Borderlands: the SAALG Winter Conference

Kandyan chief
(Royal Asiatic Society)

Kandyan chief & wife
(Royal Asiatic Society)

Mudaliyar
(Royal Asiatic Society)

A date for your diary!  This winter's South Asia Archive and Library Group conference will be hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society on Friday 28th January 2011.  On the theme of Borderlands we have presentations on early photography at the Raj's margins (Burma and Sri Lanka) from Andrew Jarvis (University of Cambridge), 19th century travellers' tales from the Himalayas from Dr Richard Axelby (SOAS), and a personal account of working in local Burmese archives from Dr Mandy Sadan (SOAS).  There will also be an opportunity to view treasures from the Royal Asiatic Society's own collections, and hear a presentation from Burzine Waghmar (SOAS) on his linguistic research.

For further information and to book your place, please email Helen Porter at the Royal Asiatic Society.

WWII elephant rescue : archive footage released

TV, radio and newspapers are today reporting the story of 'Elephant man' and tea planter, Gyles Mackrell, following the release on the University of Cambridge's YouTube channel of a short documentary film chronicling an epic rescue mission.

Amid the chaos of the British retreat from Burma early in 1942, Mackrell mounted an operation to save refugees trapped by flooded rivers at the border with India, using the only means available to get them across - elephants.  His story is recreated from his diary, papers and cinefilms held at the University's Centre of South Asian Studies in Cambridge.

For more information, please see the University's press release or contact the Centre's archivist, Dr Kevin Greenbank.

Liberté : a talk on Noor Inayat Khan GC (1914-1944)

Thursday 11th November 2010, 6:30 pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Liberté ; a talk on Noor Inayat Khan GC (1914-1944) by Shrabani Basu, author of Spy Princess: the life of Noor Inayat Khan.

Noor was an SOE agent in the Second World War. She was the first woman radio operator to be infiltrated into occupied France and helped the Resistance. She was betrayed, captured and executed in Dachau Concentration camp. Britain posthumously awarded her the George Cross.

Shrabani Basu published her biography of Noor Inayat Khan in 2006 and has since been campaigning for a personal memorial for Noor. Following an Early Day Motion in Parliament signed by 34 M.P.s and a signature campaign backed by Shami Chakrabarti and Gurinder Chadha, she got the go-ahead last month to install a bust of Noor Inayat Khan in Gordon Square, near the house where she lived. The permission was granted by the University of London, which owns Gordon Square. It will be the first memorial to an Asian woman in Britain.

Stigma: Narratives of families in HIV/AIDS care in Kerala

The Centre for South Asian Studies, Edinburgh University has a series of seminars for October, including a talk by George Palattiyil on
HIV/AIDS in Kerala

Royal Asiatic Society Lectures

The RAS in London is hosting the following two lectures:

Ghulam Ali Khan and the Delhi School of Painters, 1770-1857
by Yuthika Sharma (Columbia University, New York)
Wednesday 13 October 2010, 6.30 pm.

Colin Mackenzie's Adventures in India (1784-1821)
by Dr. Jennifer Howes (British Library)
Thursday 11 November 2010, 6pm.

All are welcome, free of charge, no need to book.
Each lecture will be followed by a reception.

Royal Asiatic Society
14 Stephenson Way
London NW1 2HD.
http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org/

South Indian painting at the British Museum

Thursday 21 October 2010
South Indian painting at the British Museum
18:30 Stevenson Lecture Theatre

Anna Dallapiccola, University of Edinburgh, will speak about two different co-existing South Indian painting traditions - the Company paintings made for European clients in the 19th century, and the vibrantly painted narratives used by local storytellers.

£5, concessions £3
Book tickets through the British Museum Ticket Desk on +44 (0)20 7323 8181 or in person, daily 10:00-16:45.

World History and Digital Scholarship conference

Henson Collection. Jubbal, India, c. 1915. © CSAS

29 October 2010


A one-day conference addressing the role played by digital humanities in the history curriculum and in inter-disciplinary research projects.


Organised by The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge.
Venue: Adrian House, Burrell’s Field, Trinity College, Cambridge.



For registration (until 25 October 2010): digital@s-asian.cam.ac.uk
For further information: http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk


Speakers
Prof. Elizabeth Edwards (University of the Arts London)
Prof. Chris A. Bayly (University of Cambridge)


Panelists
Dr Kevin Greenbank (CSAS, University of Cambridge)
Dr Lee Grieveson (Centre for Intercultural Studies, UCL)
Susanne Hammacher (RAI, London)
Nico de Klerk (Film Instituut Nederland)
Dr Sean Lang (Anglia Ruskin University)
Dr Mathew Mead (University of the Arts London)
Dr Annamaria Motrescu (CSAS, University of Cambridge)
Dr Heather Norris-Nicholson (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Susannah Rayner (SOAS, London)
Dr Susan Whitfield (British Library, London)

Indian Hemp Drugs Commission

Harding-Simpole is a publishing house which specialises in books which are often difficult to find.Some of these will be reprints that are rare or impossible to obtain through the usual channels.
In association with the National Library of Scotland, they have published a facsimile reprint of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report of 1893-94.
This report is the most comprehensive study on the effects of cannabis use ever undertaken. 1,455 witnesses were cross-examined in 86 meetings in 36 cities throughout India.

