From 11 to 22 September 2023, I had the opportunity to visit the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) archives, located in the university town of Pune, Maharashtra, funded by my JSPS project ‘Re-imagining Development Financing: Negotiating Structural Adjustment and Economic Liberalisation between Japan, India and World Bank, 1981-1991’.[1] I wanted to talk a little about my first time researching the archives of a central bank, as well as reflect on method for contemporary historians. For those who have experience researching Indian archives, you will likely know that most procedures can only be conducted on-site. By comparison, the catalogues and many of the actual files of World Bank (WB) and of International Monetary Fund (IMF) have already been digitized.[2] Much of my work when I was in Washington DC in February 2023 consisted of collecting items that had not been digitized and identifying confidential records I would like to have assessed and approved for release with the teams of both World Bank and IMF. Every institution records its institutional memory differently but all three archives teams – RBI, WB, IMF – were in the midst of digitization.
Whatever speed at which things move (in Japan, India, America or Britain), it is important to keep in mind that archives officers are usually not paid to host researchers. They get many requests by email, not all of which pan out. While I was there, the RBI-Pune staff were occupied with several projects, such as cataloguing the papers of former Governor IG Patel and preparing for exhibitions to be held at RBI's offices throughout India, in and between which I was able to view some of my requested items. I am grateful that the archives team at RBI were a wonderful and kind group to work with - I was very lucky to have lunch with and get to know some of the younger staff members throughout my stay. When I first arrived, I explained my project to the assistant general manager Dr Ravi Kiran Pala and chief archivist Dr Sahoo. Both had not only lived through the event but catalogued many items relating to it and Dr Pala in particular had his own views on key issues, such as the chain of information sharing/command with the Ministry of Finance. I explained the themes of my work, particularly the role of Japanese commercial lending and whether there was a sense of tacit coordination between all three parties.
As for the process, my experiences in September 2023 were as follows. First, I was allowed a desk and access to the catalogues of six RBI departments, stored on a local computer setup.[3] From these catalogues, I selected relevant items between 1981 and 1991. Next, I listed the files I wanted to view on a requisition slip (20 items at a time), which Dr Pala would check with Dr Sahoo and approve for viewing. In principle, items covering events completed over 30 years ago were viewable to the public, but I was not allowed to see certain files with confidential information. At the same time, given the themes, Dr Pala kindly made a few exceptions, particularly if there was a document relating to Japanese financial institutions. In total, I probably viewed about half of the files I requested, due to confidentiality.
Next, of the files I was allowed to view, I made a second separate list of requests for copies, which I also marked with post-it notes and page numbers in the files themselves. The historical research rules state that classified items dealing with events completed over 60 years ago can be released to researchers as photocopies. Due to the sensitivity and contemporaneity of the issue, my requests for copies had to be approved by chief archivist, Dr Sahoo. I was not allowed at any point to take photos or scans of my own, thus, on my last day (22 Sep. 2023), I received 267 paper documents, scanned and printed by Mr Chandra. For foreign researchers, the rate was 6 rupees/copy. Key to note is that this is only payable through online banking, as India has recently made a big push towards digital money, so if you are a foreigner without an Indian bank account, this can cause some issues. Luckily, some of the staff members were kind enough to wire the fee through their account and I could pay them back in cash (I did panic a little and call the Japanese consulate in Mumbai on the morning of my last day, where an official was also kind enough to suggest the same). There were also many helpful papers and reports downloadable through the official website (https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/Publications.aspx?publication=Annual), such as the RBI Bulletin, Vision Documents, Annual Reports, Committee reports, and even the published series, History of the Reserve Bank of India.
Figure 1: for those concerned that I am breaking RBI Archive rules for researchers, this is just a screenshot of the title of an already published work so it is fine to post on my blog :)
As for time management: I was in Pune for two weeks (11-22 September 2023), during which there was one major public holiday (Ganesh Chaturthi, falling on the 19th this year in Maharashtra), leaving me with nine full days at the archives. Since I had no idea what to expect before I arrived, not even knowing if there would be relevant records (ie: if RBI only kept financial records rather than correspondences or memos) or if I would be allowed to view the documents as a foreigner, it was a productive research trip. There is a great deal of passive indirect knowledge that one gains from visiting an institution. I had many fascinating conversations with general assistant manager Dr Pala regarding the movements of money and the functions of a central bank in India. One also gets a sense of the scale of administering a national currency in a country as large, populous and diverse as India, much of which was changing in the 1980s. Things that looked relatively neat from Washington DC, at least from how finance ministers and central bank governors presented their case to members of the Aid India Consortium, were in reality much messier, even seen from the bird’s eye view of a central bank like RBI.
Figure 2: the festival season in Maharashtra begins in September with honoring Lord Ganesh, the first of the Hindu gods
Finally, I want to reiterate that archives staff usually have to go out of their way to accommodate researchers, esp. foreigners. It is imperative that we respect the rules on access, particularly on confidentiality, and be open about our research aims. A central bank is an institution that holds a lot of critical but private data. With a historical event as large (and at the time, contentious) as the 1991 balance of payments crisis, there was an element of trust and faith that Dr Sahoo and Dr Pala had to have in order to let me see the records. At the same time, they were genuinely interested on the minute particulars so I shared what I knew from Japan’s side or World Bank and IMF’s side. They would then tell me about the Indian general public’s opinions of Manmohan Singh as finance minister in 1991, or on RBI governors' wariness regarding subsequent financial crises, such as the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis in the US. They also shared their own views, having had to painstakingly organize and store these documents, on what kinds of information historical actors are willing to deposit in institutional archives.
As I discussed with World Bank archivist Ann May in February 2023, a balance of payments crisis is very simply a national aggregation or balance sheet of all funds coming into and flowing out of a country. A BOP crisis in a developing country borrower, particularly after the 1980s, is an emergency and erupts unexpectedly. For the contemporary historian trying to trace these events, looking not just at what happened but also why, this kind of financial crisis (nation potentially defaulting on its external obligations) does not happen in one location at one point in time. Information creeps slowly into records of different departments, conversations taking place in different locations of banking institutions.
This time around, I was really only able to get records of the Department of Economic Policy and Research (DEPR), the RBI department which Dr Pala suggested as most useful to start with, and have yet to view the records of the other six. I may have to visit again next spring, timescales and remaining funds of this Kakenhi grant permitting. Some of my final discussions with Dr Pala was in regards to conducting oral history interviews, ie: with Manmohan Singh who was finance minister and delivered the July 1991 budget speech and also RBI governor. I was very happy to end my trip with the knowledge that archives staff also wanted to interview former officials (in the vein of World Bank's Oral History Project: https://oralhistory.worldbank.org/en/archive/oralhistory/home). My next research trip for this grant will likely be to Tokyo for the Bank of Japan, Institute of Monetary and Economic Studies (BOJ-IMES) and the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), or Manila, for the records of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Stay tuned!
[1] My project: https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-22K20160. [2] See IMF Archives Catalogue: https://archivescatalog.imf.org/search/simple and World Bank catalogue: https://archivesholdings.worldbank.org/records-of-senior-vice-president-of-operations. IMF archives were smaller than World Bank’s. [3] These were: the Department of Economic Policy and Research (DEPR), the Monetary Policy Department (MPD), the Department of External Investments and Operations (DEIO), the Internal Debt Management Department (IDMD), the Department of Banking Operations and Development (DBOD), the Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM) and the Department of Government and Bank Accounts (DBGA).