Includes public acts 1225 – 1957 and statutory rules and orders relating to India 1934 – 1947.

Original printings of most Acts relating to India up to 1937 will be found in the Parliamentary Branch Collections (L/PARL/2/1-3 and 370) which also contains a volume of Private Acts from 1806 to 1927 (L/PARL/2/446). These, which mostly deal with the incorporation of Indian railway companies, are not printed in any of the Series in this list.

Statutory rules and orders not in this collection may in some cases be traced in departmental files, but they can be most conveniently consulted in the annual volumes from 1891 which are available in the Official Publications Library of the British Library Reference Division, Great Russell Street.

The citation of an Act consists of the regnal year or years of the parliamentary session in which it was passed followed by a ‘chapter’ (abbreviated to c) number. Thus the Indian Independence Act 1947 is cited as 10 & 11 Geo VI c30, that is, the thirtieth Act of the session occurring in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of King George Vi dating from his accession.

If the citation is known the correct volume can be requisitioned directly from the list of Public General Acts (V/1/49-287) which cites the Acts contained in each volume. The same applies if the date of the Act is known and all the Acts for that calendar year are contained in one volume. In other cases reference should be made first to the short title index which gives the date and citation from which the requisite volume of public General Acts can be identified.

The record of proceedings in Parliament. Up to 1835 some reports and papers were printed in full in the Journals.

There is a complete set of Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates 1803 – 1956. Series covering the earlier period include Hansard’s Parliamentary History and Stockdale’s Parliamentary Register 1774-1813. There is a separate series of Debates and Questions on Indian Affairs 1884 – 1947.

1 Parliamentary History (Hansard) 1066-1803

2 Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 1803-1956

3 Parliamentary Register (Debrett and Stockdale) 1774-1813

4 Mirror of Parliament (Barrow) 1837-1840

5 Parliamentary Record (Ross) 1893-1939

6 Debates and Questions on Indian Affairs 1884-1947

The present list is confined to (a) the annual sessional indexes to Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, and (b) the Debates and Questions on Indian Affairs.

(a) Sessional Indexes

Only the volumes containing several annual sessional indexes have yet been assigned India Office Records Numbers.

When requisitioning the index for a single session the series and volume number shown in this list should be used. For the period after 1909 it is necessary to specify Commons or Lords debates as they were published in separate series. Volumes to which references are found in the indexes can be requisitioned in the same way, quoting the series and volume number.

(b) Debates and Questions on Indian Affairs

This series of extracts from Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates is more convenient to use than the main series of debates as the index and verbatim proceedings for each session are contained in a single volume.

From 1937 it consists of pasted-up extracts from Hansard with a duplicated index.

There are no indexes to debates prior to 1803, but IOR: H/66 contains an abstract of Parliamentary proceedings relating to India from 1743 to 1807, taken from the Parliamentary Register.

Commons sessional papers 1802 – 1955 are complete and there is also an incomplete collection of Lords sessional papers relating to India 1802-1949. Earlier parliamentary papers on Indian affairs are included in the Parliamentary Branch Collections (L/PARL).

For published lists see East India (Parliamentary Papers) Annual lists and general index of the Parliamentary Papers relating to the East Indies during the years 1801 to 1907 inclusive [1909]; also John Sims, A List and Index of Parliamentary Papers relating to India 1908 – 1947 (London, 1981).

Annual lists and general index of the Parliamentary Papers relating to the East Indies published during the years 1801 to 1907 inclusive.

Parliamentary Papers (HoC) 1909 LXIV 89

A list and index of Parliamentary Papers relating to India 1908-1947
John Sims
London: IOLR, 1981

Procedure for Requisitioning

House of Commons
Title: Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons)
Reference: Year or Session, and Volume number

House of Lords
Title: Parliamentary Papers (House of Lords)
Reference: V/4 reference number

NOTE If there is no V/4 reference number given for a House of Lords paper it is not held in the India Office Records.

See L/PARL/68 for a cumulative index 1830-1883

These comprise serials published or printed by, or on behalf of, the East India Company and the India Office. They include lists of the Company’s servants 1768 – 1799, the East India Register and Directory (later India List) 1803 – 1895, the India Office List 1886-1947 and the India Office Establishment 1884 – 1948. There are also sets of the home accounts 1805 – 1937 and the Selections from the Despatches of the Secretary of State to India 1858 – 1936, containing an annual collection of the more important despatches to the central and provincial governments.

