Searching for Sikh Soldiers on British Medals

Enjoy a short talk, viewing session and tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Images of Empire display. This special event provides an opportunity to take a closer look at a selection of rare silver medals and see beautiful artwork relating to Sikh soldiers who fought for and against the British during the nineteenth century.

Open to all. Refreshments provided.
When?  Sat 15 June 2013 | 14:00 to 15:00
Where?  Seminar Room, Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge,  CB2 1RB

Free, but advanced booking recommended. Please email aj431@cam.ac.uk to book a place.

Scholars without Borders

Just a short post to introduce you to the blog, Scholars without Borders, http://swblogs.blogspot.co.uk/ .  I have added a link to it in our Blog List (scroll down and it is on the right hand side of this post).

Scholars without Borders is a blog written by a group of academics based at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, who are keen to promote academic books published in India to a wider audience.  It provides timely posts on new books, but also on journals, documentaries and reports.

Tagore goes online in English and Bengali

Bichitra, (http://bichitra.jdvu.ac.in/index.php) an online variorum of the works of Rabindranath Tagore, will be launched on 8 May 2013. According to Abhijit Gupta, Associate Professor of English, Jadavpur University, and Director, Jadavpur University Press, it is the largest integrated site on any author, containing nearly all of his writings in Bengali and English, in all their versions, from manuscript to print, comprising 47,520 pages of manuscript and 91,637 pages of print.

Other features of the website include text files of every version of each of Tagore's works, a unique collation software (the first in Indic script), a search engine that helps locate any word or phrase used in his works, a checklist of all Tagore's manuscripts and a comprehensive bibliography of Tagore's works.

The website can be navigated in three languages--English, Bengali and Hindi. The project was executed in two years by the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, and was led by Sukanta Chaudhuri, emeritus professor at Jadavpur University.

Rosemary Seton Talk and Book Launch at the RAS Friday 10th May

Rosemary Seton would like to invite SAALG members to an illustrated talk she will be giving at the Royal Asiatic Society next Friday 10^th May at 18.30 on her recently published book Western Daughters in Eastern Lands. There will be short contributions from Dr Emily Manktelow (University of York) and Dr Frances Wood (British Library) followed by a wine reception.

There is full information about the event and location on the Royal Asiatic Society blog

http://royalasiaticsociety.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/rosemary-seton-book-launch-friday-10th.html

Why South Asia? British Academy, 17 May 2013

The conference Why South Asia? is to be held at the British Academy on 17 May 2013 from 9.45am until 5.30pm.

The British Academy is running a series of events to explore the current state and continuing importance of South Asian Studies in the UK.  The series opened with a lively roundtable discussion about the present state of the academic study of South Asian Studies in the UK and included an interdisciplinary conference on Space and Spatiality in South Asia (see http://www.britac.ac.uk/intl/Space_and_Spatiality_in_South_Asia_Conference.cfm).

As the third of these events, Why South Asia?draws upon debates in the two earlier events to assess the wider relevance and value of South Asian Studies today. It looks beyond the South Asian Studies ‘community’ in the UK to seek to examine what on-going interest in the South Asia region means to a wider constituency of ‘users’ -- in government and NGOs, in research institutions, publishing and the media. It explores the relevance of the concept of South Asia to the social sciences and to issues of policy and engagement in the UK, and asks what can be gained from the study of South Asia elsewhere in Europe and experience and in South Asia itself. Speakers include  Jo Beall from the British Council; Amita Batra from Jawaharlal Nehru University; Gita Dharampal-Frick from Heidelberg University; Lucy Rhymer of Cambridge University Press; Nira Wickramasinghe from Leiden University; and Penny Brook of the British Library. The  provisional programme is set out below.

The conference is free and open to the public but places will be limited and prior registration is, therefore, essential. Please circulate details among your contacts. To register, or for further information, please email Debbie Soothill at d.soothill@britac.ac.uk.

