South Asia
History Bibliography
Welcome to the South Asia History Bibliography. The following bibliography was motivated by my realisation that the results of all my time and effort spent searching for English language material to support UCFV courses could also be useful to students of South Asian history. The list is admittedly somewhat serendipitous in nature and reflects my own curiosity about India’s history. It maintains no pretension to being even remotely exhaustive and is very much a work in progress. I will be adding references to the site on a regular basis to reflect both recent scholarship and older works.
The bibliography is divided roughly according to time period and includes the following sections (hyper-linked headings will provide access to the RefWorks database):
Each section is divided into subsections including:
- Political, Administrative, Military, Legal
- Economic
- Science, Medicine, Technology, Environment, Geography
- Family, Gender, Social, Education
- Culture
In turn the material from each subsection is listed as scholarly articles, monographs and anthologies, and printed primary and digital documents. Where a thesis or digital archive source is available on a free site the bibliography includes a link to that site.
The content and layout of the bibliography reflects the Vancouver and Fraser Valley Indo-Canadian community’s historical contribution to British Columbia and its close ties to the Punjab. While one hopes that the South Asia Bibliography will be useful to a wide range of scholars it is intended to be of particular value in support UCFV’s South Asia and Imperial history courses. To date UCFV’s history offerings include the following courses:
- History 264: History of India: Akbar to Independence surveys Indian history from the rise of the Mughals to Independence.
- History 265: India and the Indo-Pacific World studies the relationship between South Asia and the various peoples of the Indian Ocean and Pacific Rim world with special reference to South Asia’s political, economic and cultural impact those regions from contact with Islam to recent times.
- History 314: Rise and Fall of the British Empire includes significant discussion of India’s role as part of a global empire.
- History 364: Indian Social History investigates the forces shaping the emergence of modern Indian society from the late 17th century to the 1980s.
- History 464: India, Punjab and Diaspora explores the history of Punjab, the factors that lead to its special connection with Canada and the development of the Indo-Canadian community.
- History 465: British India explores the rise of a British presence in India, the emergence of a distinct Anglo-Indian society and its relation with Indian society as a whole.
The South Asia History Bibliography is designed to complement the South Asia Digital Archive. The latter will include a range of primary sources relating to the history of South Asia and the local Indo-Canadian community, and is currently under construction.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the UCFV library and IMS for their generous assistance in getting this project off the ground. Mary-Anne MacDougall, UCFV’s History Librarian, was invaluable helping to set up and maintain the South Asia Bibliography. Public Services Librarian Colleen Bell gave generously of her knowledge of all things software and other aspects of computing alchemy. Diane Nosaty of IMS provided graphics for the site. Work study student Tamarack Hockin carried out the thankless task of verifying the entries for the entire database of over 3,000 entries. Finally I would like to thank the UCFV History Department and the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies for their support and UCFV for finding the funds to begin the process of developing the database.
Good luck with your research and I trust this little list will be of some help, if only in a small way.
David Milobar, PhD
August 15, 2008/MAM
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