Archive Accessibility and Use
Please read carefully to see if you meet our access eligibility requirements:
The 1947 Partition Archive's complete oral history collections are now available for access to the public as well as researchers. In addition we are now accepting proposals for researchers interested in accessing derived data aggregates that are anonymized (such as the story map data).
Raw, unprocessed footage for all interviews is available to the public on-site, and for advanced research and educational purposes online as well as on-site, as it arrives at The 1947 Partition Archive. Archive access via online paid streaming is presently limited however to academic researchers, museum and collections currators, authors, filmmakers and other educational media makers. Aspiring researchers may fill out the form below to gain access. Because of the sensitive nature of the content, accessibility to the complete collections of oral histories via online streaming is currently limited to professional researchers with institutional affiliations only.
Public access to the complete collections is available at our location in Berkeley, California, as well as our partner universities listed below, by appointment, or at any of our open house events. Furthermore, a subset of oral history interviews are currently freely accessible via the Stanford University Libraries' Digital Repository via online streaming. Pending funding required for the accession, more interviews will be freely available via online streaming at the Stanford Digital Repository over the coming years. Family members of interviewees may request access to their oral history interviews via this online form (with the interviewees' permission). Thank you for your patience as we work through the logistics of dissemination around this significant and delicate collection.
The two accessibility options currently available, include 1) free on-site access at our global headquarters in Berkeley, California as well as, University of Delhi, Guru Nanak Dev University and Ashoka University; 2) paid online web-streaming access (for researchers only).
A note about on-site access: Researchers are responsible for travel and lodging arrangements in Berkeley. Our staff can provide guidance and recommendations.
A note about remote access: Remote access is offered to researchers on a case by case basis, and the researcher will be responsible for the remote access streaming platform fee.
In making our decision for researchers seeking online streaming access, we will access the following features of your proposal: 1) importance and relevance of the research topic, 2) the seriousness of the research project and 3) the Principal Investigator's previous work (if you are a graduate student doing a first time research project, we will access the quality of your advisor's previous work, so we suggest listing your advisor as the Principal Investigator).
Please note for stories that are deposited in the Stanford Digital Repository, access is freely available.
Please use the initial screening form below to answer a few basic questions. Contact us for more information.