This reprint includes including rare photographs of cannabis cultivation, production and consumption.
There are some fascinating case studies: “[When] he [a soldier in the 13th Regiment] went on leave and lost some relations from cholera … he took to immoderate smoking, which resulted in madness …he was a raving maniac – violent, obstreperous.”
Anyone studying narcotics will find this work compelling, especially as it appears that the same debates still rage now, for example: should the use of cannabinoids for medicinal purposes be approved?

[Quote]:
“It has been clearly established that the occasional use of hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character.”

This publication is also available on Amazon and at the National Library of Scotland.

Securing the future of elephants in India

Photo by James Gaither (Flickr, Creative Commons)

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, has recently published a
report by the Elephant Task Force, titled: Securing the Future for Elephants in India.(August 31, 2010). The report is available online in pdf format at:
http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/ETF_REPORT_FINAL.pdf


The report includes chapters on monitoring systems, securing elephant corridors, poaching, the care of captive elephants, mitigating the human-elephant conflict and recommendations on governance and law.

South Asians Making Britain 1858-1950 Interactive timeline launched

An interactive timeline relating to the South Asian contribution to Britain from 1858 to 1950 has just been launched on the Guardian's website at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/sep/10/south-asians-making-britain

This timeline has been produced in collaboration with the Making Britain project.

Tackling stereotypes and reconfiguring the nation’s understanding of how South Asians have helped shape Britain, the Making Britain project reveals and celebrates the unsung contribution of South Asians to Britain 1870-1950

Further details of the Making Britain project are available at http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain/

Open Cambridge, Open Libraries

Image credit: Centre of South Asian Studies
University of Cambridge

The Library at the Centre of South Asian Studies in Cambridge will be open to the public on Saturday 11th September from 10 am - 1 pm.

Come and view photographs, artwork and home movies shot in India 1911 - 1956, and listen to archive recordings in which men and women reflect on events and issues they experienced during that period.

Many other libraries and buildings will be open too for the Open Cambridge weekend - For a full listing see:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/opencambridge/index.html.

Discover how South Asians shaped the Nation, 1870-1950

New online database launched
Discover how South Asians shaped the Nation, 1870-1950
This exciting new database provides online information on over 450 South Asians in Britain from 1870 to 1950, the organizations they were involved in, their British connections and the major events in which they participated.
Designed as an interactive tool, it offers engaging and innovative search and browsing options, including a timeline, location maps, and web diagrams modelled on social networking sites which highlight South Asians' interactions and relationships in Britain at the time.
The database also provides information on selected source materials, bibliographical references and archive details for researchers interested in the South Asian presence in Britain and will be an invaluable research tool.
Each entry points to the focus of the ‘Making Britain’ research project, emphasising the connections between South Asians and Britons that took place in Britain itself during this period, and offers an exciting window on South Asian contributions to British life.
Working in partnership with the British Library, ‘Making Britain’ is a project led by the Open University in collaboration with Oxford University and King’s College, London. The project’s main aim is to highlight the impact on Britain of the presence of a South Asian diasporic community in the period 1870-1950.
The Making Britain database is launching at the conference ‘Bharat Britain: South Asians Making Britain, 1870-1950’ at the British Library Conference Centre on 13-14 September 2010. For further information please visit: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain/conference.htm
The database can be accessed free of charge through the British Library’s ‘Asians in Britain’ research page:
www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/history/history/asiansinbritain/asiansinbritain.html

or www.open.ac.uk/makingbritain

Company paintings

Miniature painted on mica (© Cambridge University Library,
RCS collections)

The SAALG website now hosts a link to the excellent paper presented by Dr Crispin Branfoot at SAALG's Oxford conference on 1st July 2010 - Professions and processions in 19th century South India: a Company album in the SOAS Library.  It also includes a related article by Dr Branfoot published in Orientations, November 2007: Painting processions, social and religious landscape of Southern India in a "Company" album.

Together the papers provide a fascinating picture of Company painting in India.

Dr Branfoot is Senior Lecturer in South Asian Art and Archaeology at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

News from the Ancient India & Iran Trust

The Ancient India and Iran Trust newsletter has been relaunched as Indiran, and the Spring/Summer 2010 issue is now available for download in pdf format at http://www.indiran.co.uk/news.htm. 

The Trust is to be congratulated on this impressive publication, which opens with an obituary of Raymond Allchin, a legend in South Asian archaeology, and includes an interview with Christine van Ruymbeke on Persian poetry, an article on the conservation of Asian vultures and a report on their recent conference on Sri Lanka.

Science and environment in India 1780-1920

The India Office Records in the British Library document the activities of the English East India Company and the British administration of India from 1600 to 1947. This guide makes a great part of this material relating to science and the environment material newly accessible via sign-posted routes into the archives and detailed lists of the principal records. It also gives the historical and archival context of the documents, outlining the British involvement in science in India and explaining how the records are organised.

The guide is arranged into the following sections: plant and botanic gardens; agriculture; forests and forestry; animals and animal husbandry; geology; meteorology; health and disease; irrigation and water control; communications and the built environment; ethnography; landscape and topography.