Dr. Debbie Soothill
International Senior Policy Adviser
The British Academy
10-11 Carlton House Terrace
London  SW1Y 5AH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7969 5276
Email: d.soothill@britac.ac.uk

British Academy

Why South Asia? The Relevance of South Asian Studies Today

A Conference to be held at the British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH on 17 May 2013

Draft programme

9.45                 Coffee

10.00               Introduction and Welcome

Helen Wallace, Foreign Secretary, British Academy

10.15               Why South Asia?

                        David Arnold, Chair, South Asia Panel, British Academy

10.30 - 12.15   Session 1: South Asia and the Social Sciences

                        Chair: Lawrence Saez, Politics and International Studies, SOAS

Matthew McCartney, Director, Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, Oxford

Mukulika Banerjee, Anthropology, LSE

Kunal Sen, Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester

12.15-1.00       Lunch

1.00-3.00         Session 2: The Uses of South Asia

                        Chair: Barbara Harris-White, Development Studies, Oxford

                        Penny Brook, Lead Curator, India Office Records, British Library

Lucy Rhymer, Commissioning Editor, Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press

Jo Beall, Director, Education and Society, British Council

Mark Robinson, Research and Evidence Division, DFID

Yolanda Foster, South Asia Team, Amnesty International

3.00-3.30         Tea

3.30-4.45         Session 3: International Perspectives

                        Chair: Christopher Bayly, Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge

                        Gita Dharampal-Frick, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg

                        Nira Wickramasinghe, Asian Studies, Leiden

                        Amita Batra, School of International Studies, JNU, Delhi

4.45-5.30         Closing Discussion

                        Chair: David Arnold

Amateur film-making in post-colonial India

"Le Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS), Paris, is organising a seminar on the theme of  contemporary amateur filmmaking in India as part of its research programme ’Cultural industries, artistic and literary Indian scenes’. The seminar, titled “An intimate craft of national memory: amateur filmmaking in post-colonial India” will be presented by Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (CSAS, University of Cambridge) on Thursday 4th April 2013. 

For details, see CEIAS poster: http://ceias.ehess.fr/docannexe.php?id=2030

Shot in the arm for Medical History of British India website

A new collection of medical documents from the British Raj is now available to browse and search on the Medical History of British India website. 'Medicine - Vaccination' shows British efforts to vaccinate the Indian population against smallpox using the latest 19th and 20th century western scientific techniques. Over 60 reports reveal the complex nature and the scale of ambition of the vaccination programme in India as well as the conflict between western colonial medicine and indigenous society, culture and systems. The project was generously funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust.

Next SAALG Conference Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July 2013 - Norwich

SAALG's 89th conference will take place in Norwich on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July so please add the dates to your diaries. We will be focusing on South Asian Arts and Crafts over the two days - the main talks on Friday will be held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia on Friday, followed by a visit to the SADACC Trust (South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection) and a conference dinner in Norwich. On Saturday we will have the opportunity to view the galleries at the Sainsbury Centre.

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
Image copyright of University of East Anglia.

The SADACC Trust, Norwich

Participants will be welcome to take part in one or both days and full details of the talks, schedule for the two days and accommodation options will be sent out in the near future.

If you have any questions in the meantime please don't hesitate to get in touch with the SAALG Chair, Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org Tel: 0207 391 9424.

Lectures on South Asia at the Royal Asiatic Society

A couple of upcoming lectures at the Royal Asiatic Society have a focus on South Asia:

The next talk in the main Royal Asiatic Society lecture series will be 'African Soldiers, Governors, Nawabs and Cultural Brokers in South Asia' by Dr Shihan de Silva from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. It will take place on Thursday 11th April at 6pm followed by a Q and A session and a drinks reception.

Following that on Wednesday 17th April at 6.30pm the RAS Student Lecture Series, Dhara D. Anjaria will talk on 'Marginalised Colonials? Non-British European Powers in India vis-a-vis the British'.

Both the lectures are free and open for all. Further information about the speakers and topics will be posted on the Royal Asiatic Society Blog , alternatively email info@royalasiaticsociety.org or telephone 0207 388 4539. For directions to the Society visit the Royal Asiatic Society website.

SAALG 88th Conference and British Library Exhibition - Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire

Participants of the 88th SAALG conference held at the British Library on Friday 8th February enjoyed a fascinating day of talks examining the Mughals, which culminated in a visit to the British Library's current wonderful exhibititon Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire.  

If you have not yet visited the exhibition it is running until 2nd April 2013 and is well worth a visit. It is the first of its kind to document the entire historical period of the Mughal dynasty, from the 16th to the 19th century, through more than 200 exquisite manuscripts and fine paintings drawn almost exclusively from the British Library's extensive collection.

A newly identified portrait of Dara Shikoh (1615-59), the favourite son and heir-apparent of Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1627-58) attributed to the artist Murar, circa 1631-32. This portrait features in the only surviving album compiled by Dara Shikoh, a passionate connoisseur of the arts and scholar of religion. The album was personally dedicated by Dara Shikoh to his beloved wife Nadira Banu Begum in 1641-42; they were married in 1633. Image Copyright of British Library

To enhance your visit you can also visit the British Library's exhibition blog  or view images available on the British Library's Facebook page . The information here complements the exhibition book by J. P. Losty and curator of the exhibition, Malini Roy, which is also a very informative and beautifully presented read.

