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HIST 061: Histories of Water (SC)

History 061: From the Ocean to the River: The Indus and the Ganges in Global History - Azfar (Spring 2023)

Primary Sources (South Asia)

Archive: Center of South Asian Studies
Online collection of films, maps, oral histories, and other primary sources for South Asian history

Empire Online
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Offers images of original documents taken from libraries and archives around the world including correspondence, diaries, literature and illustrations. Covers a range of topics and includes Africa, the Americans, Oceania, and South Asia. Includes documents published between 1492-1969.

This database is more useful for pre-1950 topics.

People's Archive of Rural India
From the site: "PARI is both a living journal and an archive. It will generate and host reporting on the countryside that is current and contemporary, while also creating a database of already published stories, reports, videos and audios from as many sources as we can."
South Asian Studies Images & Photos

Film & Video

Newsreels (British Pathé)
Search this collection of 80,000+ historical newsreels* from British Pathé and Reuters

Example search: Search for "India" and "dam" (73 results, 1932-1979)

*Newsreels = short news segments shown in cinemas, particularly important before widespread TV ownership | About: British Pathé, Reuters
Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire
Search this collection of 150+ films relating to the British Empire. Usually fairly short, includes newsreels and documentaries.

Search Example: Films about India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (44 results, 1899-1946)

Newspaper Articles & Transcripts (Radio/TV News)

Access World News
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This Newsbank database lets you find articles from newspapers around the world.

Major Indian newspapers include: Times of India (2002-present), Hindustan Times (2004-present)

Search Example: Narmada AND (protest* OR resist*) AND (dam OR hydroelectric)
• Searching all Indian newspapers in this database (Results: 1200+ articles)
• More focused search: Articles from 2006, published in the Times of India (Results: 37 results)
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
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Search international news coverage from 1941-1996, translated into English

Search Example: Articles mentioning "Narmada" (23 results, 1955-1994)

For 1996-2013, use the World News Connection database instead.
World News Connection
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Search international news coverage from 1995-2013, translated into English
• Continues from Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)

Example search: Articles mentioning "Narmada" (88 results, 1999-2013)