How to use e-resources@cambridge provides online help navigating e-resources off campus, including logging in via Shibboleth/Raven, and online tools like Lean Library for improving discovery.
Lean Library: University of Cambridge students and staff are encouraged to install the Lean Library browser extension to access materials easily and legally through local subscriptions and open access services.
Do consult the LibGuide for Ebooks to see which titles are accessible to University of Cambridge students and staff. If you are new to Cambridge, start with the Welcome page of the LibGuide for e-books and view the excellent short video on e-books to learn how best to access and use them.
The LibGuide A-Z Databases provides an index to all the e-resources you can access and there is a tab Databases A-Z: Resources opened up for COVID-19. Scroll down and (on the bottom right of the page) you can see a list of new and trial databases.
Do also consult the LibGuide for Newspapers and the Overseas and foreign language newspapers web-page to check which newspapers are accessible to University of Cambridge students. These include links to newspaper archives, current news and news sites.
Looking for Open Access content or browser plug-ins to extend your search? New tools to help you discover open access content are now available.
New masters student? Get started with essential academic, research and digital practices for graduate study. CamGuides is a course created by the Cambridge Information Literacy Network to help you prepare for your degree. Access the CamGuide for Master’s students.
And to enhance your study skills, do consult the range of Study skills LibGuides, including Good academic practice and avoiding plagiarism LibGuide
The links to e-resources which follow are arranged by category and then alphabetically, or geographically in the case of libraries and archives.
Please note that The Centre of South Asian Studies is not responsible for the content or management of any site linked to this page.
Online Newspapers
eJournals
Bibliographic databases
Blogs and online news
Digital resources
Academic Discussion sites
Organisations
Libraries and archives
Librarian’s favourites
Online South and Southeast Asian Newspapers
Asia Daily
Asia Times Online (Can select news specific to SE Asia or South Asia; also country-specific news).
Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Business Line (India)
The Business Times (Singapore)
China Daily
Daily News and Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)
Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Dawn Internet Edition (Daily) (Pakistan)
Dawn Weekly (Pakistan. Discontinued in 2003. Archived issues available here for 1995-2003.)
Deccan Herald (India)
Economic and Political Weekly (India)
The Financial Express (India)
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports University of Cambridge students and staff have access to two collections: FBIS Daily Reports, 1941-1974 and FBIS Daily Reports, 1974-1996; and FBIS Daily Report Annexes, 1974-1996.
The Frontier Post (Peshawar, Lahore & Karachi, Pakistan; includes Afghanistan news)
Harakah Daily (Malaysia)
Herald Pakistan’s monthly current affairs magazine – headlines and highlights free online.
Himal Southasian A regional news and analysis magazine, with geographical content from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives. It is published by The Southasia Trust, Lalitpur, Nepal
The Hindu (Chennai, India)
The Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India)
Hiteshranjan Sanyal Memorial Archive: periodicals and newspapers from Bengal
India Today Limited online access only.
Indian Express
The Irrawaddy (Burma and Southeast Asia)
The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
The Kathmandu Post (Nepal)
The Nation (Thailand)
New Light of Myanmar
New Straits Times (KL)
News India-Times
Newsline (current affairs magazine, Pakistan)
Pakistan Link
Phnom Penh Post
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Rajasthan Patrika (India)
The Star (Malaysia)
The Statesman (India)
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Newspaper SG enables you to search historic English-language newspapers from Singapore and Malaya, 1831-2009, in the National Library of Singapore. It links to full-text in many cases, but excludes articles from third-party news sources (such as Reuters, AFP and AP) published during the last 70 years, plus Straits Times articles published after 1989.
The Sunday Times(Sri Lanka)
The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)
The Times of India
Times of India (1838-2010) University of Cambridge access; Raven password required off campus. Enter: Times of India [in database search box]
The Tribune (Chandigarh, India)
Viet Nam News
The Week (India)
World News in Indian Newspapers, 1782-1908 (a subset of British Online Archives) comprising reports from The India Gazette, The Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle, and The Bengal Times held in 3 volumes in the India Office Library.
World Newspaper Archive: South Asian Newspapers 1864-1922 Access to the Readex South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922 archive is now available to members of the University of Cambridge. It includes Amrita Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), Bankura Darpana (Bankura, India), Madras Mail (Madras), Kayasare Hinda (Bombay), Pioneer(Allahabad, India), Tribune (Lahore, Pakistan) and the Ceylon Observer (Sri Lanka).
eJournals
University of Cambridge members are recommended to use the ejournal links maintained centrally by the University Library at ejournals@Cambridge to link to full text electronic journals. Click on the ejournals tab, and enter the journal title. Then click on the supplier statement immediately below the journal title, which is usually highlighted in blue.
Afghanistan, the Edinburgh University Press journal normally accessible via elegal deposit, has been made accessible online until 31 Dec 2020 to University of Cambridge students and staff.
Ancient India and Iran Trust news (Cambridge)
Archives of Asian Art University of Hawai’i Press. Annual journal devoted to the arts of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
ASEAN Economic Bulletin ISEAS. Available to University of Cambridge. Enter the journal title, and follow one of the links.
