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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  • Order collection items to the Reading Room via our catalogues

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

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

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Mon: 10.00 – 17.00
Tue – Sat: 09.30 – 17.00
Sun & English Public Holidays: closed

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Blog posts

Women travellers on Indian railways

Thursday, March 30, 2023

In 1869, newspapers in India and Britain reported that the Viceroy of India had approved a proposal to construct special carriages for Hindu and Muslim ‘Lady Travellers’ on the East India Railway. This was considered the best means of preventing...

Close Encounters of the ‘Sea Duck’ kind

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The East India Company ship Martha under Captain Thomas Raynes (or Raines) set sail from England in April 1700, destined for Bombay. It zig-zagged across the globe on the prevailing winds, via the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Bahia de...

Patent Preserved Potato

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Edwards’ Patent Preserved Potato was the 19th-century equivalent of Smash. An advert from 1857 claimed that ‘This economical and pure Vegetable keeps good in all Climates, and is a preventative of Scurvy from the use of Salt Provisions’. A dish...

The children of Chaund Bebee and John Shore – (3) George Shore

Thursday, March 16, 2023

The fourth child of Chaund Bebee and John Shore was their son George born on 1 July 1785. He was baptised in Calcutta on 11 May 1788. George was living in Bengal in 1825. By 1835 his residence was 4...

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 vibrant red and yellow painting of a Yali, a mythical dragon depicted here as a winged and fire-breathing creature

Sinhalese Manuscripts Pilot Digitisation Project

A pilot digitisation project that aims to make freely available four palm leaf manuscripts from the British Library’s Sinhalese manuscript collections

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