The Indian National Archives - Abhilekh-Patal.in - Recent Updates

For those who dont know the Indian National Archives website is at www.abhilekh-patal.in

The site has millions of pages of indian archival documents for searching online. Recently in December, thousands of war diaries were transferred from the Indian Ministry of Defence Historical Division to the National Archives (I will call it the IndNA site)

Eg there are 12000+ files for the key word "War Diary"
https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui...=20&sort_by=dc.date.accessioned_dt&order=desc

Then there are random files that seem to have files and data that you wont find in UKNA.. some samples are below.

You never know what you will find/run into.. but the challenge is that the online archive is very difficult to search. But when you find material that is relevant, it turns out to be priceless.

Do take a look and see if you find anything new

 

Flight manifests, absolutely incredible.

That's my new year's day sorted.

Many thanks for your post.

Kind regards.
John.

 

I have visited the site on several occasions and often come away with valuable information and documents.

 

John,

Just in case you are trying to locate these specific pages they are in these files
Abhilekh Patal
Abhilekh Patal
Abhilekh Patal

Regards

Jagan

 

Looks like they may have some of the war establishments in files dated 1945 ... unfortunately they want a lot of personal information to get an account with which to view the documents.

Kind Regards--

 

Unfortunately that is what i heard from others. My account was registered years ago and I do not even remember what I submitted to create it.

But having used it to view the documents, its totally worth it.

another point to note - there is no way to download the documents but one way to do it is to do full screen view and do screen shots.

 

Thanks for this, Jagan.

I've registered, and yes, the descriptions aren't quite correct (the WDs say 1941 mainly, even though they cover most of the war). It is interesting to be able to compare what is in the originals versus those in the TNA. the files even have them transcribed at the end - I'm assuming by an automated OCR, but a good effort nevertheless.

I notice you can get downloads via the POD system although it says there is a fee.

One thing I would say - being an IT professional and having practical knowledge of Indian IT practices - is that if you register don't provide your real passport number or phone number and make sure the password you choose isn't used anywhere else.

 

Hi Jagan,

Before I commit to joining up, were there any other flight manifests in that file?

Many thanks.
John

 

Hi JohnG505

Yes there were dozens more... in every file.. here is another file for you
Abhilekh Patal
NAIDLF00857413


Meanwhile these files were uploaded today
1. Abhilekh Patal
Report on Air Borne Movement
Identifier : NAIDLF00859133

2. Abhilekh Patal
Plan Ops for Op Thursday
Identfier : NAIDLF00859129
(Signals and some correspondence from Wingate)


Of interest to the Chindit researchers bamboo43

 

Does the archive also cover 4th Indian Division in Tunisia?

 

I didn't find many diaries, but there are several drafts of historical campaign narratives.

 

This spreadsheet is by no means complete since I find the search engine a bit hard to use, but it should provided an idea of the files available.

 

I have tried to Register but it's not accepting a manual password, has to be theirs it seems. Shame, because there are some Francis Tuker documents etc.

 

Far more than I managed to locate.

Thank you.

 

Hmm... I believe there were volumes of the Indian official histories on Greece and the [other] INA. Wonder if they'll turn up at some point?

 

I just used the one my PC created.

 

Holy cow, that was difficult....but I'm in......with my own password.

 

David (dryan67),

Thanks for the spreadsheet on Post 12, nowt there for my current research.

 

It's an incredible resource for anyone with a research interest in India and Indian troops. Tagging and spelling is erratic so finding stuff is often luck more than judgement, but it's a goldmine of files that never made back it to the UK archives.

For anyone struggling to copy files, this is the most efficient way I've found of doing it (on Windows):

• From your selected record page, click the 'View Full Screen' button.
• Click 'Presentation Mode' (four arrows in the top-right corner) to resize the page to your display.
• Hold the Windows key and tap 'Print Screen' to snap a screenshot.
  
• Use your mouse scroll-wheel or keyboard arrow keys to advance to the next page and repeat.
• 'Escape' key exits presentation mode when you're done.

The documents have been OCR'd so you can search for keywords with ctrl-F (variable results with handwriting or blurry type). By default the images will save in the 'Screenshots' folder, which you should find in the 'Pictures' folder of your user profile - rename and organise them from there.

 

Mate, you have been there, and the other side of all the red tape and bureaucratic requirements. Anything on Hong Kong and Tunisia in a shape more organised and thorough than loose unit diary pages? As someone mentioned, maybe Official Campaign Narratives?

The Pentagon Press collection is an absolute beaut, but you can never get enough of good original information