Asian History

Interface in English or other, major European languages. Content in multiple languages.
Europe-wide unified search of digitized collections. Images, audio, texts, and more. Funded by the EU. Covers more than 1,000 years of history. Strongest for 1500 to 2000.
Open Access.

Interface in English and French (and other major, European languages). Majority of the content in French.
France's fantastic digital library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Covers two millenia with particular strength from 1500 to the present.
Open Access.

Includes more than 3,900 documents from India from the 17th to the 21st centuries in addition to more than 15,000 additional digital facsimiles. Documents includes books, periodicals, images, personal narratives, preserved webpages, and more.

More than 42,000,000 items (including photographs, audio, video, text, and more), drawn from multiple across the world. Focused on the 19th and 20th centuries.

Digital library of images, maps, reference sources and more, supported by the University of Chicago and CRL

The East Asian Collection from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections includes historical images that present a visual archive of 20th century East Asian cultural heritage. Also see SouthEast Asian Images and Text Project; South and Southeast Asia Video Archive; South Asian Periodicals Index

Drawn largely from the collections of universities and individual scholars in this region, the SEADL contains digital facsimiles of books and manuscripts, as well as multimedia materials and searchable indexes of additional Southeast Asian resources. Nations represented in the collection include Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

A a free open-access resource for research and teaching - a rich and growing curated collection of key historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region. SAOA's collection contains hundreds of thousands of pages of books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure.

Includes a selection of digital facsimiles from the National Archives in India from the Ministry of Education, Defense, Home Political papers, as well as public records and a variety of personal papers. Focused across the 20th century. Includes some material--including maps--going back to the 18th century.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) has an e-book program for researchers within public and private universities in Pakistan and non-profit research and development organizations. Also provides information on material published by Pakistani researchers.

A small collection of online, declassified records focused around Abhilekh patal and the Netaji Papers.

The objective of the National Digital Library is to collect and maintain digital resources in the country and provide digital information to the reader community. Includes facsimiles for the Government of Ceylon (more than 18,000) and the Department Of Government Printing (more than 3,000).

More than 42,000,000 items (including photographs, audio, video, text, and more), drawn from multiple across the world. Focused on the 19th and 20th centuries.

"This library of books, audio, video, and other materials from and about India is curated and maintained by Public Resource. The purpose of this library is to assist the students and the lifelong learners of India in their pursuit of an education so that they may better their status and their opportunities and to secure for themselves and for others justice, social, economic and political."

'Odeon' label shellac discs were issued in India during 1912-1938. The company produced over 2,000 titles of north and south Indian music. This collection is a digital record of more than 20 of those records.

Digital Library makes available all Census Tables published from 1991 to 2011 Censuses, Census Reports and other digital files for free download in soft copy format.

Data sets on India including population, economics, and more. Sets focused on 1960s forward with some starting in the 2010s.

A fascinating set of information and data points (focused on the recent past) on multiple points of India, from soyabean prices to oil & gas as well as pothole-related-injuries.

Data includes the 1840s to the 1920s in different books and Excel sheets.

Hein Online collection of country constitutions, constitutional hierarchies , and texts and journals on constitutional law for states such as India and Pakistan.

Resource containing links to all Indian Government websites.

Database of all Central enactments which are in force and their subordinate legislations made from time to time.

Free database with a "google-like" search engine (can search by act, name of party, and subject for all Indian courts and tribunals) , especially strong for current and historical caselaw. Also contains legislation, law commission reports constituent assembly debates, and more.

Consists of the Judgments of the Supreme court of India and several High Courts. In the case of the Supreme Court all reported Judgments which are published in SCR Journal, since its inception i.e. 1950 till date are available. The Judgments reported in SCR till 1993 also have head-notes. The judgments reported in SCR in 1994 and later have only text of judgments with out head-notes.

Free, independent and non-profit access to 159 databases of Indian law. Includes Supreme Court Case Law, full text of Indian treaties, 1947-2009, and more.

This section seeks to introduce the Constitution of India, its origin, the Parliament, various Acts and Rules that govern the nation, Documents, Public Notifications, Welfare Schemes and Application Forms to avail them, apart from updates on what’s happening around us.

Official website. Maintained by the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab ".. all the Laws of Punjab from 1860 to date. The database will be updated regularly as soon as the new Laws are passed or the previous ones are amended."

Compiled by Prof. Fran Pritchett, Columbia University. Includes bibliographies and links to multiple different authors and movements.

The list is hosted by the International Islamic Institute, Islamabad. Provides access points to dozens of newspapers, most of which focus on contemporary content.

Govt. Central Press, 1877-1904.

1908-1931, digitized by the Digital South Asia Library.

This project documents and preserves Tamil studio photography, and therefore family portraiture, since its appearance in the mid-late 19th century up until the introduction of mechanised developing and printing, which radically transformed the practices and productions of studio photography.

Online exhibit from the New York Public Library contains essays, images, maps, and a bibliography. Focused on the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Presents the history of the Indian Ocean through maps and primary sources covering 7 eras of world history. Although created for middle and high school teachers and students, the site is good for getting an overview of topics and some possible primary sources.

Curated photographs with the Smithsonian reveal the expansive maritime societies of Zanzibar, the east African coast, and beyond. From the 1840s, cameras traced the international migrations of traders, sailors, sons, and daughters through Indian Ocean ports, continuing trade that dates back over five millennia.

"Visual records of the cultural history of South Asia from the late-18th to the mid-20th century. Here are almost 15,000 of the collection’s finest images. We focus on the artists and photographers whose work provides a comprehensive account of the landscapes and architectural heritage of South Asia."

Includes 19th century documents from census reports to British guides and histories of India.

Interface in English; Content in English and Bengali.
"holdings of the British Indian Association, Kolkata. The Association, set up in 1851, was one of the earliest and most important platforms from which Indians engaged with the British in India."
Open Access.

Published under the authority of His Majesty's secretary of state for India in council in Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909]

More than 1,000 telegrams, letters, and reports translated into English from 1945 to 2007 on issues related to international politics and South Asia.

With chapters such as "India British Commonwealth of Nations" about 1945 or "India and Pakistan The British Commonwealth of Nations" from 1947.

Provides an entry into the history of disease and its prevention in 19th and 20th-century British India, including veterinary medicine and animal husbandry.

A Medical History of British India consists of official publications varying from short reports to multi-volume histories related to disease, public health and medical research between circa 1850 to 1950. These are historical sources for a period which witnessed the transition from a humoral to a biochemical tradition, which was based on laboratorial science and document the important breakthroughs in bacteriology, parasitology and the developments of vaccines in a colonial context.