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Caroline Elkins has written on this topic more broadly.

Early next year she’ll have a book out that touches on this area. Here’s a brief summary: “And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices.” [0]

[0]: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/45877/legacy-of-vio...

How would you know what was burnt if it was already burnt? The secrets were burnt and no one has them anymore.

Some papers were sent back to Britain for safekeeping, per the article. Speculatively, perhaps someone who was there could also tell us what was burnt in more detail.

It's the second line of the article...

"A great number of these records were destroyed and a sizeable portion sent to Britain to be kept secret. "

Not all have been destroyed.

If document-A makes a reference to document-B, and document-B is missing, and there were other references to burning, that's a start.

Also, document-B might show up in the set that wasn't burned, but taken away and classified

Maybe they wrote down what they burned.

The irony is palpable