This is a miscellaneous collection of serials which originated in government departments other than the India Office. They include the Foreign Office series of British and Foreign State Papers 1792 – 1948, Hertslet’s Commercial Treaties 1840 – 1924, civil and military estimates 1917 – 1953, Public Accounts Committee Reports 1937 – 1953 and Civil Service Commission Reports 1855 – 1938 concerning the examination and selection of Indian Civil Service candidates.

Collections of the acts, regulations and ordinances of the central and provincial governments, including a set of acts reprinted as modified by subsequent legislation. There are also successive editions of British Statutes relating to India, British Enactments in force in Native States, and provincial codes embodying the local and relevant central legislation.

The enacted law of British India consisted of the following: --

Acts of Parliament

extending to India. Those in force are printed in Statutes Relating to India. There is also a complete set of the Public General Acts from 1761 in the official publications collection which may be requisitioned by year.

Regulations to 1834

promulgated by each Presidency prior to the coming into force of the Government of India Act 1833 which vested sole legislative powers in the Governor General in Council.

Acts of the Governor General in Council

enacted under the Government of India Act 1833 and subsequent statutes.

Acts of Local Legislatures

enacted under the Indian Councils Act 1861 and subsequent statutes.

Regulations

made by the Governor General under the Government of India Act 1870 for the administration of less developed areas, and by Governors under the Government of India Act 1935.

Ordinances

made by the Governor General under the Indian Councils Act 1861, and by Governors under the Government of India Act 1935.

From 1834 draft acts or bills were published in the official gazettes. The practice of referring bills to select committees was introduced in the standing orders of the enlarged Legislative Council in 1854 but the select committee reports were not published. The simplified rules of business adopted for the Legislative Council in 1862 provided for the publication of the select committee reports in the official gazettes and also for a statement of objects and reasons to be published with each bill.

Copies of bills and acts sent to the Secretary of State were received in the Public and Judicial Department and may be traced through its registers and indexes. Normally the select committee report and extracts from the printed proceedings of the legislature are attached. L/P&J/5/1-116 contains a collection of acts bound in chronological order together with the bills, statements of objects and reasons, select committee reports and legislative proceedings. This series includes legislation of India 1862-1921, Bengal 1862-1875, Madras 1862-1871 and Bombay 1863-1872.

Proceedings of the central and provincial Legislative Councils, the Council of State and the provincial Legislative Assemblies. Also included are the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly and Parliament of India 1946 – 51, the Pakistan Legislative Assembly 1948 – 1953, and the Chamber of Princes 1921 – 1946.

Requisitions should quote the prefix V/9 followed by the volume number given in the list, e.g.

V/9/1214   Bengal Legislative Council 1922

The annual administration reports of the territories of British India provide a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of government. ‘Red Letter’ chapters of standing information on the history, geography and administrative framework are included decennially from 1872/73 to 1921/22. There is also an incomplete set of administration reports for many of the princely states.

Early reports, in most cases from 1855/56 to 1871/72, are bound together by years and will be found in the present list under the heading ‘India’.

It should be noted that some administration reports were included in the Selections from the Records of the Government of India series. The existence of any such reports is indicated at the beginning of each provincial list and references can then be traced in the list of Selections, IOR: V/23.

A copy of the Index to the principal subjects referred to in the administration reports relating to British India, 1849-50 to 1874-75, compiled in the India Office, is also included.

Gazettes of India 1864 – 1947, Calcutta 1832 – 1947, Assam 1874 – 1947, Bihar and Orissa 1912 – 1947, United Provinces etc. 1850 – 1947, Fort St George 1932 – 1947, Bombay 1831 – 1947, Punjab 1872 – 1947, North-West Frontier Province 1932 – 1947, Central Provinces 1875 – 1947, Coorg 1885 – 1947, Sind 1869 – 1947, Burma 1875 – 1947.

Copies of the Contents of the Index for 1917 and 1928 are included to indicate the subjects usually dealt with by the various parts.

To requisition a volume of the Gazette of India the year and part is sufficient, e.g. Gazette of India, 1889, Part IV.

Separate lists are being compiled for each provincial Gazette and will be made available as they are completed.

Annual compilation of the records of service of gazetted civil servants employed by the central and provincial governments.

