
Aims and objectives
The project has been designed to digitise the private records remained under the custody of the descendants of thirteen leading Business families of Bengal identified as an outcome of a previous pilot project (EAP906). The main objectives of the project is to preserve the endangered records kept under private possession and open up those records through digital media to the scholars working on the socio-economic and cultural history of pre-industrial Bengal. These private records have not yet been published and thus beyond the reach of the scholars. The digital images of these records will help the scholars to understand the progressive marginalization of the Bengali business families and their survival strategies during the early colonial era.
The material is important for understanding the inner world of the Bengali business community and their strategies in dealing with the English East India Company and afterwards under the British Raj. The material will expose the myth of sudden decline of the Bengali business enterprise with the fall of the Union Bank in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is clear from the outcome of the EAP906 that they did not give up or withdrew them from business activities altogether even after the crucial economic crisis of mid-nineteenth century.
The material will help researchers to understand the diverse strategies adopted by the Bengali business families in dealing with the challenges they faced during the early colonial period and the mind set associated with that time.
Outcomes
The records copied by this project have been catalogued as:
- EAP1104/1 Private Collection of Motilal Family, Bowbazar (18th century-20th century)
- EAP1104/2 Private Collection from the Deb Family, Sobhabazar (28 Apr 1778-30 Jun 1942)
- EAP1104/3 Private Collection of Dutta Family, Hatkhola (11 Jun 1894-21 Jun 1897)
- EAP1104/4 Private Collection of Ghosh Family, Pathuriaghata (18th century)
- EAP1104/5 Private Collection of Butto Kristo Paul's Family, Sobhabazar (20th century)
- EAP1104/6 Private Collection of Seal Family, Colutola (1864-1st half of the 20th century)
- EAP1104/7 Private Collection of Upendrakishor Ray (Chowdhury)'s Family, Kolkata (Late 19th century-Early 20th century)
- EAP1104/8 Private Collection of Mitra Family, Shyampukur (1st half of the 20th century)
- EAP1104/9 Private Collection of Daw Family, Jorasanko (19th century-20th century)
- EAP1104/10 Private Collection of Mitra Family , Madanmohantala (1870-1937)
- EAP1104/11 Private Collection of Royal family of Cussimbazar (Roy) (1st half of the 19th century-1st half of the 20th century)
Share this page
Please consider the environment before printing