Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS)

Ian Kerr Collection


Ian J. Kerr was a preeminent historian of Railways in colonial India. His academic interventions transformed the historiography of Indian Railways and led to the flourishing of a field previously limited to the economic analysis of railway construction. Before his passing in late 2020, he requested Prof. Ravi Ahuja to take custody of his personal archival collection to render it accessible to students and researchers. The collection includes materials collected over his four decade long academic career and is certainly one of the largest private holdings on Indian Railways. It is now held and maintained at CeMIS in Göttingen. Since it is a personal archive, the materials reflect the intellectual and research interests of Ian Kerr as they evolved over the years. These fall broadly within the categories of social history of Punjab especially the cities of Lahore and Amritsar (his early academic interest), history of railway construction in colonial India with a focus on labor relations, socio-economic impact of railway construction, comparative history of railways with a focus on Portugal and Africa, and history of pilgrimage and migration in Northern India and parts of Punjab (a peripheral research interest). The collection also includes Ian Kerr’s personal library. These materials were transferred from Manitoba, where Ian Kerr taught and spent his life, to Göttingen in early 2021, where they were catalogued and made available for consultation at CeMIS.

The archive is organized loosely around the structure given to it by Ian Kerr himself. This makes it an important resource for both scholars interested in the history of Indian Railways and those interested in the development of academic debates around the theme and especially Kerr’s own intellectual trajectory. The latter is further enriched by Kerr’s personal notes and commentaries which are preserved along with the original files.

The holdings of the Ian Kerr collection include both physical records and microfilms, as well as Ian Kerr’s personal library.


At present the physical records include 82 boxes of printed material. A large part, 54 boxes, comprises primary source materials. Included are newspaper articles, colonial administrative reports, census reports, maps, photographs, correspondence of colonial administrators. The source material falls between 1850 – 1960 even though most of it is concentrated around the latter half of the 19th century and the early decades of 20th century. Spatially it focuses primarily on pre-partition Punjab but includes material on Bombay, East African Railways, Calcutta, and Nepal. A small portion of this material includes Kerr’s personal communication, lecture notes and draft papers. The collection includes a further 27 boxes containing academic literature on railways (thematically it is wide ranging and includes perspectives on technological development, railway construction and development of railways networks globally, railway workshops) and labour history.

Access the digital finding aid for the physical records



The microfilm collection corresponds to archival material Ian Kerr collected throughout his career. The microfilms (205 in total) include John Lawrence Papers, Lahore Gazette, Railway Department Reports, Committee Reports, Indian Public Work Reports, reports related to land and agriculture, as well as administrative reports on police departments and prisons.

Access the digital finding aid for the microfilm collection