Exploring South Asian Collections at the University of London

To mark South Asian Heritage Month, this collaboration between librarians and archivists from Senate House Library, King’s College London Archives and Special Collections and SOAS Library will give you a series of introductions to each library’s collections relating to South Asia, followed by a Q&A.

Programme

15:00-15:05 – Introductions

15:05-15:25 – Senate House Library

Political Pamphlets from South Asia – Collected from the 1960s to the 1980s by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Political Pamphlet collections offer a unique resource to explore and study 20th century South Asian political parties, trade unions and pressure groups.

Magic from South Asia in the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature – An introduction to sources and material on stage magic and illusions from South Asia in the Harry Price Library and their influence on magic in Europe and North America.

15:25-15:45 – King’s College London Archives and Special Collections

An introduction to the archives, including the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, with a focus on the British military and civilian experience in India during the Raj, and the College Archives, with a focus on material relating to South Asian students at King’s to King’s students training to for the Indian Civil Service.

An introduction to Special Collections, including the library of East India Company official and scholar William Marsden (1754-1836), which includes a rare copy of the first translation of the New Testament into Tamil, and the former library of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which has extensive historical coverage of Sri Lanka, plus excellent coverage of post-independence India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and of South Asian emigration to Africa, the Caribbean and the UK.

15:45-15:05 – SOAS Library

SOAS Library Special Collections holds over 600 manuscripts in a range of scripts and languages. These manuscripts both record written culture in various part of the subcontinent, as well as European interaction with South Asia from the 18th-20th centuries. Through this talk, we aim to provide a broad overview of these collections, as well as highlighting some particular strengths in these collections. As well as discussing the content of these items, we will also discuss how they were collected, and how they came to be at SOAS.

15:05-15:30 – Q&A

This event will take place online via Microsoft Teams.

All welcome – the event is free to attend, but booking is essential.