IOR/R/1

In 1937 the Political Department took responsibility for the 1914-1937 records of branches on the Political side of the old joint Foreign and Political Department, and, in theory, for earlier records concerned with Indian States matters. There was no physical division of the records between the Political and External Affairs departments after 1937 and joint record rooms were maintained in New Delhi and Simla until 1947.

The Crown Representative's records had a status apart from the Government of India records. In 1947, a report by Captain M.G. Dixon of the Indian Political Service recommended criteria for selecting Crown Representative's records for preservation by United Kingdom authorities. Consignments of records reached the United Kingdom High Commission from New Delhi and Simla in July-August 1947. Lists of files made as they were selected from record room bundles have survived, and, with files of correspondence, have allowed reconstruction of the selection process. The working papers are listed as IOR/R/1/6. It was decided in October 1947 to send both the Political Department and Residency records then in the High Commission to the Commonwealth Relations Office in London for further sorting and to await policy decisions about them. A rough list in eighteen main sections was completed in August 1948. The list of Residency records forms the basis of the separate IOR/R/2 list.

The present list arranges the proceedings and files selected for transfer to the United Kingdom in four series, corresponding to the four branches of the Foreign and Political Department as it was constituted from 1884: IOR/R/1/1 Internal Branch; IOR/R/1/2 External Branch; IOR/R/1/3 Frontier Branch; IOR/R/1/4 General Branch. The records of offshoot branches created after 1884 are listed with those of their parent branches. The two main series IOR/R/1/1 and IOR/R/1/4 for the Internal and General Branches include more than 90% of the Political Department records listed. Miscellaneous items not attributable to particular branches (for example, confidential prints from the Political Department library) are listed separately in section IOR/R/1/5.