Scholars have shown that Asian settlement in Britain did not begin in the 1950s with the post-war labour demands of the British economy, but goes back almost 400 years, to the founding of the East India Company in 1600.
Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) George IV's 'Shampooing Surgeon'. (Frontispiece, The travels of Dean Mahomet, a native of Patne in Bengal, 1794. BL: 1507/1395). © The British Library Board.
The India Office Records of the Asia Pacific & Africa Collections contain the archives of the East India Company (1600-1858), the Board of Control (set up in 1784 to supervise the affairs of the Company), and the India Office (1858-1947), as well as personal papers of British officials and some Indian personalities, thus form an essential and a major source of documentary information for finding out about the lives and experiences of a range of Asians who came to Britain either as visitors, or as permanent settlers. Printed books, periodicals and photographic collections add to this wealth of information for historians researching the history of the Asian presence in Britain to the period 1947.
The following pages are compiled by Rozina Visram, historian of the Asian presence in Britain and the author of several publications on the subject of Asian migration, outlining the sources available in the India Office Records:
Rozina Visram © The British Library Board.
- A brief outline of the history of Asians in Britain (1600-1947)
- Archives of the India Office Records for research
- Published sources
- at the London Metropolitan Archives
Contemporary accounts and sources
- Visitors
- Ayahs, servants and sailors - the earlier settlers
- Students
- Professionals, entrepreneurs and princes
- Indian soldiers in World Wars
External Links
- Moving Here - Images of library archive and museum collections relating to the migration of South Asian, Caribbean, Irish and Jewish people to England.
- A2A - the English Strand of the UK Archives Network
- Links to other websites
