Institutional Distinctiveness
Bethune College Archives:
Insight into the
journey of women’s education and emancipation
Bethune College Archives, inaugurated in 2006 with support from the
Government of West Bengal is a repository of valuable and rare
manuscripts, photographs, maps, coins, and archaeological remains
excavated from the campus. An Advisory Board was formed with members
from the college and State and National Archives. Presently, the
Archives holds 240 files out of which 145 are digitized, laminated and
enlisted. The Archives contain rare documents dating to the inception of
the college in 1879. Some of the rare documents in the Archives include
Appointment of a Clerk for the college (1900), letters relating to
Managing Committee and College Hostel (1911-1914), letters written by
Pritilata Waddedar (1930s), documents relating to Kalpana Dutta and
Simon Commission (1930). Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s letter to
Chandramukhi Basu, one of the first two women graduates of the
University of Calcutta and Chandramukhi Basu’s letter to the Government,
are also part of the Archives. Some rare books in the college Archives
dating from 1765 include A Journey from Persia to England,
Interesting Historical Events, Memoirs of Central India and Indo
Aryans.
The Archives contain documents tracing the history of women’s education
and emancipation, as well as, their changing position in society in
colonial India. Many women revolutionaries fighting against the British
administration in early 20th century were students of Bethune College.
The Archives thus records the changing contours of sociopolitical
history of contemporary India.
These documents are an invaluable source of information for mapping the
history of women’s education and empowerment. Visitors to the Archives
include researchers from West Bengal and abroad working in this field.