Archival Materials on Central Asia and Afghanistan: An Appraisal of Peshawar Archives

Abstract

In view of the strategic position which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the North-Western Frontier Province of Pakistan occupies in the Sub-continent of Indo-Pakistan, It is safe to presume that its official archives have to extremely important, interesting and informative both as precedents for the elucidation of departmental administration and as raw materials of history. Archival material available in Peshawar Archives forms a unique collection and throws a floodlight on several aspects of the history of Punjab in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP) and Central Asia in particular during the British rule in India. The paper describes the resources available in the Directorate of Archives and Libraries, Peshawar also known as Peshawar Archives. It is written with the chief aim to bring in black and white the resources of Peshawar Archives to the notice of scholars worldwide.