The series originates in a Government of India circular of 30 November 1872 enquiring into the possibility of each government maintaining records of the character and merit of its officers. After consideration it was decided not to proceed with the compilation of what it was feared would be "character books". Nevertheless the Bombay Government went ahead with the compilation of a History of Services which, when published, allayed the fears of the Government of India and was found to be "a very useful publication." A circular of 14 December 1876 issued to discover whether other governments could emulate Bombay met with encouraging response and led to a resolution of 9 October 1878 authorising publication. Each government was left free to determine the contents, arrangement and date of issue of its own annual volume. The Government of India Home Department was instructed to compile a History of Services of its own officers and to include those of other departments prepared to furnish the necessary details. In 1885 the India Office, intending to use the Histories of Services as the basis for compiling the India Office List, requested uniform correction to the 1st July for each annual volume as well as production of histories of service for all departments of the Government of India. Finally it was decreed by a resolution of 23 June 1890 that the Service Registers should be abolished and replaced by Histories of Services arranged in a condensed tabular form according to a uniform pattern. At the same time responsibility for their production was transferred to the Accounts Office of each government.

Seniority lists of the central and provincial governments’ civil servants, normally issued quarterly and largely confined to gazetted officers.

The civil lists were issued at varying intervals, but the predominant pattern is a system of quarterly issues which was cut back to half-yearly publication in the early 1930s and further reduced to an annual list during the Second World War. Months of issue are given in the list except when publication was annual.

Coverage is usually restricted to gazetted officers in the main series of lists, but there are a few supplementary lists of subordinate services and also some fuller departmental establishment lists which include non-gazetted appointments, in particular the Telegraph, Indo-European Telegraph, Public Works and Railways. The two former include signalling staff and linesmen and the latter ‘artificers and mechanics’ from 1874. The information provided generally includes date of birth and of appointment, length of service and salary. There are also usually lists of casualties by death or retirement since the previous issue and of holders of honours and titles. A complete record of appointments of gazetted officers will be found in the series of Histories of Services (V/12).

The shifting of responsibility for subordinate departments of the central government from one secretariat department to another can be confusing, and the list on page i shows in which civil list and for what period the officers of the main subordinate departments will be found. It will be noted that in some cases there is a gap in the coverage which is due to the absence of any lists for the Department of Agriculture, Revenue and Commerce from 1872 until its dissolution in 1879 or for the Department of Revenue and Agriculture (reconstituted in 1881) until 1886. There is also a brief gap in the Financial Department lists from 1872 to 1875.

The group is divided into five sections: general, prices and wages, agriculture, commerce and industry, and vital statistics. It includes Statistics (later Statistical Abstract) of British India 1877 – 1956, Prices and Wages in India 1876 – 1922, Agricultural Statistics of India 1884 – 1954 and production figures of coal, cotton, tea, coffee and rubber, as well as data on joint-stock companies, banks and insurance.

Further statistical data will in many cases be found in the relevant departmental annual reports of which there is a separate list, and in addition regular statements of prices and vital statistics were published in the local gazettes.

As well as the decennial census of India 1871 – 1941, there are a few earlier provincial census reports.

These include the Civil Estimates 1865 – 1948 and Financial Statements and Budgets 1854 – 1957 which set out the planned public expenditure; the Finance and Revenue Accounts 1857 – 1947 recording the actual expenditure and receipts; and the scrutiny provided by the Auditor General’s Appropriation Accounts and Audit Reports 1881 – 1952 and by the Public Accounts Committees’ Reports 1921-1957. The series cover both central and provincial government finances.

The publications have been divided into three sections: -- Financial, Budgetary, and Accounting and Audit. The first section includes the Finance and Revenue Accounts which set out in detail the receipts and expenditure of the central and provincial governments. The second section contains the civil estimates and budget statements. It should be noted that after 1920/21 the civil estimates of the central government are contained in the Demands for Grants. In the third section are the publications relating to the scrutiny of the accounts by the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committees.

The Home Accounts of the Government of India will be found in V/6/277-286. A summary of the Indian estimates was printed annually as a parliamentary paper from 1883/84. to 1920/21 and subsequently published by the Stationery Office until 1936/37. The complete series is collected together in L/PARL/234 & 234A. Another set of the Appropriation Reports is among the Financial Department records where all the reports for a single year are filed together. The references for the years for which the Official Publications set is incomplete are as follows: --

1920/21 L/F/6/1035 File 9112
1921/22 L/F/6/1053
1922/23 L/F/6/1068
1923/24 L/F /6/1079
1924/25 L/F/6/1092-93
1925/26 L/F/6/1117-18
1926/27 L/F/6/1135-36

The main series covering the whole of British India relate to seaborne trade 1866 – 1956, external land trade 1878 – 1956, and internal rail and river trade 1888 – 1956. There are also annual statements of seaborne trade for the maritime provinces of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Sind and Burma and some quarterly provincial internal trade returns.