ASEASUK News Association of South-East Asian Studies in the United Kingdom.
Asia Journals Online A portal enabling you to search and link to scholarly journals from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Asia Policy (National Bureau of Asian Research).
Asian Development Outlook (Asian Development Bank)
Asian Journal of Social Science (Brill). Formally published as: Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science. University of Cambridge only
Asian Music University of Texas Press. Journal of the Society for Asian Music. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Asian Perspectives (University of Hawai’i). University of Cambridge only
Asian Studies Review Routledge. University of Cambridge only
Asian Survey (University of California Press). University of Cambridge only
Asian Theatre Journal University of Hawai’i Press. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies(ASEAS) is a core project of the Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS) in Vienna.
Bangladesh Journals Online Access to 54 titles – covering agriculture, rural development, medicine and veterinary sciences, education, linguistics and Annual Research Journal of the International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC).
BiblioAsia a news journal promoting collection services and programmes at the National Library Singapore.
Bioscope: South Asian screen studies Sage, v.1:no.1 (January 2010)- present, via Sage Premier package (University of Cambridge access).
Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies Routledge. University of Cambridge only
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Duke University Press. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Contemporary Pacific University of Hawai’i Press. Interdisciplinary work in Pacific studies. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Contemporary South Asia Routledge. University of Cambridge only
Contributions to Indian Sociology Sage. University of Cambridge only
Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs ISEAS. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Economic and Political Weekly (Mumbai, India). University of Cambridge subscription. Includes access to EPW online archive.
ejournals@Cambridge University of Cambridge electronic journals homepage
Frontline (India)
Himal, Southasian Published by the not-for-profit The Southasia Trust, Lalitpur, Nepal. A regional news and analysis magazine, with geographical coverage stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, and from Tibet to the Maldives.
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Hong Kong Journals Online (HKJO) A full-text image database providing access to selected academic and professional journals, in English and Chinese, published in Hong Kong. Includes economics, education, law, linguistics, medicine; also the Journal of the Hong Kong branch, Royal Asiatic Society.
India Quarterly (Sage). University of Cambridge only
India Today
Indian Economic and Social History Review University of Cambridge only
Indian Journal of Gender Studies University of Cambridge only
Indonesia (SEAP, Cornell University). Free access to articles and reviews published more than five years ago. Online access to single issues and individual articles published within the last five years is available for a fee.
International Politics (Palgrave Macmillan). Access for University of Cambridge.
ISIM publications, Leiden University International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden University. ISIM Review ceased publication in January 2009, but back issues available for download at the Leiden University Repository.
Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East. Available from 2001-present in De Gruyter Online (University of Cambridge access)
Journal of Asian Studies University of Cambridge only
Journal of Buddhist Ethics
Journal of Burma Studies University of Cambridge limited access (abstracts of articles) via Project MUSE
Journal of Chinese Overseas Brill. Vol. 1 (2005) through to present issue, via NESLi2 (University of Cambridge access).
Journal of Development Studies Routledge. University of Cambridge only
The Journal of Indentureship and Its Legacies – a new Open Access journal. Issue 1 includes “Indian indenture: History and historiography in a nutshell” (pp. 1-15)/ Brij V. Lal and “Kala pani revisited: Indian labour migrants and the sea crossing” (pp. 36-62) / Crispin Bates and Marina Carter.
Journal of Punjab Studies Center for Sikh and Punjab Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. Articles from Volume 11, 2004 – Volume 22, 2015 available online in PDF format.
Journal of South Asia Women Studies
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies University of Cambridge only
Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society limited access (abstracts of articles) from v.83 (2010) available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society University of Cambridge only
Journal of Vietnamese Studies University of Cambridge only
Manoa University of Hawai’i Press. Literary journal, including American and international fiction, poetry, artwork, and essays of cultural or literary interest. Available to University of Cambridge via Project Muse.
Material Religion. Taylor & Francis online. University of Cambridge access 2005-present.
Migration Studies (Oxford University Press), v.1, no. 1 (2013)- University of Cambridge access.
Modern Asian Studies University of Cambridge only
Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL) Access to Nepalese published research and indigenous scholarship via 53 journals. Covers agriculture, anthropology, business, development, environmental science, forestry, geography, history, medicine, media studies and politics.
Outlook (India)
Pakistaniaat : a journal of Pakistan studies Open access academic journal covering aspects of Pakistani history, culture, literature, and politics. (Published at University of North Texas)
Philippine Studies limited access (abstracts of articles) for University of Cambridge via Project MUSE
Seminar (ISSN 0037-1939) New Delhi Web edition of monthly symposium.
Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia ISEAS. Available to University of Cambridge. Enter journal title, and follow a link.
South Asia Insititute, Newsletter University of Texas at Austin
South Asianist v.1:no.1, (2012)- . Open access, interdisciplinary journal, published by Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh.
South East Asia Research (SOAS) online. Most recent 6 years only available at University of Cambridge via e-legal deposit terminals .
South Asian Diaspora (Taylor & Francis Online). University of Cambridge access 2009-present.
Southeast Asian Affairs (ISEAS). Access for University of Cambridge via ABI Inform.
