Historical Background

Following the establishment of British Rule in the Indian subcontinent in the 1750s, the secretariat administration, along with all its associated structures, began to develop. New ministries commenced operations, leading to the creation of additional departments and offices. As the volume of secretariat files and records grew, there arose a pressing need to organize them. This involved transferring the important documents to a central repository while disposing of the redundant ones.
Sindh was annexed by British rule in 1843 and integrated into the Bombay Presidency in 1847. Recognizing the importance of preserving all records related to the Indus Valley, an accommodation was acquired within the Government House compound (now the Governor’s House), where a record room was established in 1853. At that time, the Commissioner in Sindh held the highest provincial office, and it was the Commissioner’s Office that assumed responsibility for collecting crucial records. Records dating back to 1820 were preserved in this record room.
Initially, the Commissioner’s Record Branch was located in a bungalow within the cantonment limits, but it was later relocated to a house near the Government House on the same compound. In 1885, due to security concerns and unsuitability, the Commissioner decided to transfer the records of the Survey Record Office in Hyderabad to Karachi. A new accommodation was constructed in 1903 within the Commissioner’s Office compound. In 1904, the Superintendent of Land Records and Agriculture moved their office to Karachi, but after a year, it was transferred back to Hyderabad, while the new arrangement continued for the Record Room and Library of the Commissioner’s Office.
In 1923, the Record Room was expanded as needed, and over the next six years, all records were gradually relocated from the main building of the Office. However, after Sindh separated from the Bombay Presidency in 1937, the Commissioner’s Office ceased to be the primary office of the Province, resulting in diminished attention to the records. This period was followed by the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state, with Sindh becoming one of its provinces.
In South Asia, the concept of archives as an independent discipline did not gain legitimacy until 1891 when the Imperial Record Department was established in Calcutta (Kolkata), along with subordinate record offices in Princely States. The need arose to establish a provincial-level archives to preserve records related to the history of Sindh. In 1976, the subject of archives was assigned to the newly created Culture Division, and Sindh Archives became a full-fledged department in August 1988 under the leadership of Abdul Hameed Akhund, its first secretary. With the department’s creation, the process of acquiring records and equipment was initiated.
The records of the Commissioner’s Office were promised to be handed over to Sindh Archives by the then-Commissioner of Karachi. These records were primarily stored in government press premises and were not in optimal preservation condition. Sindh Archives relocated to its current premises in 1992, and to address the technical aspects of their work, the services of Mr. Martin Moirfiner, Assistant Curator at the British Museum, were enlisted. Under his guidance, the staff received training in handling old records.