This list includes the serial publications relating to the internal and external trade of India held in the Official Publications collection of the India Office Records. They have been re-arranged and re-numbered, but for purposes of record the old 'list number' is given on the right under each title. These numbers should not be used when requisitioning volumes.

The publications are arranged in four sections: Annual Foreign Sea-Borne Trade; Monthly Foreign Sea-Borne Trade; Foreign Land and General Trade; Internal Trade.

In addition to the daily rainfall records 1891 – 1950, this section contains series of meteorological and astronomical observations, in particular those carried out at the Madras and Bombay observatories.

Reference should also be made to the annual reports of the Meteorological Department, the provincial meteorological reporters and the observatories at Madras and Bombay. These will be found in the separate list of Departmental Annual Reports. The original astronomical observations and meteorological journal of the Madras Observatory for 1820 and 1831 to 1840 are in the Map Room (AC 18, 22A-E) and there is another manuscript set of Madras Observatory observations from 1831 to 1843 in MSS Eur. G 51.

Rainfall data prior to 1891 was not recorded on a uniform basis, but statements will be found in the local gazettes. Weekly statements showing daily rainfall are available for the North Western Provinces from 1862, for Punjab from 1866 (also in the Meteorological Reporter’s annual report for 1866 to 1874), for Central Provinces from 1875 and for Assam from 1874; weekly totals for Burma from 1875; weekly totals for Bengal from 1866 to 1882 and daily rainfall from 1885; monthly statements for Madras from 1852. All the available data for Bombay prior to 1891 has been collected and published in the volumes at V/18/170-175.

The series of reports on the operations of the Trigonometrical Survey are included as well as the tide tables of Indian ports 1880 – 1957 and the Records and Professional Papers series of the Survey of India.

The Survey of India was formed in 1877 by the amalgamation of the Great Trigonometrical, Topographical and Revenue branches of the Survey. Holdings of the annual reports of the Survey of India and of the three branches will be found in the separate list of Departmental Annual Reports.

These comprise the Records, Memoirs and Palaeontologia Indica series.

The Geological Survey was established on a regular basis in 1856 and the publications fall into three main series. The Memoirs contain detailed reports of complete surveys or investigations dealing with a particular region or a particular mineral. Palaeontologia Indica record the results of comprehensive palaeontological research in India and neighbouring countries. The Records consist of miscellaneous geological papers and the annual reports of the Geological Survey from 1868. Earlier annual reports from 1859-60 are included in the series of Departmental Annual Reports (IOR:.G.1.Gen).

A detailed list of the contents of all the series was published as Volume 77 of the Memoirs (V/20/71) which included publications up to March 1946. A revised List of publications of the Geological Survey of India up to 1962 was published in 1963 (IOL: V 15536).

The main series in this section are the ‘Old Series’ of reports by General Cunningham, the New Imperial Series and the Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey.

There are three main series of publications. The Reports are personal descriptions of the archaeological tours carried out by General Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey, and his assistants in particular areas of interest in Northern India. The New Imperial Series, begun by Dr. James Burgess when Archaeological Surveyor of Western India, consists of substantial scholarly monographs which were intended, like Cunningham’s reports, to be exhaustive on a limited number of subjects. The Memoirs include both briefer monographs and accounts of the results of current work which from 1902 to 1916 were published in Part 2 of the Archaeological Survey’s annual report.

The annual reports of Archaeological Survey and of the regional circles are included in the separate list of Departmental Annual Reports.

These include the Indian Law Reports series 1876 – 1947 containing reports of the High Courts, and also reports of the earlier Sadr courts of Bengal, Madras, Bombay and North-Western Provinces 1791 – 1862, and of the Zillah courts of Bengal, Madras and North-Western Provinces 1846 – 1861.

Prior to 1861 the reports are principally those of the civil appelate courts of Sadr Diwani Adalat and the criminal appelate courts of Sadr Nizamut Adalat in Bengal and North Western Provinces and Sadr Foujdari Adalat in Madras and Bombay. There are also short series of decisions of zillah or district courts. All these courts were directly under the control of the East India Company and were primarily for the use of the Indian population outside the presidency towns. Jurisdiction over British residents was chiefly in the hands of the Supreme Courts established by royal charter at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay which maintained an existence independent of the Company. Reports of these courts are very fragmentary.