Sri Lanka Journals Online (SLJOL) Access to Sri Lankan published research and indigenous scholarship via 29 journals (mostly in science and medicine, but also including agricultural economics, architecture, education, libraries and information science).
Vietnam Journals Online
Bibliographic databases
ArchiveSearch replaces Janus on 1st March 2021. Use it to discover primary sources and archives held in University and College libraries, museums and faculties in Cambridge – in addition, of course, to the the Centre’s own archives!
Bibliography of Asian Studies An invaluable reference resource, indexing articles, book chapters and conference proceedings from 1971 – present. Especially good coverage for the arts & humanities.
British Empire & Commonwealth Collection – exciting new catalogue launched in October 2020. The collection, which is based at Bristol Archives, consists of objects, photographs, films, papers and sound archives reflecting the occupations and interests of mainly white British people living and working in many parts of the former empire during the late 19th and 20th centuries. The catalogue of 15,000 items includes access to 7,000 digitised images and 200 films.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports – The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Accordingly, it provides a wealth of information from all countries outside of the U.S.—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. University of Cambridge students and staff have access to two collections: FBIS Daily Reports, 1941-1974 and FBIS Daily Reports, 1974-1996; and FBIS Daily Report Annexes, 1974-1996.
Google Scholar Searches scholarly literature – articles, books, abstracts. Links to online copies, where available, via Google Books, and to Cambridge library catalogues.
IndCat: Online Union Catalogue of Indian Universities
Index Islamicus University of Cambridge access; Raven password required off campus. Coverage: books, articles and reviews on Islam and the Muslim world. Includes publications in European languages relating to all aspects of Islam and the lives of Muslims, past and present in countries in which Muslims are a majority of the population, as well as Muslim minorities elsewhere. Pre-Islamic Arabian background is included, as well as most aspects of the history and languages of the pre-and non-Muslim Turkic peoples.
JSTOR full text database of scholarly journal articles, excluding the last 5 years. Can browse South Asian Studies titles. Now expanded to include 19th century British pamphlets and Foreign and Commonwealth Office collection of rare pamphlets, 1545-1900.
Mapping Asia in UK libraries (newspaper holdings and collection descriptions)
Naval Kishore Press Bibliographie – a bibliographic database for records of books and journals published by the north Indian publishing house Naval Kishore Press (est. 1858). The bibliography aims to provide access to bibliographic records of works printed by the Naval Kishore Press that are distributed in libraries worldwide.
Neliti – a fabulous resource giving access to a collection of over 300,000 books, datasets and journal articles from Indonesia.
Official publications of India (University of Chicago catalogue)
Periodicals Index Online database of article citations with links to eresources@cambridge
South Asia through official eyes project (SATOE) (UK holdings of post-independence official publications)
Southeast Asia Collection of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Blogs and online news
Ancient India and Iran Trust blog (Cambridge)
Doing Sociology: building the sociological imagination – a blog launched in May 2020 to connect students and scholars of sociology in India. Includes interviews with academics, and book reviews.
South Asia Archive and Library Group blog (UK)
Southeast Asian Library Group blog News and information from libraries and archives about Southeast Asian collections.
Weblog Malaysiakini : news and views on Malaysia.
Digital resources
For an overview of freely available online archives for students of South and Southeast Asia, I recommend the excellent guide prepared by Aditya Balasubramanian for the Archives of Economic Life in South and Southeast Asia.
Digital access to many public and private collections in India is now possible thanks to open archiving by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Read more about these Open access resources on South Asia in the H-Asia Forum discussion (22 Sept. 2021).
Aceh Books Online Books about Aceh, in pdf format, in a variety of languages from the KITLV Library.
Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies – the Institute’s website links to digital archives – films, oral history interviews and online articles, as well as bibliographies, including indentured labour in Assam, indentured labour in Mauritius, indentured labour in Malaysia, women in indentureship, and films and creative writing about indenture.
Anthropology Online – written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and photographs. Access for current students and staff (University of Cambridge). Can browse by cultural group and refine search by format, such as photograph.
Archives Direct (the National Archives online) is now accessible to University of Cambridge members until 30 June 2020.
Archives of Economic Life in South and Southeast Asia – an inventory of sources on the history of economic life in South Asia. It categorizes and identifies a potentially vast range of material—from government archives at the national, state, and local levels, to private papers, legal sources, and the archives of architecture and photography. It includes interviews with Dr Kevin Greenbank about CSAS archives, and Rachel Rowe about archives within the Royal Commonwealth Society collections in Cambridge University Library. The resource is a work-in-progress, so it is advisable to check its research blog, collection links and interviews regularly for information on new archives.
Archives Unbound (University of Cambridge access) includes ‘Afghanistan in 1919: The Third Anglo-Afghan War’ and ‘The Indian Army and Colonial Warfare on the Frontiers of India, 1914-1920’ (collections sourced from the British Library)
Access to ArtFilms is now available to University of Cambridge students until 30 September 2020.
ARTstor Provides access to architectural images from South and Southeast Asia, particularly religious architecture – shrines, temples, monasteries. Overview of ARTstor collections. Link from A-Z Databases for University of Cambridge access and enter ARTstor in the database search box. Raven password required off campus. Can explore ARTstor content by country or classificiation, e.g. photographs, or maps.
Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) Links to online resources on Bangladesh
Base Ulysse, the online digital archive of the National Overseas Archives in Aix-en-Provence. It contains over 45,000 individual photographs, albums, postcards, posters, drawings and maps documenting aspects of the French colonial empire – a rich historical resource for the study of cultures, traditions and everyday life in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Scroll the drop-down list of ‘Territoire’ to see the geographical breadth of this collection.
Bengal Partition 1905, Eastern Partition 1947: explore resources at the British Library uncovered by Partha Bhaumik, BL Chevening Fellow, around the theme of ‘Nationalism, Independence, Partition in South Asia, 1900-1950’
Bichitra: Online Tagore Variorum containing nearly all of Tagore’s writings in Bengali and English, from manuscript to print. The website can be navigated in English, Bengali and Hindi, and the search engine allows you to locate any word or phrase used in his works.
Bloomsbury Pakistan book reviews – a very useful series of book reviews which focus on recently published academic books about Pakistan (social sciences and history). Scroll down (below the book reviews) for links to online articles and reports.
British Empire & Commonwealth Collection – new catalogue launched October 2020, includes access to 7,000 digitised images and 200 films. The collection, based at Bristol Archives, consists of objects, photographs, films, papers and sound archives reflecting the occupations and interests of mainly white British people living and working in many parts of the former empire during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
British Online Archives – Free access to all 102 collections during February and March 2022 for current University of Cambridge students and staff (COVID-19 access)
Burma Star Memorial Fund Archive – a wonderful resource for genealogy and research related to the 1941-1945 Burma Campaign, containing all Burma Star Association membership records, back issues of its magazine, Dekho! first issued in 1951, maps, propaganda and personal stories.
Cambridge Digital Library – for the discovery of digitised material and research outputs from the University of Cambridge and beyond. The range of collections is extraordinary and you can search across all collections; then refine your search by collection. Once a collection is selected you can zoom into very high resolution images, download them, open them in the Mirador image viewer and compare them with images from other respositories, share them or request permission to publish.
CamGuides is a course created by the Cambridge Information Literacy Network to help you prepare for your degree, with advice on academic, research, and digital practices for graduate study.
Churchill Archive includes considerable material of interest to those studying South and Southeast Asia, and is accessible to University of Cambridge students and researchers. Browse by named individual, place, time period or topic. If browsing by place – Asia – India, click on ‘+’ sign – India is broken down into 6 regions. There are also ‘Advanced search’ options. Topics indexed include Islam, constitutional reform, POW camps, occupation and human rights, plus many more. There are Introductions to topics, such as Empire and Imperialism by Richard Toye; also In depth research guides such as ‘Winston Churchill and the Islamic World‘ by Warren Dockter.
Cite Them Right Online. Access for University of Cambridge to this referencing resource (or via eresources@Cambridge)
Cornell Modern Indonesia Project a collection of 75 digitised publications on Indonesia accessible via the Hathi Trust, allowing full-text search and computational analysis for text collections. Browse titles and click on a title to reach digitised version on the Hathi Trust platform.
CrossAsia Respository – a virtual library and platform for publishing and archiving research literature in Asian Studies, supported by the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Daily journals of Batavia (today’s Jakarta) Castle, 1624-1806, provide rich sources of information on trade within Southeast Asia and with Europe. These have been digitized from the National Archives at the Hague, Netherlands and pertain especially to the operations of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). They are a record of letters, ship movements, and major events.
Dhananjayrao Gadgil Library at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics Digital Repository – includes historic South Asian government publications, including census volumes.
Dictionary of acronyms used by Asian and Pacific studies scholars (Australian National University)
Digital Bodleian includes archives, prints and portraits, photographs, ephemera, maps, and periodicals. Enter India as your search term to see the range of material digitised, and narrow your search by collection or language.
Digital Colonial Documents Project (India) (La Trobe University, Curtin University, The University of New England and the University of Sydney)
Digital Himalaya Portal to multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region. Includes excellent collection of journals and films; and the rare books section includes dictionaries and government publications. Originally based at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, since July 2014 the project has relocated to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and is engaged in a long term collaboration with Sichuan University.
Digital South Asia Library A project of the Center for Research Libraries and the University of Chicago.
Eastern Art Online Online access to the Ashmolean Museum’s Eastern Art department collections. A project of the Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art, University of Oxford.
Empire Online digitised primary source documents dating from 1492 to 1962 relating to colonial history, politics, culture and society; also decolonisation. Sourced from leading archives around the world. Nature and scope of Empire Online documents. Link from A-Z Databases for University of Cambridge access. Enter Empire Online in database search box. Raven password required off campus.
Endangered Archives – link to Asian collections digitised as part of the Endangered Archives Programme hosted by the British Library. Includes photographs, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, books, artefacts and artworks. Includes materials in South Asian languages and scripts.
