South Asian American Digital Archive

The collections in the South Asia American Digital Archive (SAADA) represent members of the South Asian diaspora who have settled in the United States, including those who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian diaspora communities across the globe. The digital archives include the collections on Dalip Singh Saund, Early Immigration, Early Student Life, Hindustan Gadar Party, HipHopistan, India Alert, India Forum (California), Indian Emergency, Kerala Catholic Association, Lord of The Universe Society (LOTUS), Reflections on America, South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), and Sudhindra Bose.

Indian Memory Project

"The Indian Memory Project is an attempt to trace the history of India, its people, professions, development, traditions, cultures, settlements and cities through pictures found in personal family albums and archives. It was founded in February 2010, by Anusha S Yadav."

This and That

I'm happy to announce that I successfully defended my dissertation, "The Spatialization of Knowledge and Power at the Astronomical Observatories of Sawai Jai Singh II, c. 1721-1743 CE," this semester and am moving onto new and hopefully better things. I have a stack of research notes and tips that I never got around to adding to this blog. I'm going to take a few weeks off to work on a non-academic project, after which I'll come back and do some work on this place.

Do you ever wonder if you're the only one who doesn't know how to find/access the Jesuit archives in Vanves? Good news: you're not alone. I get the most hits from searches related to those archives. In second place are searches for information about research visas and visa renewals. In third place are searches related to Persian manuscripts. The only people who ever e-mail directly with questions are people with questions about visas. I guess that tells us something about the frustration and anxiety surrounding research visas for India.

I'll be back at the end of May 2011.

Libraries in India

WebJunction's list of libraries in India.

LOC Asian Reading Room

From the website of the Library of Congress Asian Reading Room:

"The Asian Reading Room is the primary public access point for researchers seeking to use the Asian collections of the Library of Congress in the many languages of Asia. The reading room covers the area from the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. With over 2.8 million books, periodicals and newspapers, a large number of manuscripts, and electronic media, the collections are the most comprehensive sources of Asian language materials outside of Asia. Area Specialists and Reference Librarians provide in-depth reference assistance on questions concerning Asia."

http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/

South Asian Pamphlets, 1920-2005

Inventory of the South Asian Pamphlets Collection, 1920-2005 at Duke University Libraries.

Digital Images: Tasveer Ghar

News of Tasveer Ghar ("House of Pictures") finally hit my inbox. Historians of visual culture of India should take a look.