Question

Official documents help us understand what the people of the country think. State whether true or false.

Answer 1

Answer: False

• Official records do not help us understand what the people of a country think.
• Official records help us understand what the officials thought.
• Official records help us understand what the officials wanted to preserve for posterity, and what they were interested in.
• To help us understand what people of a country thought we need to look at other sources like popular booklets which were sold in bazaars, autobiographies of important personalities, accounts of travellers and pilgrims, diaries of people.
• Feelings were expressed by Poets and novelists, reformers and leaders wrote to spread their ideas; issues were debated in public and newspapers were published.
• It was the literate people who produced these sources, however it is more difficult to understand the thoughts of the peasants and tribals and how they lived their lives.
• Official records of British administration had written information pertaining to investigations, agreements, policy decisions, plans, and every instruction. It led to the creation of an administrative culture of reports, notings, and memos.