Library Research Guides: South Asian Studies: Archival and Historical Resources

LibGuide for Primary Sources for SAS

Archives and Primary Sources for South Asian Studies
by Gwendolyn Kirk Last Updated Jul 27, 2023 544 views this year

Online Archival and Historical Collections

East India Company
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Collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Includes royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types. Charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1600 to 1947.
From sixteenth century origins as a trading venture to the East Indies, through to its rise a powerful company and de facto ruler of India, to its demise amid allegations of greed and corruption, the East India Company was an extraordinary force in global history for three centuries. Includes access to modules I-V.
Empire Online
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Contains over 70,000 images of original manuscripts (including biographies and chronologies) and printed materials covering Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Oceana, and South Asia.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980
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This collection of files from the Foreign Office (later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and Dominions Office focuses on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Consists of the complete run of documents in the series DO 133, DO 134 and FCO 37, as well as all documents covering the Indian subcontinent in the FO 371 series. Events covered include independence and partition, the Indian annexation of Hyderabad and Goa, war between India and Pakistan, tensions and war between India and China, the consolidation of power of the Congress Party in India, military rule in Pakistan, the turbulent independence of Bangladesh and the development of nuclear weapons in the region.

The files address these events from the standpoint of British officialdom. In addition to high politics, they deal with such issues as economic and industrial development, trade, migration, visits to South Asia by British politicians and by South Asian politicians to Britain and elsewhere, education, administrative reorganisation, conflict over language, aid, political parties, agriculture and irrigation, and television and the press. Together they form a resource of fundamental value to scholars and students of modern South Asia.
Hindu Conspiracy Cases: Activities of the Indian Independence Movement in the U.S., 1908-1933
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Collection containing primary source documents covering attempts by Indian nationalists to foment revolution in and overthrow British rule during World War I.
Collection primarily concern the U.S. government's prosecution of these nationalists in the "Hindu Conspiracy Case" (as it was called in the press and Department of Justice correspondence) for violations of the Espionage Act (40 Stat. 217-231) arising from two major incidents. In the first incident, the German government provided funds with which the nationalists purchased arms for shipment to Indian rebels. In the second incident, several Indians (some of whom were U.S. citizens) and others were arrested for attempted fraud involved in soliciting funds for and calling themselves representatives of the "Nationalists Government" of India. In the spring of 1918, the "Hindu Conspiracy Case" trial was held in San Francisco, at which 29 people were convicted in indictments arising from the arms shipment. Indictments arising from the fraud case were dismissed. The trial ended with a sensational climax when Ram Chandra was shot to death in the courtroom by fellow defendant, Ram Singh.
India, Raj and Empire
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Primary source materials documenting the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan.
Digital facsimiles from the manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland. Includes diaries and journals, official and private papers, letters, sketches, paintings and original Indian documents containing histories and literary works. The collection documents the relationship between Britain and India in an empire where the Scots played a central role as traders, generals, missionaries, viceroys, governor-generals and East India Company officials. The dates of the documents range from 1710 to 1937.
India-Pakistan conflict : records of the U.S. State Department, February 1963-1966
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Documentary resource for the study of the political relations between India and Pakistan during a crucial period during the Cold War and the shifting alliances and alignments in South Asia. Contains over 16,000 pages of State Department Central Files on India and Pakistan from 1963 through 1966
Includes files of the American ambassadors to India and Pakistan during this time, and thousands of official records on the conflict and competition between India and Pakistan during a key period in the Cold War era. Subjects covered: political parties and elections, unrest and revolution, human rights, government administration, fiscal and monetary issues, national defense, foreign policy-making, wars and alliances, religion, culture, trade, industry, natural resources, and more.
India From Crown Rule To Republic, 1945-1949: Records Of The US State Department
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Collection of U.S. State Department Central Classified Files relating to the internal affairs of India and U.S. relations with India.
Independent India's first years were marked with turbulent events - partition, a massive exchange of population with Pakistan, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and the integration of over 500 princely states to form a united nation. This collection identifies the key issues, individuals, and events in the history of the Subcontinent between 1945 and 1949, and places them in the context of the complex and dynamic regional strategic, political, and economic processes that have fashioned India in the postwar period.
Indian Army And Colonial Warfare On The Frontiers Of India 1914-1920
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Collection documenting the military history of South Asia and the history of the British military experience in India.
For generations of British and Indian Officers and men, the North-West Frontier was the scene of repeated skirmishes and major campaigns against the trans-border Pathan tribes who inhabited the mountainous no-man’s land between India and Afghanistan. This collection contains Army Lists; Orders; Instructions; Regulations; Acts; Manuals; Strength Returns; Orders of Battle; Administration Summaries; organization, commissions, committees, reports, maneuvers; departments of the Indian Army; and regimental narratives.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals
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2.1 million periodical pages in the first two series from 19th century periodicals published in the UK.
Pakistan from Crown Rule to Republic: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1949
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Collection of primary source documents tracing the end of British India and the emergence of modern Pakistan.
A companion archive to India from Crown Rule to Republic, 1945-1949. The collection is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
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Full-text digital archive of newspapers and news pamphlets from the United Kingdom.
Digital collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817). The resource helps chart the development of the concept of 'news' and 'newspapers' and the "free press", and includes nearly 1 million pages and approximately 1,270 titles.
South Asia Open Archives
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Curated collection of open access historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region.
Includes books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure.

1947 Partition Archive
The 1947 Partition Archive records life stories shaped by Partition.
British Library : India Office Records atlases & gazetteers
Date range of documents: 1830-1934.
Reproduction of the originals from the British Library.
Images from the source libraries are selected contents of the original collection
Digital Colonial Documents (India)
The Digital Colonial Documents Project (India) is intended to promote study of the rare seminal documents which were influential in the formation of the notions of nation, state and culture during the colonial period. The project makes available rare colonial documents as searchable internet documents.
The Long Emergency: Media and Democracy in India
An Omeka-based digital collection of oral history interviews, films, cartoons, news clippings, government documents, and court judgments related to the time of the Indian Emergency (1975-1977) by Prof. Srirupa Roy of the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) at the University of Gottingen.
Mutiny At The Margins: The Indian Uprising of 1857
'Mutiny at the Margins' was a two-year project, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and located in the School of History & Classics at Edinburgh University, which aimed to provide long overdue new perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857 through thematic, collaborative research, a network of international scholars, and a series of conferences, workshops and other public events to be held in Edinburgh, London and India in 2007-08. Discrete, but interlocking research strands explored the involvement of various socially marginal groups often written out of traditional 'elite' historiography of 1857.
Siddham: The South Asia Inscriptions Database
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South Asian American Digital Archive
SAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.

South Asian Studies

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