Times of India 1838-2002

Times of India 15 August 1947 (Credit: Prabhvir, Flickr, creative commons)

Cambridge University Library and the Centre of South Asian Studies in Cambridge are delighted to announce the purchase of the The Times of India historical database covering the period 1838-2002.  The newspaper provides a huge resource for modern Asian studies, economics, development studies and politics generally, since the newspaper covers Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and all the countries of South-east Asia, quite apart from relations between India, a growing world power, the USSR (Russia), Britain and the USA.

The ProQuest database incorporates the Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce (1839-1859) and Bombay Times and Standard (1860-1861), as well as the Times of India (1861-current).  The Times of India is often reported to be "the world's most widely circulated English daily newspaper", and the database is certainly wide-ranging in its subject base as well as its geographical content.  Researchers studying topics as diverse as comparative religion, the Indian film industry,  the rise of Pakistan as a nuclear power, or the creation of Bangladesh will find rich resources, as will family historians or lovers of cricket.

The database allows users to browse complete issues of newspapers from cover to cover or to cross-search 164 years of newspapers.  Searches can be restricted to different parts of the newspaper, and limited by author, topic, date or date range. It is possible to view photographs, cartoons, obituaries, marriage announcements and advertisements as well as editorials and articles.  Relevant articles can then be printed, emailed or downloaded in pdf format and citations stored in a number of styles.  The 'My Research' feature allows users to track searches, save articles, create bibliographies and web pages.  The database can also be searched simultaneously with the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post historical databases, resulting in some fascinating comparative reportage.

The database may be located from the Centre of South Asian Studies website - http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/links.html#Newspapers
and from the University Library's Electronic Resources directory under newspapers, ejournals or databases, http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/fulllist.php?search_term=T
Select Times of India from the list, then select News - The Historical Times of India from the drop-down list of databases.