.
Of course it is not just British archives which
need to be consulted. The value of the South Asian Bibliography as a
further supplement to what is provided by Pearson, Wainwright and Matthews is
that it is a guide to sources in many places. What it has to say about India,
as far as other first world sources are concerned applies in large measure also
to South East Asia. Depositories in America need also to be checked[7]-
American links can be strong even without colonial engagement. Obviously
America rather than Britain is where to look for material on the Philippines,
but it also holds large amounts relating to "British" areas such as
Malaysia and Burma - particularly but not only, mission archives. Australia is
not to be forgotten, especially as its government has for some time recognised
the need to try and get its citizens to be more sensitively interested in their
neighbours to the north. The SEAMRG Newsletter is one record of the
work, particularly of the Australian National University, in locating and
preserving archives in Southeast Asia.
Archives within a particular Third-world country
are also to be located and explored, though for political reasons there may be
numbers of cases when material in other hands may be more accessible than that
which is local. Finding aids for these need to be produced and made available
internationally as well.
Archives
for the future
Since
the archives of Britain are so rich as to be overwhelming it is easy to miss
the point that they are also inadequate. The sort of material in the Centre for
the Study of Christianity in the non-Western World is of profound importance
and one should be grateful to the University of Edinburgh for the facilities
provided. Yet the funding is woeful, and the fact that this seems to be the
only institution of this kind in Britain, alarming. How the Selly Oak Colleges
hope to have an adequate research base for the understanding of the mission of
the church without adequate archival holdings I do not know. It is in large
measure thanks to James Pearson that SOAS has not only the necessary physical
facilities, but has also succeeded in acquiring and processing a range of
missionary society and other material whose value is slowly being appreciated.
But there is much which escapes the net.
A different level of person needs to be told that
their memoriabilia may be of historical significance and that there are
depositories willing to accept them. There is a generation of those who had
association with South and Southeast Asia during and after Independence whose
papers and oral histories still need to be recorded - Plain tales from the
Raj[8]
and Tales from the South China Sea[9]
are indicative of what can be done and of what else there may be to uncover.
Asian migrants and refugees in Britain are also sources and a perspective
without which, however artful the analysis of the records of others, the
picture will be of lower quality than it needs to be.
Computerisation
and Finding aids
Interest
in both former colonies and the world in general in a wider range of questions
about the past, and in a wider range of society, means that the volume of
material of archival interest increases enormously. Principles of selection and
of specialisation for particular depositories loom large. Increased volume
means also the need for a more sophisticated array of finding aids. Scanning,
digitial and video storage are current possibilities. Difficulties of
classification and documentation seem more intractable.
The Documentation, Archives and Bibliography
project of the International Association of Mission Studies is asking these
questions in connection with mission and Third-World Church archives, and in so
doing may be raising issues of wider interest and import. Churches of the North
are beginning to realise they have something to learn from the churches of the
South at the same time as much, though not all of the documentation of those
churches is in the North, were it to be properly gathered and processed. The
use of expensive data bases may seem a long way from some of the grass-roots
practical things which need to be attended to, but without such a comprehensive
vision, the task will remain piecemeal. A vital part is the construction of an
agreed thesaurus. The sort of level of indexing which is thrown up by the
compilation of the finding aids attached to the various collections included in
Pearson is, for instance, no longer adequate to the questions which we want to
ask of our own and others' past. More is at stake here than birds in Bombay.
Quite apart from larger projects with more
impressive indices, the use of computers within depositories and for an overall
search through a document of this nature would provide an additional phase of
usefulness. As suggested, one could do worse than have these volumes available
on disc so that word searches could be done on whatever basis the user wished.
It may be that Pearsons' are the last of the paper published finding aids.
However superseded in time, they will retain a quality and a character which
cannot easily be replaced.
[1].Formerly
librarian and lecturer in church history at Seminari Theology Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur. Now lecturer in mission studies, Bible College of New Zealand.
[2]. A
guide to manuscripts and documents in the British Isles relating to the Far
East, compiled by Noel Matthews and M Doreen Wainwright, edited by J D
Pearson. OUP.
[3].
See Walsh, Ann, "Bibliography of writings by Professor James Douglas
Pearson," in B C Bloomfield, Middle East studies and libraries. A
felicitation volume for Professor J D Pearson, Mansell, London, 1980,
pp.225-231.
[4].
See also P W Tolmie, "The holdings of Malayan material in Rhodes House
Library, Oxford," Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 72(1), 1989, pp.89-95. What is mentioned in neither Pearson nor in
Tolmie is the excellent resources in the USPG archives at Rhodes House. These
are strong for Malaya, Borneo (Sarwak and British North Borneo, now Sabah) and
also India and Burma.
[5].
Chua, Sui Gim, "Guide to modern archives and manuscripts found in the
United Kingdom relating to Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak," Brunei Museum
Journal, 5(1) 1981, p.61.
[6].
Rooney, John. Khabar Gembira (The good news). A history of the Catholic
Church in East Malaysia and Brunei (1880-1976), Burns and Oates/Mill Hill
Missionaries, 1981, p.259.
[7].
Ash, Lee and W G Miller, Subject collections, 2 vols, 6th edition,
Bowker, 1985. See also, Robert Shuster, "Documentary sources in the United
States for foreign missions research," International Bulletin of
Missionary Research, Jan 1985, pp.19-25.
[8].
Allen, Charles, ed. Published by André Deutsch, 1975; Futura, 1976.
[9].
Allen, Charles, ed. Published by the BBC, 1983, Futura 1984.