We have rich resources for the study of South Asia past and present. South Asia is taken to include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Collection guides

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Readers at desks in the Asian and African Reading Room

Asian & African Studies Reading Room

  • Find information on the shelves
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If you need help, just ask our Information Specialists at the Reference Enquiry desk or contact the Asian & African Studies Reference Team.

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Tue – Sat: 09.30 – 17.00
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Blog posts

Cricket matches between England and India 1889-1946

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

The first cricket match in the England versus India 2021 test series starts today. In the records of the India Office Information Department there is a file with papers from 1946 about matches between the two teams since 1889. Martin...

Birdwatching in Assam

Thursday, July 29, 2021

One of the fascinating elements of private paper collections is what they contain about people’s hobbies and interests. The India Office Private Papers are full of such collections. One example is the papers of Dorothea Craigie Milburne which record her...

A captain goes down with his ship!

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

On 25 November 1865 the ship Great Britain slipped its anchor at Madras and, as directed by the signals from the Master Attendant’s Office, headed out to sea. It would be the last time anyone would see the ship. Report...

Mrs Carthew’s recipe book

Thursday, July 22, 2021

In the India Office Private Papers is a manuscript book of recipes inscribed ‘Mrs Carthew’s receipt Book: copied by V.L. Peter “Butler”, Rangoon, 1 August 1862’. The book contains recipes for a wide variety of Indian and European dishes, such...

More blog posts

Staff profiles

Malini Roy

Dr Malini Roy

Head of Visual Arts

Antonia Moon

Dr Antonia Moon

Lead Curator, post-1858 India Office Records

British Library India Office

Dr Margaret Makepeace

Lead Curator, East India Company Records

More staff members

Case studies

More Case studies
Parthasarathi Bhaumik Chevening Fellow British Library
…The British Library holds not only the 'official' history of South Asia, but also its 'histories', which are personal, pluralistic, and intimate.…

Nationalism, Partition, and Independence in South Asia, 1900-1950.

junaid
…The BL Newspaper collections are vast and in many cases also rare and unique in their content and collection histories. …

Junaid-Ul-Hassan is a Chevening Fellow working at the British Library on a project titled ‘News and Media in South Asia: Past and Present’.

Christian Poske
…The archival material provides fascinating insights…

Christian is evaluating the archival material of Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adriaan Bake.

Featured collection items

Cashmere Gate, Delhi, by Robert Christopher Tytler and Harriet Tytler.

Cashmere Gate, Delhi

1858

View of Hindu Temples at Agori on the Son River

Oriental Scenery

Projects

A colour photograph showing Nur Sobers-Khan, Lead Curator at the British Library, in a room turning the page of an open book which is sitting in a foam rest on top of a table. Beside the book are two more open books sat in rests.

Two Centuries of Indian Print

An international collaboration to digitise South Asian printed books

Poet Firdawsi gives away his paltry earnings to a bath attendant

Digital access to Persian Manuscripts

Our collection of Persian Manuscripts is one of the most important in the world

All projects

External links

The British Library is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Centre of South Asian Studies

University of Cambridge

Find my past

Records of baptisms, marriages, burials, wills, pensions, military and civil career information

The National Archives

Records relating to the East India Company, and the Family Records Centre