EPWRF India Time Series. Current students and staff (University of Cambridge) have access to the EPW Research Foundation’s online database on the Indian economy. EPWRF help pages. Click Login (top right), then Login blue box. You will need a VPN connection off campus. Please log off as soon as you have finished your session as only 5 users may access the database concurrently. For details of the statistical sets available, please view the full index.
eresources@cambridge University of Cambridge electronic resources homepage
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports – The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Accordingly, it provides a wealth of information from all countries outside of the U.S.—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. University of Cambridge students and staff have access to two collections: FBIS Daily Reports, 1941-1974 and FBIS Daily Reports, 1974-1996; and FBIS Daily Report Annexes, 1974-1996.
Freedom and Fragmentation: Images of Independence, Decolonisation and Partition from the Centre of South Asian Studies Archive (Exhibition held in Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, 1 August- 27 October 2017).
Gallica A portal to French digital resources with an English-language interface (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Enter a search term, e.g. Pondichery, and a list of suggested authors and documents will appear. Click on a description to link to the digital resource. Includes maps, manuscripts, newspapers and magazines, books, images and sound recordings.
Gandhi Heritage portal – a searchable site containing Mahatma Gandi’s collected works – a Government of India portal. In addition to Gandhi’s writings, the site includes photographs, films and audio, and tributes to him.
Granth Sanjeevani – the Asiatic Society of Mumbai digital library includes rare books, manuscripts, newspapers and journals, government publications and maps. Access via University of Cambridge subscription. You will need a VPN connection off campus. Select Login/Register and enter: University of Cambridge. Over 53700 items online, including Bombay Chronicle, Bombay Gazette, Bombay Courier, and Hindoo Patriot. Government publications include administrative reports of the Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency and Census of India reports.
Hiteshranjan Sanyal Memorial Archive: periodicals and newspapers from Bengal – a huge collection of textual and visual materials mainly focused on colonial Bengal, including rare Bengali books, Assamese journals and books, as well as visual art and popular culture (such as specimens of historical Bengali advertising). The collection may be accessed via the CrossAsia Respository.
India-UK Development Partnership Forum (IUKDPF) knowledge sharing platform brings together key resources on Indian development cooperation and India’s development contributions – interviews, publications, reports and more! Use the search box and filters to explore.
India, uprising and reform, 1879-1910: in the records of the Governor-General – a subset of British Online Archives comprising the Indian papers of the 4th Earl of Minto held by the National Library of Scotland, which shed light on a tumultuous period in the history of the British Raj, providing an insight into the partition of Bengal and the growth of anti-colonial sentiment. The papers that cover the ‘Military Department, including Kitchener’s administration of the Army in India’ provide a history of the British Army in India and its reorganisation under Lord Curzon’s time as Governor. The collection covers the administrations of two Viceroys of India, first Lord Curzon, then the 4th Earl of Minto. The Minto records are the most detailed as they include both printed papers and correspondence. The Curzon papers include a report upon relations with the North-West Frontier tribes between 1897 and 1898. The correspondence by Lord Morley to the 4th Earl of Minto extends from 1907 to 1913. Issues covered include opposition to the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 and the question of who should be the next Viceroy. This collection is accompanied by an online guide for the original microfilm version written by Dr William Gould.
Indian communists and trade unionists on trial: the Meerut conspiracy 1929-1933 – a subset of British Online Archives. The Meerut Conspiracy refers to the 1929 arrest and trial of twenty-nine Indians and three Englishmen suspected of having either communist or trade union affiliations. They were collectively charged under Section 121A of the India Penal Code with “conspiracy to deprive the King of Sovereignty of British India.” This collection contains documents derived from a variety of sources, including the India Office and the private papers of Ben Bradley, one of the accused conspirators. These documents provide a balanced perspective on the trial and its consequences for British imperialism in India. This collection is accompanied by an online guide written by John Callaghan.
Indian papers of Colonel Clive and Brigadier-General Carnac, 1752-1774 This online collection includes Clive’s personal papers, papers relating to the civil and military administration of Bengal, financial papers relating to India, papers of the Calcutta Council and its committees, papers of the Calcutta Mayor’s Court, and East India Company records held in the National Library of Wales.
Indiancine.ma is an annotated online archive of Indian film, intended to serve as a shared resource for film scholars and enthusiasts in India and beyond. Most films have English sub-titles and you can categorize them by language (everything from Hindi to Malayalam), director, year of production, the studio that made it, and even famous cast members. Happy viewing!
Jātaka Stories is a free online searchable database of jātakas in Indian texts and art, enabling one to study textual and visual narratives side by side.
Kolkata Soundscapes is an archival project at Jadavpur University, Kolkata which maps the character of the city through its sounds. Includes videos, photographs and list of Bangla words with phonetical representations and meanings.
Medical History of British India – access to 426 digitised reports from the India Papers collection at the National Library of Scotland. Papers relate to disease, public health and medical research, 1850-1950.
Migration to New Worlds – an online collection of materials on the ‘Century of Immigration’, 1800-1924, accessible to University of Cambridge students and staff . Materials include unique diaries, personal letters, oral histories and journals; each narrating the intimate journeys and challenges immigrants faced when settling in foreign countries. Click here for an overview.
National Archives of India online portal for archives and learning, Abhilekh Patal, provides free digital access to many of the Archive’s public & private records – an excellent resource on Indian history. You will need to register to access these resources. There are now 15 curated digitized-collections – topics include maps, education, health, and defence.
National [Web] Portal of India
Neliti – a fabulous resource giving access to a collection of over 300,000 books, datasets and journal articles from Indonesia.
Newspaper SG enables you to search historic English-language newspapers from Singapore and Malaya, 1831-2009, in the National Library of Singapore. It links to full-text in many cases, but excludes articles from third-party news sources (such as Reuters, AFP and AP) published during the last 70 years, plus Straits Times articles published after 1989.
Nehru Memorial Museum & Library portal. The portal is hosted by the Government of India as part of its Indian Culture portal. It is non-searchable but documents may be downloaded. The portal includes his writings (Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru), his publications, archival papers, (including some papers of Nehru’s contemporaries), oral history, cartoons, photographs, films and tributes.
OECD Commonwealth iLibrary – books, book chapters, election reports, trade working papers, etc. published by a range of Commonwealth organisations available online in a single research repository. Available off campus with Raven password. Includes publications in the fields of Education, Governance, Trade, Economics, Development, Social Issues, Migration, Health, Agriculture and Food, Employment, Energy, Environment, Finance and Investment, Industry and Services, Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, Taxation, Transport, Urban, Rural and Regional Development. You may browse by theme, or a combination of country and topic, or search for specific publications.
OneSearch enables you to search across the collections of Singapore libraries, archives, museums and galleries in a single search. It will link to catalogue records for books and archival materials, and to digitised newspapers, and audio-visuals where available.
Online Burma/Myanmar Library – classified and annotated links to 60,000 full text documents or websites on Burma/Myanmar (of which a quarter are in Burmese). You can search or browse by subject heading, and access is free.
Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive) – an online archive created by a group of South Asian artists. ‘Rather a labyrinth but a great resource’, Pad.ma contains interviews, edited film footage (rather than finished films), scanned photographs and documents. The entire collection is searchable and viewable online, and is free to download for non-commercial use. New users are recommended to consult the How to guide.
Pahar – Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD) – includes books, journals, maps, and photographs related broadly to the Himalayas and its outlying attached ranges including the Hindu Kush, the Karakorams, the Pamirs, the Tian Shan and the Kuen Lun as well as the Tibetan highlands and the Tarim basin.
Partition Archive An oral history archive recording the histories of those who lived through the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Over 647 oral histories from more than seven countries have been recorded so far, but most of the footage can only be viewed in Berkeley, California. You can browse abstracts of migration stories on a Story map.
Bengal Partition 1905, Eastern Partition 1947: explore resources at the British Library uncovered by Partha Bhaumik, BL Chevening Fellow, around the theme of ‘Nationalism, Independence, Partition in South Asia, 1900-1950’
Postcolonial literature timeline – a really useful tool providing contextual knowledge of literary works and a visualisation of the historical, social, political, and literary events that shape and surround the key texts mentioned.
Qatar Digital Library – a vast archive of digitised records from the British Library covering the history of the Gulf region and much of South Asia. Archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings and photographs are included along with notes contextualising each record, and links in both English and Arabic.
Researching colonial history of the Malay world like a millennial – a fabulous new resource guide from the Cultural Centre of the University of Malaya. Search for online resources, search by country and so much more, including an excellent beginners’ guide.
Royal Visit to India 1905-1906 by the Prince & Princess of Wales (King George V & Queen Mary) – a comprehensive collection of items & research related to the 1905-1906 Royal Visit to India compiled by David Underwood. The site includes information on key figures (including Indian leaders and members of the Royal household, ships and the Royal train); correspondence, photographs, visitors’ books, tickets, programs, newspapers, local and Government of India publications. It also includes items from other Royal visits to India in 1875/6, 1889-90, 1901, 1902/3, 1911/12 and 1921/22. The website currently represents about 30% of David’s collection, and researchers are encouraged to contact him via his website form with any specific questions they have.
School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) Digital collections contain archives and manuscripts, photographs, maps, books and journals, newspapers, oral histories, films and audio. Scroll down to browse by geographic region, name of archive or language. Scroll to the very bottom of the page to locate digitised newspapers. Photograph collections include those of anthropologist, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995), documenting tribal cultures in South Asia and the Himalayas.
South Asia Archive (Temporary COVID-19 access for University of Cambridge students and staff until 3rd June 2020)
The South Asia Open Archives (SAOA), a subset of the South Asia Materials Project (SAMP), creates and maintains a collection of open access materials for the study of South Asia. This major collaborative initiative is aimed at addressing the current scarcity of digital resources pertinent to South Asian studies and at making collections more widely accessible both to North American scholars and to researchers worldwide.
South Asian Independence Movement Project (Yale University)
Southeast Asia Visions is a collection of European travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia from Cornell University Library’s John M. Echols Collection. The site provides online access to more than 350 books written in English and French.
Srujanika – an excellent online resource archiving books on Odisha (formerly Orissa), maintained by the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. Subjects covered include anthropology, history, politics, and religion, among others. Includes many rare books written in the Odiya language.
Times of India (1838-2007) University of Cambridge access; Raven password required off campus. Enter: Times of India [in database search box]. Very useful online newspaper database, which includes Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce 1838-1859, Bombay Times and Standard 1860-1861 and Times of India 1861-ten years ago (rolling date).
Two Centuries of Indian Print – a pilot project to digitise rare and unique printed books from the British Library’s South Asian collection and digitise the Quarterly lists to aid discovery.
Vietnam Archive Based at The Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, the archive includes photographs, slides, maps, periodicals, audio, moving images, and books related to the Vietnam War, Indochina, and the impact of the Vietnam War on the United States and Southeast Asia.
Vietnam under French Rule, 1919-1946 – members of the University have online access to the first four volumes of Vietnam under French rule 1919-1946 : the nationalist challenge and the Japanese threat, published by Cambridge Archive Editions and available through East View Information Services. Access is available on and off-campus and there is a record for the set in iDiscover.
Voices of civilian internment: World War II Singapore Cambridge University Library has digitised archives relating to World War II and civilian internment in Singapore from its Royal Commonwealth Society collections, and made them freely available on Cambridge Digital Library. More information here.
World News in Indian Newspapers, 1782-1908 (a subset of British Online Archives) comprising reports from The India Gazette, The Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle, and The Bengal Times held in 3 volumes in the India Office Library.
1. East India Company to the First Anglo-Burmese War, 1782-1828 (The India Gazette (1782-1828) and The Bengal Hurkaru (1822-1828)). This volume contains reports on Britain’s wars of conquest in India and Asia, as well as substantial literary content. Subjects covered include the American Revolution, the First Anglo-Burmese War, and the trials and tribulations of Warren Hastings, the first de facto Governor-General of India. Literary articles include lists of newly released novels, poems of a serious nature, and, later, the satires of Petrach Fitz-Tank.
2. Trade and turmoil, 1829-1856 (The India Gazette (1829-1843) and The Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle (1829-1856)). These mid-19th century publications cover the recurrence of political, economic, and social turmoil in Ireland, France, and China, including reports on the Revolutions of 1848, Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel’s relationship with the Orangemen of Ulster, and the opium trade with China. The trade of indentured Indians also caused a great deal of controversy.
3. Colonial expansion and rebellion 1857-1908 (The Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle (1857-1866) and The Bengal Times (1876-1908)). This volume contains reports on several colonial upheavals, from the Second Opium War and New Zealand Wars to the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Bering Sea Arbitration. Later articles include discussion and debate on the merits of Indian partition, the freedom of the press, and the so-called ‘New Woman’. The Boer War is also covered, with much of the analysis adopting a jingoistic tone.
World Newspaper Archive: South Asian Newspapers 1864-1922 Access to the Readex South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922 archive is now available to members of the University of Cambridge. It includes Amrita Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), Bankura Darpana (Bankura, India), Madras Mail (Madras), Kayasare Hinda (Bombay), Pioneer(Allahabad, India), Tribune (Lahore, Pakistan) and the Ceylon Observer (Sri Lanka). Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative updates, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony and death notices, this collection chronicles the evolution of cultures and communities across South Asia. It covers the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion; construction of railroads; effects of British Colonial rule; Hindu-Muslim conflicts; life on coffee, tea and rubber plantations; Morely-Minto Reforms; formation of the Indian National Congress; start of Mahatma Gandhi’s independence movement; economics, politics, the arts; and much more. Offering a variety of perspectives, the newspapers in this collection are ideal for comparing and contrasting views on both local and global issues.. This is the list of newspapers included.
Academic Discussion Sites
H-Asia : Asian history and studies
“A member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine. The primary purpose of H-ASIA is to enable historians and other Asia scholars to easily communicate current research and teaching interests; to discuss new articles, books, papers, approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to test new ideas and share comments and tips on teaching. H-Asia is especially committed to discussing region wide, comparative and professional issues important to scholars of Asia.”
H-SEASIA ; History and study of Southeast Asia
“A member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine. H-SEASIA is a forum for discussion and communications regarding the history and study of Southeast Asia.”
Return to contents
Organisations
Association for Asian Studies
Association of South-East Asian Studies (ASEAS UK)
Bloomsbury Pakistan (London) – a research & resource centre which facilitates academic research on Pakistan
British Association for South Asian Studies supports advanced research in the humanities and social sciences of South Asia.
European Association for South Asian Studies
International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS, Leiden)
National Committee for Information Resources on Asia (UK)
Regional Centre For Strategic Studies (RCSS) South Asian regional think tank, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
South Asia Archive and Library Group (UK)
Southeast Asia Library Group (UK)
Swedish South Asian Studies Network
Organisations with Asian Studies departments or Asian library and archive collections
Ancient India & Iran Trust (Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge)
Bodleian Library (University of Oxford) LibGuide for South Asian Studies
British Library (London) – resources for the study of South Asia past and present
British Museum library and archives (London)
Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh
Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, The Open University
Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan University
Institute of Ismaili Studies (London)
National Archives (London) for UK government records
National Library of Scotland link to South Asian collections
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (London)
Royal Commonwealth Society Library collections (in Cambridge University Library)
Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers)
SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
SOAS Library (London)
Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud – CEIAS Paris
The Kern Institute Library, Universiteit Leiden
South Asia Insitute, University of Heidelberg
Southeast Asia Collection of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre Library Includes good links to other Indian library websites
National Library Board of Singapore
International Rice Research Institute Manila, Philippines
University of Chicago, South Asian Studies
Digital South Asia Library (Chicago)
Columbia University Libraries, South & Southeast Asian Studies
Cornell University Library
Duke University, South Asian Studies
Michigan State University, Asian Languages
University of Virginia, South Asia Center
Australian National University, South Asian Studies
Australian National Univeristy, Regional Institutes – including Southeast Asia
Monash University Asian collections
Librarian’s favourites
The excellent guide to freely available online archives for students of South and Southeast Asia, prepared by Aditya Balasubramanian, for the Archives of Economic Life in South and Southeast Asia.
