The Barak Valley (A Survey of Documents on the Economic History, 1832-1947) Set of 3 Volumes

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The book in three volumes is an important contribution to the economic history of Assam in general and the Barak Valley in particular. This is a timely, well-chosen and comprehensive collection of documents related to various economic issues like land, revenue, survey and settlement, excise revenue, forest revenue administration, cotton, educational expenses, tea cultivation, jute cultivation, rubber cultivation, pan cultivation, fishery settlement, potato cultivation, iron ore collection, income tax, municipal tax, communication, transport, inspection. They are put together and arranged so systematically and precisely that the scholars, researchers, and general readers will be attracted to do research on different aspects of the economic history of the Barak Valley. A note provided by the author gives a better understanding of the theme based on archival records and made available at the archives of New Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Silchar.

RANJIT KUMAR DE (b. 1949) is Reader in History, Assam University (a central University), Silchar. He took his B.A. Honours degree from the Ramkrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, Kolkata, M.A. from the Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Ph.D. from the Tripura University. He also taught at the Tripura University as Reader. His earlier books include : The Reang Uprising, 1997, Varanasi; Administration of Princely Tripura, 1997, Varanasi; Socio-Political Movements in India, 1905-52, 1998, New Delhi; The Statistical Account of Tripura, 2000, New Delhi and twenty- five research papers and articles on North-East Indian History and Culture.

It is a matter of great pleasure for me to write a foreword to Professor R. K. De's book entitled Documents on the Economic History of Barak Valley in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Professor De's conviction that historical research must be mainly based on documentary sources combined with his five years' hard work have led to the successful completion of the work. This book is an invaluable work on the documentary heritage of Barak Valley consisting of the present three Districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. This will certainly open a new vista in the field of historical research pertaining to Barak Valley by attracting wider scholarship among those concerned with the study of the history of this region.

Even today historical research concerning Barak Valley is mainly directed to the study of the various aspects of the political and cultural history of Barak Valley. Several aspects of the economic history remain untouched, unexplored waiting for scholars with new strategy, imagination and proper motivation. Professor De's very useful work painstakingly compiled by him from various sources which were not easily available will be of immense benefit to the scholars in making a detailed, dispassionate, analytical study of the economy of the colonial Barak Valley in broad historical perspective.

The principal aim to amass all available sources that have been sorted out classified at and analysed to state exactly what might have been the real case, not just as it appears to be or presumed to mean. Till now the scholars are handicapped by the paucity of data in their historical investigation relating to modern period of Barak Valley. The most important sources are archival records preserved in the District records offices at Silchar and Sylhet, State Archives in Guwahati and Bangladesh Archives in Dacca. But no serious efforts was made to trace them out so far. Professor De has taken the challenge to gather all sources of the areas concerning his project.

In order to present an objective profile of the past, the official records need to be supplemented by other sources. The contemporary newspaper and literature are very important in this context. The scholars of modern history all over the world now a days are making extensive use of the private papers as they are extremely useful for critical understanding of the historical issues. Some of the private papers relevant to this subject, parliamentary papers and proceedings of the Legislative Councils are found in the aforesaid Archives. It is heartening that Professor De has done his best to make a full use of them in his book.

This book is an important contribution to the economic history of Assam in general and Barak Valley in particular. This is a timely, well-chosen and comprehensive collection of documents related to various economic issues like revenue survey and settlement, excise revenue and forests revenue administration, cotton, educational expenses, tea cultivation, jute cultivation, rubber cultivation, pan cultivation, fishery settlement, potato cultivation, iron ore collection, income-tax, municipal tax, communication and transport. They are put together and arranged so systematically and precisely that the scholar will feel attracted to do research on different aspects of economic history of the Barak Valley. This book has been produced really well.

This is a fine example of a meticulous work done by a competent historian. The exhaustive data contained in the documents of the three volumes tell us almost everything one wants to know about the economy of Barak Valley. I am sure this work is absolutely essential to all researchers and scholars specialising in economic history.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages