Book of the Month: Mapping India

The beautifully illustrated and presented Mapping India by Manosi Lahiri, published this year by Niyogi Books in New Dehli, is a new addition to a number of works we hold which look at the act of mapping and India. These include Ian J. Barrow's Making history, drawing territory : British mapping in India, c. 1756-1905, Matthew H. Edney's Mapping an empire : the geographical construction of British India, 1765-1843, and Susan Gole's Indian maps and plans : from earliest times to the advent of European surveys.

Mapping India examines the mapping of India over the last 500 years, looking at the influence of war and commerce as the driving force for the mapping of India, and changes in cartography and access to maps through to the beginning of the 21st century. The book presents some of the famous maps which have depicted India and also influence cartography in India for several centuries.They reflect the influence and role fo the East India Company, of colonialism and of independence, and include maps of Partition, migration and famines.

Covering a broad period this work is notable for the beautiful reproductions of maps held in repositories including many Indian archives, especially previously classified (and therefore not made available to the public) maps in the National Archives of India; the British Library; the Royal Geographical Society; the Asiatic Society, Kolkata; the Asiatic Society of Mumbai; the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum at the City Palace, Jaipurl and the Susan Gole Collection at the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Dehli.

India at LSE (London School of Economics) blog

India at LSE blog    http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/indiaatlse/multimedia-2/

Launched by University of London college the London School of Economics this blog discusses India-related research, courses and events at the London School of Economics and Political Science. It includes coverage of a wide range of social science topics ranging from economics, development studies, media, gender and politics. The blog will include links to full text papers from the LSE's India observatory as well as multimedia of LSE sponsored events.

Canada, China and the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges

Canada, China and the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges

Institute for the Study of the Americas
Senate Room, 1st Floor, Senate House, University of London, Friday 29 June 2012

 

Speakers include:

 

• Gordon Campbell (High Commissioner for Canada to the UK) 
• Joseph Caron (former Canadian Ambassador to China, Japan and India and Asia Consultant, Vancouver)
• Nicolas Maclean CMG (Chief Executive, MWM (Asia) and former Senior Fellow for International Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS))
• Jennifer Welsh (Professor in International Relations, Somerville College, University of Oxford)

 

Attendance is free of charge. To register please email Tony McCulloch by 25 June 2012.

 

 

Programme

9.30 am Registration and refreshments

 

10.00 am Welcome by Professor Iwan Morgan, Institute for the Study of the Americas

 

10.15 am Keynote address: His Excellency Gordon Campbell, the High Commissioner for Canada to the UK  “Canada, China and the Asia-Pacific region – Opportunities and Challenges”

 

11.15 am Refreshments

 

11.30 am Joseph Caron, Former Canadian ambassador to China, Japan and India & Asia consultant, Vancouver,  “Canada in the Asia-Pacific – how did we get there, and where are we going?”

 

Discussant: Alan Hallsworth, Professor, Faculty of Management and Law, University of Surrey

 

12.45 pm Lunch

 

1.30 pm Jennifer Welsh, Professor in International Relations, Somerville College, University of Oxford, 
“Canada’s international policy - the Asia-Pacific region in its global context”

 

Discussant: Tony McCulloch, Associate Fellow, Institute for the Study of the Americas, London

 

2.45 pm Refreshments

 

3.15pm Nicolas Maclean CMG, Chief Executive, MWM (Asia) and former Senior Fellow for International Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London, “Canada and the Asia-Pacific – the European business perspective”

 

Discussant: Andrew Halper, Head of CMS UK China Group, London

 

4.30pm – End of conference

 

Legal Information Institute of India (LIIofIndia)

Legal Information Institute of India (LIIofIndia)




The Legal Information Institute of India (LIIofIndia) is an international standard, free-access and non-profit, comprehensive online collection of Indian legal information which has been developed through cooperation between four leading Indian Law Schools (NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad; National Law School of India University, Bangalore; National Law University, Delhi, and Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur) in partnership with AustLII.
The LII of India currently contains 151 databases including:

•  legislation (the India Code from 1836, some State legislation, and commentary on legislation),
• Indian case law (over 300,000 cases in full text from the Supreme Court, most High Courts, and tribunals),
• treaties (all India treaties to 1975, plus many subsequent bilateral treaties),
• law reform reports (from the Law Commission),
• legal scholarship (six law journals to date, with scholarship repositories, books and judicial scholarship still to be developed),
• cases concerning India in International Courts and Tribunals, and
• cases concerning India from the pre-1873 English Reports.

Recent updates and additions include:

• cases from the High Court of Calcutta (Appellate Side) 2003- and High Court of Calcutta Port Blair Bench 2008-
• the NALSAR Media Law Review 2010- and NALSAR Environmental Law and Practice Review 2011-
• the Indian Journal of Law and Economics 2010-
• 29 State and Territory Schemes databases and
• West Bengal Acts 1848-

Three new Partner Institutions have joined LII of India: Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (GNLU); Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, Chennai (TNDALU); and Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala (RGNUL)

Oral History Interviews: Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge

The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge is near completion of a project to digitise their collection of  Oral history interviews
The site provides free online access to a unique sound archive containing several hundred oral history interviews and recordings relating to the political, economic and social history of India during the 20th century. They include materials relating to the British Empire, colonial rule in India, their struggle for Independence and the work of political movements such as the Indian National Congress and supporters of Gandhi. Contributors include Indian politicians, social reformers, eye witnesses of key events and members of the British establishment. Each entry has associated bibliographic information, technical and copyright data. Many have transcripts.

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library digitisation

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), India is starting a large-scale digitisation programme. The pilot so far has digitized 50 collections of manuscripts, 834 interview transcripts, 29,802 photographs, over one lakh images of the newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika (dating from 1905 to 1938) and much more.


The Digital Library includes:


Private papers (the Nehru Memorial Museum Library [NMML] Archives was set up in 1964 with the family papers of Jawaharlal Nehru and now has over 1,000 collections of personal papers of eminent leaders and institutional records, and claims to be largest repository in the country of primary and non-official source material for historical research on Modern Indian History. The collection of personal papers include those of freedom fighters, politicians, educationists, scientists, jurists and industrialists who contributed to the making of modern India. These include among others, private papers of M.K. Gandhi, C. Rajagopalachari, B.C. Roy, Jayaprakash Narayan, Charan Singh, Sarojini Naidu and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. In the list of institutional records, one will find the papers of the All India Congress Committee, All India Hindu Mahasabha, All India Trade Union congress, Indian Merchants’ Chamber and D.A.V. College Trust and Management Society, among others.)


Oral History (including the recollections of men and women who came into contact with India’s great leaders or were connected with important political events or movements either as participants or as witnesses. The oral history recordings and the transcripts cover the wide span of the nationalist movement and thereafter, going back to the partition of Bengal, and the First World War; the Satyagraha campaigns, the activities of revolutionary and terrorist groups, growth of the Socialist movement, Indo-British relations in the context of Indian and British politics, and the events leading to the partition of India. )

Newspapers and Journals (currently available is a selection of the title Amrit Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), 1905-1996)


and


Photographs (including photographs of Jawaharlal Nehru and his contemporaries as well as of important events associated with the nationalist movement. The photographs have been acquired from several sources, mainly as gifts from organizations like the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust (IGMT), Photo Division, and the Nehru Collection, and individuals like Shri P.N. Sharma, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Mohammad Yunus, Pyarelal and Shri K.R. Narayanan. The Photo-Section of the Library has at present 1,15,068 photographs in the General Collection, 52,072 in the IGMT collection and 4030 in Mohammad Yunus collection & 4541 in KRN collection which have been processed.)


The material currently available within the Digital Library is a small selection of these very large collections, but a growing one, well worth exploring and returning to.

A Selection of New Books - Asia

A selection of new books from South and South East Asia added to the collection this month are listed below:

Malaysia : human rights report 2008 : civil & political rights. Selangor, Malaysia : Suaram Kommunikasi, c2009.

Baruah, Sanjib (ed). Ethnonationalism in India : a reader. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Brunner, Hans-Peter. North East India : local economic development and global markets. New Delhi ; London : SAGE, 2010.

Buch, Nirmala. From oppression to assertion : women and panchayats in India. Delhi : Routledge India; c2010.

Chowdhury, Kanishka. The new India : citizenship, subjectivity, and economic liberalization. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, c2011.

Deo, Nandini. The politics of collective advocacy in India : tools and traps. Sterling, VA : Kumarian Press, 2011.

Faraizi, Aminul Haque, Taskinur Rahman and Jim McAllister. Microcredit and women's empowerment : a case study of Bangladesh. London : Routledge, c2011.

Gilani, Ijaz Shafi, The voice of the people : public opinion in Pakistan 2007-2009. Karachi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Holt, Sarah. Aid, peacebuilding and the resurgence of war : buying time in Sri Lanka. Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Hossain, Shahadat. Urban poverty in Bangladesh : slum communities, migration and social integration. London : I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Kaviraj, Sudipta. The imaginary institution of India : politics and ideas. New York ; Chichester : Columbia University Press, c2010.

Kazi, Seema. In Kashmir : gender, militarization & the modern nation-state. Brooklyn, NY : South End Press, 2010.

Kua, Kia Soong. 20 years defending human rights. Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia : SUARAM, [c2009]


Kumar, Deepak, Vinita Damodaran and Rohan D'Souza (eds). The British Empire and the natural world : environmental encounters in South Asia. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Leong, Wai Kum. The Singapore Women's Charter : 50 questions. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011.

Milner, Anthony. The Malays. Malden, MA ; Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell Pub., 2008.

Panagariya, Arvind. India : the emerging giant. New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Pande, Ishita. Medicine, race and liberalism in British Bengal : symptoms of empire. Abingdon ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Raj, Subhendu Ranjan. Coalition politics in India : dimensions of federal power sharing. New Delhi : Manak Publications, 2009.

Ranganathan, Maya. Eelam online : the Tamil diaspora and war in Sri Lanka. Newcastle : Cambridge Scholars, c2010.

Roy, Anupama. Mapping citizenship in India. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Saif, Lubna. Authoritarianism and underdevelopment in Pakistan, 1947-1958, the role of the Punjab. Karachi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
 
Saravanamuttu, Johan. Malaysia's foreign policy : the first fifty years : alignment, neutralism, Islamism. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010.

Schaffer, Howard B. How Pakistan negotiates with the United States : riding the roller coaster. Washington, D.C. : United States Institute of Peace, 2011.

Shaban, Abdul. Mumbai : political economy of crime and space. New Delhi : Orient BlackSwan, 2010.

Shankar, B. L. The Indian Parliament : a democracy at work. New Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Siddiqui, Kamal  et al. Social formation in Dhaka, 1985-2005 : a longitudinal study of society in a third world megacity. Farnham, Surrey ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2010.

de Silva Jayasuria, Shihan. African diaspora in Asian trade routes and cultural memories, Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, c2010.


Singh, A.K., S.P. Singh and D.S. Sutaria (eds) Gender budgeting and women empowerment in India. New Delhi : Serials Publications, 2010.

Sobhan, Rehman. Challenging the injustice of poverty : agendas for inclusive development in South Asia.  New Delhi, India ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE, 2010.

Sury, M. M. India : sixty years of planned economic development, 1950 to 2010. New Delhi, India : New Century Publications, 2010.

'Negotiating with the ‘Enemy’: perspectives past and present - 24th September 2010

University of London School of Advanced Study, Institute of Commonwealth Studies-Open University Empire and Postcolonial Group and Ferguson Centre for African & Asian Studies

Workshops on Counterinsurgency and Colonialism


'Negotiating with the ‘Enemy’: perspectives past and present

Friday 24 September 2010

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Venue: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of
London, Court Room, South Block, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

Theme:

Counterinsurgency, 'homeland security' and 'The War on Terror' have led to a renewed interest in historical case studies of counterinsurgency, including case studies from the British Empire and Commonwealth. There has been debate in the US and UK of military
strategies, 'winning hearts and minds', and policing for international operations. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the peace process in Northern Ireland, demonstrate that another, relatively neglected area can have a major impact on such campaigns. This is the 'negotiation' with, and 'persuasion' of, militant elites and their key civilian supporters. The Northern Ireland peace process was developed through complex, often secret, contacts. The Iraqi insurgency was turned around as much through the 'Anbar Awakening' as by a 'surge' and new counterinsurgency policy. The question of how to negotiate, persuade and buy over Taliban leaders and supporters came to the fore in Afghanistan policy in 2009-10. This workshop will look at a variety of ways and contexts, contemporary and historical, in which 'enemy' leaders (military and civilian) have been targeted for persuasion and negotiation.

