Asian Studies Librarian
About South Asian spelling...
Words in South Asian languages can be transliterated several different ways when spelled using Roman characters, so try several ways of spelling people's names or other terms.
- Devanagari (Hindi/Sanskrit/etc) transliteration comparisonOver the years, the ways that languages like Hindi and Sanskrit have been transliterated have changed. When searching, always try "common misspellings"!
- Common Romanization errors in many South Asian languagesWhen searching, always try "common misspellings"!
- ALA-LC Romanization tablesThe official way that libraries will spell someone's name.
LibKey Nomad
Primary Sources: a starting place
- South Asia Open Archives (SAOA)Contains historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region. SAOA's collection currently contains hundreds of thousands of pages of India Office publications, books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure.
- South Asia Commons This link opens in a new windowFrom across the Indian subcontinent from 1700 to 1953, originally collected by the South Asian Research Foundation (SARF). It’s the largest collection of books, journals and documents from the region, covering India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
- Digital South Asia LibraryIncludes dictionaries, colonial maps, gazetteers, images, Statistical Abstracts, and gramophone recordings (and more) dating back to the 19th century.
- South Asian Collection (Guide to holdings at the Library of Congress)Contains information about LC's digital resources, books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, rare books, and other diverse materials in 100 different South Asian languages (including English) from seven countries in the region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
- Decolonization: the politics of independence in former colonial territories This link opens in a new windowProvides primary source material from indigenous cultures within former colonial & commonwealth territories.
- Digitized Archival Material (guide)Starting places to look for digitized archival material.
- CRL: Center For Research Libraries This link opens in a new windowForeign newspapers, publications, and some dissertations (some digital, some on microfilm). You may request microfilm reels and other materials through Interlibrary Loan, though CRL will sometimes digitize small requests.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and digitally accessible. A major source of digitized books and other documents. Some of the collection if available for free to all, and additional content is available to Carleton faculty, staff, and students. - DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and transcripts)
Aggregates millions of digital items from major libraries and collections across the country, including Carleton College.
- Internet archiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access to current and historical web content.
- AM Explorer This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources from the 15th-21st centuries, including the social sciences, humanities, global history, popular culture, history of media, gender and sexuality, trade history, borders and migrations, and war and conflict.
British Colonial Files
- AM Explorer This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources from the 15th-21st centuries, including the social sciences, humanities, global history, popular culture, history of media, gender and sexuality, trade history, borders and migrations, and war and conflict.
- India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new windowHistory of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, through the diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland.
- Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980 This link opens in a new windowBritish government documents concerning politics, economic and industrial development, trade, migration, education, administration, language, aid, agriculture and irrigation, and media.
- Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule This link opens in a new windowCollection of Foreign Office files explores the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s.
- South Asia Open Archives (SAOA)Contains historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region. SAOA's collection currently contains hundreds of thousands of pages of India Office publications, books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure.
- Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window(Searches through full text and subject indexing)
Collection of House of Commons Papers, Command Papers, Bills, Reports of Committees and Commissioners, House of Lords, Public Petitions from 18th Century through today. Visit the Collection Guide for more information. - Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of documents generated by the UK Foreign and Colonial Offices in countries and regions of the Middle East including Afghanistan, Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Persia, Sudan, Suez Canal, Syria, and Turkey. Covers 1812 - 1969.
- British National Archive: DiscoveryContains finding aids about collections ranging from foreign & Commonwealth Office files to diaries. Most material is NOT digitized and must be accessed in person in the UK.
Colonial South Asia: Catalyst searches
Use these sample advanced subject searches to give you ideas:
Newspapers and Periodicals
- The Times of India via ProQuest Historical NewspapersContent from Bombay Times/Times of India, dating from 1838 to about 10 years ago.
- Amrita Bazar Patrika (SAOA)English & Bengali-language newspaper published in Kolkata, India. 1870-1949.
- World Newspaper Archive: South Asian Newspapers This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of South Asian newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes titles from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Covers 1805 - 1973. - Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across newspapers and digitized collections of primary sources from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of the Modern World, The Times of London, The Illustrated London News, the Times Literary Supplement, The Economist, and many more. Covers 1604 - present (varying by source). - CRL: Newspapers This link opens in a new windowA collection including foreign newspapers on microfilm, on paper, and digital. Filmed material may be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan.
- Global Press Archive This link opens in a new windowHistorical newspapers from the 1800's to today, content includes newspapers from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia and the former Soviet Union, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Search through hundreds of British periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century, all available in full text. Also allows searching for cartoons, photographs, illustrations, and other images. Covers 1680 - 1930.
Images, Films, Oral Histories
- Centre of South Asian Studies: oral history collectionA collection of interviews conducted in the 1970s and 1980s with both Indian and British people describing their experiences of life in British India, the events leading up to independence in 1947 and the early years of independent India and Pakistan.
- The 1947 Partition Archive: Survivors and their Memories
A small selection of more than 9000 interviews that comprise The 1947 Partition Archive (Stanford). Many of the interviews have been conducted by volunteer Citizen Historians from 12 countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, Israel, France, Sweden, and Hong Kong. The interviews have been recorded in 22 languages and attempt to cover the complete life story of the witness, providing fascinating details about pre-Partition life, the Partition experience, and post-Partition life changes. - SAADA: South Asian American Digital ArchiveA growing collection of images, letters, oral histories and other archival material about or from South Asian Americans. Most is from the early- to mid-20th century and is in english, and often includes information related to the history of South Asia.
- British Pathe Newsreels, 1896-197690,000 videos covering newsreel, sports footage, social history documentaries, entertainment and music stories from 1896 to 1976.
- BFI: India on Film [1899-1947]The British Film Institute released recently digitized films of colonial India on YouTube. Most are back and white silent recordings of city/village life, or events like weddings or royal processions.
- BFI: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Tibet (1899-1970)Playlist with 16 short digitized films of British people traveling across the countries.
- Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire [ca. 1897-1993](searches metadata, very few actual digitized films)
Search or browse through films depicting life in the British colonies. Of the films that are cataloged here, many have extensive critical notes written by scholars, and about a third are available to watch online.
Maps
- David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (browse)Includes maps from the 14th - 21st centuries, covering all parts of the glob in multiple levels of granularity. Many historical maps have been georeferenced.
- Historical Maps of Asia (Perry-Castañeda Map Library)Digitized historical maps of Asia (UT-Austin)