The Indian High Courts Act of 1861 abolished both the Sadr and the Supreme Courts and replaced them by High Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay exercising civil and criminal appelate jurisdiction. A further High Court at Allahabad was created in 1866 and until 1875 the reports of the four courts were published separately. The Indian Law Reports began publication in 1876 with separate series for each existing High Court and for the later creations at Patna in 1916, Lahore in 1919, Rangoon in 1922 and Nagpur in 1936. There were also series for the Chief Courts at Lucknow from 1926 and Karachi from 1939. The Nagpur and Karachi series are missing from the official publications set.

With the exceptions of Burma and North-West Frontier Province, reports of the superior courts in the non-regulation provinces prior to their inclusion in the Indian Law Reports are not included in the collection, but partial sets are available in semi-official or unofficial publications in the India Office Library. Punjab Chief Court judgments from 1866 to 1919 are in the Punjab Record (ST 1530) and Oudh Cases (ST 1628) contains reports of the Judicial Commissioner’s Court from 1898 to 1925. The Judicial Commissioner’s Courts of Central Provinces and Sind and the succeeding High Court and Chief Court are reported in the All India Reporter (ST 1634) from 1914.

Privy Council appeal cases are reported in the Bengal Law Reports from 1868 to 1875 and subsequently in the Indian Law Reports. They are also included in the All India Reporter (ST 1633) from 1914, and the Legal Adviser’s Records (IOR: L/L) includes an extensive collection of papers relating to Privy Council appeals.

Miscellaneous papers and reports considered to be of public interest were published in series by the governments of India, Bengal, Madras, Bombay, North-Western Provinces and Punjab. The subject coverage is extremely wide; here it can only be noted that the Government of India series includes administration reports of political agencies, all series contain a number of departmental annual reports, and a high proportion of the Bombay series are land revenue settlement reports.

These reports on the workings of the various departments of the central and provincial governments are the source from which the annual provincial administration reports were compiled. Some reports of important departments such as revenue, education, police, public health and public works are very substantial volumes with extensive statistical appendices and subsidiary reports of districts or subordinate institutions.

The order of the volumes reflects the original arrangement in the Record Department which was alphabetical by subject with the provinces following a set order. The list is therefore best approached through the subject index at the back. The old reference numbers are shown in square brackets for historical record only; they should not be used when requisitioning volumes. The title given is that most recently or commonly in use. The note [title varies] indicates one or more changes of title and these are fully recorded in the India Office Library and Records microfiche serials catalogue.

References to additional reports known to be elsewhere in the India Office Records are shown in square brackets at the appropriate place in the list.

All serials other than the categories listed above are arranged in a classified subject order within ten broad classes: general; law and law enforcement; civil and military administration; finance and revenue; natural and physical sciences; agriculture; products and trade; public works and communications; social and economic conditions; culture. There are approximately 370 titles which include catalogues of government publications from 1892, departmental journals, bulletins and records, conference proceedings, the Indian Postal Guide 1875 – 1956 and the Indian Trade Journal 1906 – 1947.

The serials in this list are arranged by subject in accordance with the classification schedule on pages ii-viii.

The old ‘list number’ references are shown below the place and date of publication for purposes of record, but they are now obsolete and should not be used when requisitioning volumes.

This section contains reports of bodies appointed by both the home and the Indian governments to conduct enquiries into particular subjects. In many cases the evidence taken was printed and these volumes are also included. The arrangement is the same classified subject order as described in the preceding section. See also under L/F/10, L/PARL/2, Q and V/4.

References are given at the end of sections to reports which were published as Parliamentary Papers and which for this reason are not usually represented in the collection. There are also a few references to reports elsewhere in the Records but there has not been any systematic check of these sources. Readers requiring help in tracing committee or commission reports not included in this list should consult the Official Publications staff through the Enquiry Desk.

The old ‘list number’ references are shown below the place and date of publication for purpose of record, but they are now obsolete and should not be used when requisitioning volumes.

Most of these are non-serial items published for sale by the central and provincial governments in India but there are also a number which were printed for official use only as well as British government publications and books published commercially under the auspices of the India Office or the Government of India. The types of material include gazetteers, press lists of records, land revenue settlement reports, departmental codes and manuals, reports and authoritative works of scholarship. They are arranged in the same classified subject order as the two preceding sections.

Part 1

General, Law Administration, Finance and Revenue

V/27/1/1 to V/27/340/50