Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 24, 2006|Volume 34, Number 23

Project to enhance collection
related to colonial India

A collaborative effort has been launched to establish and preserve a collection of materials at Yale relating to the independence struggle in colonial India.

The South Asian Studies Council of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and the South Asian Independence Movement (SAIM) Project are collaborating on the endeavor, which seeks to expand the Yale University Library's current collection of books and materials on the independence movement. In addition, the SAIM Project committee plans to build an archive of oral history, based on interviews with persons who were either active participants in, or witnesses to, the events of the independence movement.

The project also seeks to enrich the academic study of South Asia at Yale and to expand the larger ties of the University with colleagues in the region.

The collection will focus primarily on the independence movements in three current South Asian states that constituted the former British colony of India -- Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Because Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka were also part of the former British Empire, works relating to those South Asian states will also be included in this collection.

Phyllis Granoff, the Lex Hixon Professor of World Religions and chair of the South Asian Studies Council, has established a committee to provide academic oversight for the project. The committee is chaired by Mridu Rai, assistant professor of history. The members are Nayan Chanda, director of publications, Yale Center for Study of Globalization; Rich Richie, curator, South and Southeast Asian Collections, Sterling Memorial Library; and Pravin N. Bhatt, secretary, South Asian Studies Council.

The current SAIM Project committee members are Dr. Barin Desai (India), A.G. Abbasi (Pakistan), Rahima Chaudhury (Bangladesh) and Nihal DeLanerrole (Sri Lanka). SAIM and the South Asian Studies Council will also call on a group of advisers for the project including Raj Mohan Gandhi (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne), D.R. SarDesai (University of California, Los Angeles), Ela Bhatt (Self Employed Women's Association), Devvrut Pathak (Gujrat Vidyapith) and Shashi Tharoor (United Nations), among others.

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