Aims and objectives
The material to be digitised are printed ‘annual reports’. They are: BCC&I annual reports (1951-1972), Indian Tea Association annual reports (1921-1938), and Indian Jute Mills Association annual reports (1907-1966).
Set up during the high noon of the colonial era, the BCC&I reports - as well as those of the tea and jute bodies - are indispensable for any study of the history, politics, and economy of one of the leading centres of trade and governance in south Asia during the colonial period. The reports contain a wealth of material on laws enacted, legal proceedings, work schedules, famines, construction schedules, representation of mercantile interests in official councils, use of enemy property and so on. All of these have the potential to throw new light upon scholarly understanding of the period. None of the material is available online and digitising the material would confer great benefit on the scholarly community, as well as those interested more generally in the period.