Enquires: To apply to attend without a paper please email Troy Rutt: Troy.rutt@sas.ac.uk

Programme

Registration 9.00-9.15

Opening 9.15-9.30

Session 1 9.30-11.00 Negotiating with tribal societies – AfPak perspectives

• Negotiating Frontier Relations: Britain & Wazistan (Hugh Beattie, Open University) Discussant: TBC
• The Political Officer: Managing the Pashtun tribes of the NW Frontier of India 1901-1947 (Chris Tripodi, Kings College London, DSD) Discussant: TBC
• Pashtun Perspectives on negotiating with the Soviets & British, 1839-1987 (Rob Johnson, Oxford University) Discussant: John Bew

Tea 11.00-11.15

Session 2 11.15-12.45 Levels of Negotiation: surrender & loyalty transfer

• Negotiating with Mau Mau: pseudo-gangs and surrender schemes, 1952-56 (Huw Bennett, King’s College London) Discussant: Karl Hack.
• Communist perspectives on coming to terms with the British & semi-autonomous local politicians: Malaya 1948-60’ (Karl Hack, Open University). Discussant: TBC.

Lunch 12.45-1.45

Session 3 1.45-3.15 Covert peacemaking: Northern Ireland experiences

• Covert peacemaking: Clandestine Negotiations &Backchannels with the IRA during the early ‘Troubles’, 1972-76 (Andrew Mumford, University of Hull) Discussant: TBC
• Behind the Scenes: Negotiating with Republicans & Loyalists and the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1980s-90s (Paul Dixon, Kingston University) Discussant: TBC.

Tea 3.15-3.30

Session 4 3.30-5.00 Paradoxes, Paradigms and Problems

• The Northern Ireland model re-examined: conditions for successful negotiation (John Bew, Kings College London) Discussant: Paul Dixon
• The Paradoxes of Negotiation (Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Bart Schuurman, Utrecht University, Netherlands) Discussant: TBC.

Roundtable/overview 5.00-5.30

For further details see the full programme.

More new books

A further selection of new books added to the catalogue and collection in July:

Akwasi Addaae-Boahene, Aid effectiveness and the education sector : implications for civil society,  Accra : SEND Ghana, 2009.

Nicholas Atampugre, Opportunities for civil society engagement with aid effectiveness in Ghana : an overview of aid policy, harmonisation strategy, and delivery/management mechanisms,  Accra : SEND-Ghana : Aid Effectiveness Forum, [2009]

Tony Balshaw and Jonathan Goldberg, Broad-based black economic empowerment : final codes & scorecard, Cape Town : Human & Rousseau, 2008.

Suhas Chakma (ed), India human rights report, 2009, New Delhi, India : Asian Centre for Human Rights, 2009.

Peter Clegg and Emilio Pantojas-García (eds), Governance in the non-independent Caribbean : challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century, Kingston, Jamaica : Ian Randle, 2009.

Francis Clift et al, Caribbean Children's Law Project : the law relating to children in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, Brixton, London : Hornby Ackroyd & Levy, [1997?]

Julie Dubois, Trends in student borrowing and pathways : evidences from the 1990, 1995 and 2000 classes : final report, [Ottawa] : Learning Policy Directorate, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2006.

Ruth Hall (ed), Another countryside? : policy options for land and agrarian reform in South Africa, Bellville : PLAAS, School of Government, University of the Western Cape, 2009.

Anthony Harriott, Farley Brathwaite, Scot Wortley (eds), Crime and criminal justice in the Caribbean, Kingston, Jamaica : Arawak Publications, c2004.

Terence Lee, The media, cultural control and government in Singapore, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Judy Smith-Höhn, A strategic conflict assessment of Zambia, Pretoria, South Africa : Institute for Security Studies, 2009.

Exploring the Census - an Indian Odyssey

Throughout the enormous geographical extent of British colonies, as well as the raw goods and finished products on which the Empire’s prosperity was based constantly being exchanged, information was a major commodity. Unlike most of the physical items, this information is still available to researchers, and is a resource not only for historians, but for those interested in an extraordinarily wide range of subjects.


