Delving into the colonial archives of British India, French Indochina and the Dutch Indies

By Alexandra de Heering

The Urbaltour program provides a fertile ground for scholarly exchanges among specialists in various social sciences disciplines: geographers, sociologists and historians. Within this framework, my role as a historian was to explore the histories of hill stations established by colonial powers across South Asian (India, Sri Lanka) and Southeast Asian (Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam) countries. My research examines the diverse forms these localities have taken, and the underlying rationales and ideologies that shaped them. This large geographical scope necessitated an exploration of the colonial histories of Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands through their respective archival repositories: the British Library; Kew Archives in the UK, the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in France, and the Nationaal Archief and the Leiden University special archives in The Netherlands.

Navigating archives across different countries presents significant challenges that underscore the importance of proficient language skills in Dutch, French, and English. Embedded within a global historical perspective, Urbaltour’s research objectives required transcending the national focus of each archival repository to forge connections between regional, national, and trans-imperial histories and timelines. As articulated by Ann Laura Stoler in her seminal work “Along the Archival Grain”(Stoler, 2010), this endeavour also entails comprehending the logic and structure of these archives, which mirror the organizational frameworks of colonial bureaucracies. These archives served as conduits of communication among multiple stakeholders, necessitating an approach that views them as processes rather than mere repositories of information. Archival repositories contain a wealth of materials including official correspondences, dispatches, bureaucratic exchanges, and maps, alongside a rich array of private archives such as personal correspondence and family photo albums. Thus, exploring side-by-side official narratives and personal perspectives enables a more nuanced understanding of colonial history.

During my 16-months contract with Urbaltour (March 23 to June 24), I undertook numerous archival assignments aimed at uncovering sources detailing the historical processes involved in establishing hill stations. Each archive visit brought its own surprises.

My very first archive trip to The Hague, at the Nationaal Archief, in April 2023, proved to be the most intriguing. It was during this visit that I discovered that there was no standardized Dutch term to designate hill stations. Terms like “Bergstad” (hill town), “Heuvel station” (altitude station), or “Herstellingsoord” (convalescence centres) exist but yielded no fruitful results in my searches through the archive catalogue. This led to extensive discussions with the Nationaal Archief staff, who often responded to my inquiries about specific terminology for Java’s hill stations with bemusement, acknowledging the lack of a definitive term with comments like, “oh, that’s a good one!”. Despite this challenge, which later prompted insightful reflections on the unique characteristics of the Dutch Indies’ model of “hill stations,” I managed to gather valuable materials. These included maps, plans, historical atlases, and private correspondences such as a collection from a Dutch settler in the 1920s-1930s (referenced as Image 1), who regularly updated his parents on his whereabouts with remarkably clear handwriting and systematic mention of the date and the place he was writing from. When writing from on Java’s hill station like Malang, Garoet or Tosari, these letters offer invaluable insights into the specific and private usages, experiences, and practices associated with hill stations during that era.

Then, in May-June 2023 I spent several days at the Teen Murthi library, which houses significant collections of travel guides, directories and statistical handbooks pertinent to my research. The information I gathered there contributes to producing an inventory of hill stations in South Asia which will inform the creation of a comprehensive map of hill stations both past and present. Similar work has been undertaken for Southeast Asia. Towards the end of my stay in Delhi, I visited the Alkazi Foundation, renowned for its extensive private collection of historic Indian photographs. Despite the Foundation’s lack of a comprehensive catalogue for their collections and their unique policies regarding reproduction, the visit provided valuable insights on the ways hill stations were to be shown and seen. Private photo albums, such as one belonging to the YMCA (Image 2), help to understand the essence of life in the hills and aspects of the social life that people engaged in there. They also reveal what mattered to people at the time and what they considered worthy of being immortalized: a bridge connecting two sides of the river, a meeting with the presidents of two institutions, a sport tournament.

In July 2023, I spent two weeks at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, focusing on the colonial archives of French Indochina. Navigating the physical catalogue for archive references took some effort, but I found the archive services to be highly efficient. Given Eric Jennings’ monography on Dalat (Jennings, 2011), I directed my attention towards exploring lesser-known hill stations in present-day Vietnam, such as Chapa/Sapa, Bana and Tam Dao. I was particularly struck by the number of exploratory missions funded by the Indochinese colonial government in the late 19th century to identify suitable locations in the hills that would meet the list of criteria required for establishing hill stations: 1) healthiness, 2) climatic suitability, 3) ample drinking water supply, 4) spaciousness, 5) scenic walks and views, and 6) accessibility (Beau, 1908). I encountered many detailed reports describing expeditions organized on various plateaus in Annam and Tonkin, assessing their suitability for hill station construction with thorough scrutiny. These documents often referenced data, including temperature records from hill stations in other colonies, to justify opinions regarding the feasibility of establishing a hill station at specific sites. Examples of such papers retrieved from archival boxes (referenced as Image 3) underscore the exploration depth underlying colonial planning initiatives in Indochina during that era.

My last extended archival trip took place in October 2023, centered around research at the British Library in London, focusing on the Indian and Sri Lankan colonial archives, and at the National Archives in Kew, where I accessed some Malaysian archives. In addition to investigating specific case studies within the project (Darjeeling, Nuwara Eliya, Yercaud, etc), my time at the British Library revealed a remarkably extensive and meticulously maintained collection of visual materials from British India. This collection encompasses old photographs, picture postcards, paintings, and sketches. I primarily concentrated on digitising old photos and picture postcards, which could be used for exploring how these visual representations contributed to the construction and dissemination of an imperial gaze on hill stations within – and beyond – the British Empire. Once examined with scrutiny, visual materials prove invaluable for research purposes, offering unique insights about the fertile triangulation between colonial imperialism, tourism and visuality. This postcard (Image 4), for instance, depicts a well-organised town in a tamed and built landscape. In the background, the sublime snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas provide a panoramic view, inviting admiration from a safe place, St Vincent Hill. When using visuals, one should also keep in mind that they also pose challenges related to dating, copyright issues, authorization for reproduction, and the detailed description of images.

On the day of my departure, the British Library experienced a significant cyber-attack that severely impacted its computing infrastructure. Consequently, access to all collections at the British Library was disrupted for several weeks. Presently, while access to most publications at the British Library has been restored, accessing archival collections remains challenging and often impossible.

References:

Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Commen Sense, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010.

Eric T. Jennings, Imperial Heights. Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina, University of California Press, 2011.

Jean-Baptiste Beau, Situation de l’Indochine de 1902 à 1907. Tome 1, Saigon, Imprimerie commerciale Marcellin Rey, 1908.

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