The Borrowers

 So what of the collections, the repositories, boxes and catalogues of archival data languishing in British and other former imperial locations? Should not these historical collections be made note of, sifted through and employed in enriching the knowledge and learning of scholars, students and other groups in the former colonised territories? If historical artefacts are moving back to the territories from whence they were rudely plucked and in some instances, plundered by imperial powers, what should be the rightful and equitable deployment of the collections? While these depositions were in all probability initiated and collated in more formal and dignified practices through structures of colonial rule, yet admittedly informed by the power and access granted to agents of imperial rule operating from positions including that of curator, museum assistant, writer, expert and civil servant. 

Sir Norman Boyd Kinnear ordered a survey of Ceylon's mammals as the Curator (circa 1907) of the Bombay Natural History Museum. The findings are in a collection in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he hailed from. 

Dr Tom Barron on discovering the absence of any surviving record in Ceylon on travelling there to conduct research on tea plantations and British planter families, decided to put out a call in The Quarterly Bulletin of the Ceylon Association in London  'for personal papers and experiences relating to planting and business ventures in Ceylon in the 19th and 20th centuries.' He amassed 'a small collection' which is also deposited in Edinburgh. Special data protection forms must be signed to access this material which is less than a hundred years old as they cannot rule out that some individuals may be still alive, however unlikely. 

Could I perhaps begin 

• a funded initiative of combing the collections on Ceylon in the UK, sort, catalogue thematically and seek to plot the relevance and thematic significance of such data 
• and then provide to scholars, administrators and educators in Sri Lanka in some way a form of access to these collections? 
• Could I pose as a sort of bridge organisation for those who have borrowed and may wish to lend with permission, such knowledge on request and according to proper process, access to such collections? 
• A partnership with The National Archives of Sri Lanka and end-users could be interesting as well as provide a sort of digest on historical archival data accessible through the University of Edinburgh institutional access. 
• Providing research support and creating educational materials using such collections when permitted could augment the knowledge within the centres in Sri Lanka and provide further interest in historical research.

This could definitely be the 'dream role.' It is not just the collections that are interesting, but the structures and dispositions that informed the practices of collating such research and the how and why of such initiatives. 

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Mary Norton's band of wee men and women, Pod, Homily and Arriety with Spiller offer a delightful name for this venture: The Borrowers. 

Many borrowed our land, its treasures and carried out valiant and civilising practices as well as many a mischief. This is the way of humans in positions of power. We borrowed their books, humour, structures, practices, relational dispositions to reading, education, civil service governance, common law justice. We imbibed their sense of decency, correctitude, formality and propriety. We took on their clothes, their dreams and looked out onto the foam of the limits of our own capacities through casement windowlike colonial lenses. We carried out our own valiant civilising practices as well as many a mischief.  This is the way of humans in culturally hybridised postcolonial societies. 

Material relating to research into plantation industry in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Coll-1813, Box: CLX-A-1324, Folder: Coll-1813 / SC-Acc-2017-0062. University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections. http://lac-archivesspace-live4.is.ed.ac.uk:8081/repositories/2/resources/86315.