A common perception is that the Population Census is simply a head count of the people of the country. It is much more than that. Censuses collect reliable data on essential characteristics, such as, population, economy activity, social and cultural aspects, migration and demography and present them at the lowest administrative level. Census data demonstrates where the nation is positioned at a particular point in respect of various social and economic characteristics in the world. The ten yearly census data is very useful for planning for the future, as well as for reflecting on trends and change from the past.

The first Indian national census was contemplated in the mid 1850's but had a number of precedents, The earliest literature 'Rig-Veda' reveals that some kind of population count was maintained in the period 800-600 BC in India. The celebrated 'Arthashastr' by 'Kautilya' written in the 3rd Century BC prescribed the collection of population statistics as a measure of state policy for taxation. During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administrative report 'Ain-e-Akbari' included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics.

A systematic and modern population census was conducted non synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country. This effort, building on methods used in previous colonial tabulations, culminated in 1872 and has been popularly labelled as the first population census of India. The first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten year.

There are problems in inherent in the collection of census data and statistics – these include both operational or logistical factors, including omissions and undercounting, and conceptual issues. For the Indian census historically there has been some degree of subjectivity in relation to how villages and towns and how families have been defined. One other issue that has been the subject of scholarly debate revolves around the way in which caste was conceptualised by the Indian census and the impact of this. Caste was included in censuses until 1931, and its use related to British theories of race. The introduction of a notion of social precedence has been claimed by some scholars to have had a significant role in the production of modern caste identities in India.
The Census of India 2001 was the fourteenth census in the continuous series and the sixth since independence. The gigantic task of census taking was completed in two phases. In the first phase, the House -listing Operation, all building and structures, residential, partly residential or non- residential were identified and listed and the uses to which they were put recorded. Information on houses, household amenities and assets were also collected. In the second phase, the Population Enumeration, more detailed information on each individual residing in the country, Indian national or otherwise, during the enumeration period was collected. At the Census 2001, more than 2 million (or 20 lakh) enumerators were deployed to collect the information by visiting every household. The Indian Census is one of the largest administrative exercises undertaken in the world.

The modern census is notable for the large number of publications produced and the range of depth of information that it contains. Assistance from library staff is available for students and researchers at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library.

As well as print holdings of census reports and tables electronic sopies are also available. The official Indian Government Census website http://www.censusindia.gov.in/  contains data from the latest 2001 census, and also old census reports and tables, from 1881, 1911, 1921, 1931, and 1941.

The Indian General Election: The Outcome and its Implications

This Thursday, the 25th of June, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies hosts a workshop on the recent Indian General Election (for further details see http://www.sas.ac.uk/events/view/5809)

The Library holds significant collections relating to elections in Commonwealth countries including pamphlets and leaflets produced by political parties, official election results, observer reports of the Commonwealth Secretariat and other bodies, and published analyses of elections (both in book form and as journal articles). Other items consider electoral reform and methods of elections, gender representation, violence surrounding elections and the role of political parties. We’re happy to advise researchers on resources available.

Indian resources

Two new resources from India – with thanks to Intute
Included in the latest update from Intute are two new resources from India. For a complete list check the Intute website http://www.intute.ac.uk/

Vote report India was an innovative web 2.0 project launched by open-source projects, Ushahidi and SwiftRiver, and managed by eMoksha which used citizen based groups to monitor the 2009 Indian elections. It encouraged members of the public and human rights groups to send emails, text messages (SMS) and video reports of examples of electoral fraud and violations of the Indian Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct direct to the website. Users of the site can access information about the aims of the project and its methodology. It is also possible to read press releases about the elections, and view maps and descriptions of reported incidents. These offer insight into the state of Indian democracy.

Digital Library of India is a major portal to online collections of books hosted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in co-operation with over 21 Indian universities and the Indian government. It provides free access to a growing number of ebooks scanned from Indian library collections. They include many historic monographs and books in Indian languages, covering a full range of topics from the humanities and social sciences. There is particularly strong coverage of topics relating to Indian culture, history, society and politics. These include coverage of elections in India, Indian politics, the British Empire in India and relations between India and Pakistan, including the conflict over the region of Kashmir It is possible to search or browse the website. As the digitisation project is ongoing, new material is being continuously added. Details about the progress of the project and copyright can be accessed from the website. It also includes links to major Indian newspapers and journals online.