If you were unable to make it to the SAALG conference we can highly recommend the British Library's Mughal Study Day which is being held on Saturday 9th March, which also includes a visit to the exhibition. For the full program and booking information click here.

SAALG is incredibly grateful to the British Library for hosting our conference and enabling those who attended to learn more about and engage with the sumptuous world of the Mughals. More blog posts will follow here summarizing the SAALG talks and highlighting related pieces from the exhibition, but if you can make a visit to see it in person before April please don't miss out.

With thanks to the British Library Press and Policy office for providing content and images http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/ 

SOAS Subject Librarians' blog

I have just added a link to the SOAS Subject Librarians' blog - http://blogs.soas.ac.uk/librariannews/ in the My Blog List section of the SAALG blog.   Once you have linked to the SOAS blog, use the categories on the left-hand side of the page to narrow your search to posts relating to South Asia or Southeast Asia.

The SOAS Subject Librarians' blog conveys library news relating to the regions, tips on new resources, links to useful web sites and more.  Recent South Asian post have described the 15th Asian Film Festival taking place in London, 7-17 March 2013; William Dalrymple discussing his new book, Return of a King; and a SOAS exhibition on a Tamil community in North London, which runs until 23 March 2013.

'Exploring modern South Asian history with visual research methods' 

15-16 March 2013

CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Rd., Cambridge, CB3 9DT 

Registration is now open at http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2066/  

The site also contains information on the final programme for the conference, interview, and the schedule for the pre-conference seminars.  As a preamble to the conference, the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, is organising a seminar series that will introduce the theme of the conference. Several historians and anthropologists will discuss a selection of anthropological films of South Asia in relation to current historiographical methodologies. The series is organised in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute and CRASSH. 
To find out more see http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2379/

Sir Edmund Leach and Burma

Chined Kulan boats, Botel Tobago (Leach, 1936-1937).  King's College Library, Cambridge (ERL/4/15)

Many of you will be fascinated by the archive of the month for February 2013 at King's College, Cambridge.  The focus is on the College's archives of Sir Edmund Leach, the social anthropologist. Particular attention is paid to his early fieldwork, including the research he carried out in Burma, for which he is best known. The site includes photos, an example of his detailed sketches and notes on language. Leach was Provost of King's College, from 1966 until 1979.

To see these and other highlights from King's College archives, please visit http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/archive-month/.

News from the Southeast Asia Library Group

http://www.sealg.org

A new issue of the SEALG Newsletter is available to download from the SEALG homepage http://www.sealg.org 

It contains some of the fabulously illustrated papers which were presented at the 87th SAALG Conference / SEALG Annual Meeting 2012, including “Cartoons and propaganda from North Vietnam during the early stage of the Vietnam War” by Dr Sud Chonchirdsin, “Operation ‘Nip-Off’: some aspects of the repatriation of Japanese troops from South East Asia at the end of the Second World War in the Far East” by Dr Sue Sutton, “Ancient Buddhist Monasteries in Burma” by San San May, and “Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean” by Dr Annabel Gallop.

SEALG has also launched a blog, which you can elect to follow by email, or RSS feed: http://southeastasianlibrarygroup.wordpress.com/  

It will contain regular updates about SEALG activities, annual meetings, events, conferences, exhibitions, developments in SEA librarianship and news from partner organisations.  

To post information on the blog, contact Jana Igunma at the British Library or Doris Jedamski at Universiteit Leiden.

New affiliation between the SADACC Trust and SIfA

I have been asked by Diana Grattan, Collection Curator at the SADACC Trust, and known to many SAALG members, to let you know about an exciting new affiliation between the South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection Trust (SADACC) and the Sainsbury Institute for Art (SIfA) at the University of East Anglia.

The South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection Trust was established in July 2010 as a charity (RCN 1137415) and in December 2012 it became affiliated to the University of East Anglia through the Sainsbury Institute for Art (SIfA).  Under this agreement SIfA and the SADACC Trust are working together to establish a South Asian Study Centre and Museum.  This involves SIfA using the collection and library as an educational resource in its teaching programmes and assisting in the development of the Museum.  The SADACC Trust, in turn, will help fund SIfA postgraduate work and continue to fund the development of the museum and work of the Trust.

For more information, please contact Diana Grattan at the Trust, http://www.southasiandecorativeartsandcrafts.co.uk/