South Asia Archive is the largest assembly of books, journals, and documents—many rare—from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Massive and diverse, the collection will bring new perspectives to studies in economics, politics, law, Indology, gender, archaeology, anthropology, culture, history, and education.
The content is mostly English, with fifteen percent in vernacular languages, primarily Bengali and Sanskrit.
At a glance
4.5M
More than 4.5 million pages of documents from the entire Indian subcontinent.
1700–1953
More than 250 years of coverage.
"... South Asia Archive provides one of the biggest breakthroughs ever for those in the field, especially at a time when there is so much rising concern about the future of the physical archives in the subcontinent.”
Content types
Journals, serials, and reports
Calcutta Law Journal, Indian Annual Register, The Eastern Economist, Bharatbarsha, The Modern Review, Indian Forest Records, Indian Education, Indian Review, The Asiatic Review, Sankhya Journal, and many other periodicals.
Thousands of reports and proceedings from colonial and postcolonial India including volumes of the 1901, 1911, 1931, and 1951 Indian Census incorporating the provinces of Burma, Bengal, Assam, Bombay, and others.
Rare books
More than 1,500 books cover subjects from religion and literature to law and agriculture.
There are series such as The Bibliotheca Indica, a collection of works published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal; translations of The Upanishads; commentaries on Sanskrit grammatical, philosophical, and legal treatises.
Indian film booklets, 1930–1949
A collection of rare publicity booklets that were sold outside India film theaters, in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali, include Mukti, Street Singer, My Sister, Devdas, and Sita—with cast lists, plot summaries, photos, and song lyrics.
Legislations, acts, and regulations. Maps, manuals, and ephemera.
Included are proceedings from a range of Indian governmental departments, along with law books, and legal cases. Ephemera, maps, and manuals add to the collection.
A broad range of topics
Archaeology. Industry. Parliamentary debates and concerns. Law case reports. The nearly complete set of reports on the Calcutta riots of 1946. Gazetteers from a range of districts and territories, providing a fascinating insight into colonial India.
Gender, race, education, and reform
Books on the education and status of women in India, such as The Scientific Basis of Women’s Education and The Vedic Law of Marriage or The Emancipation of Women
Central Advisory Board of Education: Report of the Women’s Education Committee on Primary Education of Girls in India, (1936) and other reports on women's education
Journal of the National Indian Association, In Aid of Social Progress in India (1881–1884)
Our Cause. A Symposium by Indian Women (1938)
Widow-Burning. A Narrative (1855)
Religious and moral discourse
Journals and periodicals such as The Islamic Review, The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Hindu Patrika, The Journal of the Greater India Society, and The Calcutta Oriental Journal
Extensive issues of Modern Review 1907–1953
Various reports, including the Report of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Committee, United Provinces
Hinduism according to Muslim Suffis (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1924)
Hinduism and the Untouchables (Modern Review, 1936)
Islamic Culture (journal, 1927)
Sketch of the Sikhs (book, 1812)
Jatak - Arthat Goutam Buddher Atit Janmasamuher Brittanta (book, 1916)
Colonial governance and development
Manuals for civil servants—such as Manual for the Guidance of Officers of the Excise and Salt Department and A Manual for the Guidance of Officers in the Partition of Estates.
Reports of government departments, including commerce, agriculture, and shipping.
Journals and bulletins concerned with Indian financial and industrial performance, including Landholder’s Journal, Commerce: A Weekly Review and various Bulletins of Indian Industries and Labour.
Annual reports of the Ministry of Industry and Supply and the Department of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics.
Advisory Board
Professor Boria Majumdar, Sharda University, India
Dr. Sharmistha Gooptu, South Asia Research Foundation
Dr. Kausik Bandyopadhyay, West Bengal State University, Barasat
Umakanta Roy, South Asia Research Foundation
Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus, Stockholm University, Sweden
Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago, USA
William Mazzarella, University of Chicago, USA
Nalin Mehta, UPES University India
Ashis Nandy, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, India
Rosalind O’Hanlon, University of Oxford, UK
Brian Stoddart, former Vice Chancellor, Latrobe University, Australia
David Washbrook, University of Cambridge, UK, In Memoriam.
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