ARTstor Provides access to architectural images from South and Southeast Asia, particularly religious architecture – shrines, temples, monasteries. Overview of ARTstor collections. Link from A-Z Databases for University of Cambridge access and enter ARTstor in the database search box. Raven password required off campus. Can explore ARTstor content by country or classificiation, e.g. photographs, or maps.
Bibliography of Asian Studies – link from A-Z databases_B for University of Cambridge access. Enter Bibliography of Asian Studies in database search box, or select resource from list. An invaluable reference resource, indexing articles, book chapters and conference proceedings from 1971 – present. Especially good coverage for the arts & humanities.
Bichitra: Online Tagore Variorum An amazing resource containing nearly all of Tagore’s writings in Bengali and English. The website can be navigated in English, Bengali and Hindi, and the search engine allows you to locate any word or phrase used in his works.
Cambridge Digital Library – for the discovery of digitised material and research outputs from the University of Cambridge and beyond. The range of collections is extraordinary and you can search across all collections; then refine your search by collection. Once a collection is selected you can zoom into very high resolution images, download them, open them in the Mirador image viewer and compare them with images from other respositories, share them or request permission to publish.
CamGuides is a course created by the Cambridge Information Literacy Network to help you prepare for your degree, with advice on academic, research, and digital practices for graduate study.
Cite Them Right Online. Access for University of Cambridge to this referencing resource (or via eresources@Cambridge)
Digital Himalaya Portal to multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region. Project based at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
ejournals@cam University of Cambridge members are recommended to use this ejournal portal maintained by the University Library to link to full text electronic journals. Enter the journal title. Then click on a supplier’s link immediately below the journal title, taking note of the date range available.
Endangered Archives – link to Asian collections digitised as part of the Endangered Archives Programme hosted by the British Library. Includes photographs, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, books, artefacts and artworks. Includes materials in South Asian languages and scripts.
Index Islamicus (select from A-Z databases) University of Cambridge access; Raven password required off campus. Coverage: books, articles and reviews on Islam and the Muslim world. Includes publications in European languages relating to all aspects of Islam and the lives of Muslims, past and present in countries in which Muslims are a majority of the population, as well as Muslim minorities elsewhere. Pre-Islamic Arabian background is included, as well as most aspects of the history and languages of the pre-and non-Muslim Turkic peoples.
NewspaperSG enables you to search historic English-language newspapers from Singapore and Malaya, 1831-2009, in the National Library of Singapore. It links to full-text in many cases, but excludes articles from third-party news sources (such as Reuters, AFP and AP) published during the last 70 years, plus Straits Times articles published after 1989.
OneSearch enables you to search across the collections of Singapore libraries, archives, museums and galleries in a single search. It will link to catalogue records for books and archival materials, and to digitised newspapers, and audio-visuals where available.
Qatar Digital Library – a vast archive of digitised records from the British Library covering the history of the Gulf region and much of South Asia. Archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings and photographs are included along with notes contextualising each record, and links in both English and Arabic.
Researching colonial history of the Malay world like a millennial – a fabulous new resource guide from the Cultural Centre of the University of Malaya. Search for online resources, search by country and so much more, including an excellent beginners’ guide.
SAALG Blog South Asia Archive and Library Group blog – keep abreast of events and news relating South Asian collections.
Southeast Asian Library Group blog News and information from libraries and archives about Southeast Asian collections.
Times of India (1838-2007) University of Cambridge access; Raven password required off campus. Enter: Times of India [in database search box]. Very useful online newspaper database, which includes Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce 1838-1859, Bombay Times and Standard 1860-1861 and Times of India 1861-ten years ago (rolling end date).
Two Centuries of Indian Print – a pilot project to digitise rare and unique printed books from the British Library’s South Asian collection and digitise the Quarterly lists to aid discovery.
Vietnam under French Rule, 1919-1946 – members of the University now have online access to the first four volumes of Vietnam under French rule 1919-1946 : the nationalist challenge and the Japanese threat, published by Cambridge Archive Editions and available through East View Information Services. Access is available on and off-campus here and there is a record for the set in iDiscover.
Voices of civilian internment: World War II Singapore Cambridge University Library has digitised archives relating to World War II and civilian internment in Singapore from its Royal Commonwealth Society collections, and made them freely available on Cambridge Digital Library. More information here.