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SBI archive to enrich Indian banking history

The State Bank of India has set up the country's first financial archive in Calcutta, housing documents and other memorabilia showing the growth of the Indian banking sector.

he State Bank Archive, inaugurated on Tuesday, March 18, has been housed on the same premises on Strand Road which has been the bank's abode for 175 years.

The internal records of the bank, now nearly two centuries old, would principally constitute the holdings of the archives.

Minute books of directors' meetings, balance sheets, proceedings of annual general meetings, correspondence registers, annual inspection reports, branch records, opinion reports, and many more would provide rich information on the numerous facets of the financial and economic development of the country, including the growth of its modern industry and business.

Select ledgers, including current account ledgers of eminent personalities of Bengal like Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore, would be major attractions of the archive.

Memorabilia in the from of bank notes, cheques, drafts, promissory notes, seals, tokens, agreements and photographs would reflect the bank's history. The archives would also provide an insight into the ethos and growth of the colossal State Bank of India, which was formerly called the Imperial Bank.

The idea to set up an archives came to the bank management when it commissioned a project for writing an authoritative history of the bank. The bank had hoped to reconstruct its glorious past and provide not only a comprehensive history of the development of banking in India, but also the country's economic development.

The task was then entrusted to renowned economist Amiya Kumar Bagchi. In course of writing the monumental history, a wealth of historical materials of the bank, unknown and inaccessible to scholars before, was unearthed which strengthened the bank's decision to open an archives.

Initially, there was a conflict in the bank's think-tank about the location of the archive. Finally, the mandate came in favour of Calcutta as it was also the birthplace of the bank.

Started in 1806 as Bank of Calcutta under the authority of the East India Company, redesignated as the bank of Bengal in 1809, it was the first of the three presidency banks in India followed by the Bank of Bombay in 1840 and the Bank of Madras three years later.

The three banks remained at the apex of modern banking in India till they were merged in 1921 to form the Imperial Bank of India.

In 1955, by an act of parliament, the Imperial Bank was constituted as the State Bank of India with a sense of social purpose.

Within a century-and-a-half, the bank had witnessed the rise and fall of an empire and the birth of a nation.

The State Bank archive is expected to enable scholars in re-defining the legacy of the bank.

UNI