South Asian Studies

Granville Austin (1927-2014) was an independent scholar and political historian known for his work on India's constitution. The collection is composed of Granville Austin's research files on India, mostly in the form of published articles or book excerpts that Austin collected and often annotated. The majority of the research files, notes and drafts relate to Austin's second book, Working a Democratic Constitution, but some files relate to his first book, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation. Topics documented in the collection include the Indian constitution, center-state relations in India, Indian politicians and political parties, U.S. foreign relations with India, cases tried before the Indian Supreme Court, and various other subjects related to India's political and legal systems. Research material on the Middle East, material relating to Austin's other writings, professional and personal correspondence, including State Department files, as well as U. S. Information Service photographs and negatives compose additional parts of the collection.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was a noted art historian and champion of Ceylonese and Indian culture. This collection covers a broad spectrum of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy's work in the fields of art history, philosophy, religion, and social criticism.

The Stella Bloch Papers Relating to Ananda K. Coomaraswamy consists of manuscripts, correspondence, drawings, photographs, printed material, and postcards of the American dance critic, art historian, and artist Stella Bloch (1898-1999). This collection documents the relationship between Bloch and the Anglo-Indian art historian, philosopher, and author Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) who embodied the roles of mentor, husband, and friend.

This is the copy gifted to Albert Einstein with an inscription by author.

Artist's statement: In the light of anti-CAA protests and Delhi riots, I wanted to create a copper plate palimpsest for my time, so that the erasure of our constitutional values will not be forgotten. There are two layers of text in the work. In the partially erased layer seen beneath, is the preamble to the Indian Constitution, declaring its claim to secure justice, liberty, and equality to all citizens, and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation. That layer is being eroded, and replaced with textual details of Delhi riots, narrating the incidents of murder and rampage. There are Slogans of violence like “We will enter the house and beat you up” or “Shoot the traitors”. The type face of the second layer of the text is an English font called Samarkan, designed to look like a Sanskrit text, and is intended to act as a visual marker for the Indian right-wing practice of quoting ancient texts to gain validation. It is also a simulation of ancient handwritten palm leaf text manuals from India. The title for the work ‘Everything will be remembered’ comes from the title of the poem written by anti-CAA activist Aamir Azis, lines of which were also recently recited by a member of the band Pink Floyd.

Dissidents and Activists in Sri Lanka, 1960s-1990s documents the activity of a generation of Sri Lankan radical activists who, in their different ways, attempted to escape the claims of rival ethno-nationalisms and build alternative political and development projects, drawing on Marxism, Christian socialism, and feminism, among other inspirations.

The Princeton University Library has some 9,500 Islamic manuscripts, chiefly bound paper codices, containing a total of more than 20,000 texts. The manuscripts are located in the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, at the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library. Robert Garrett (Princeton Class of 1897) collected approximately two-thirds of these manuscripts and donated them to the Library in 1942. Since then, the Library has continued to acquire manuscripts by gift and purchase. The manuscripts are chiefly in Arabic but also include Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other languages of the extended Islamic world written in Arabic script. They date from the early centuries of Islam through the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the manuscripts originated in Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and other main centers of Islamic civilization. But there are examples from Moorish Spain and the Maghreb in the West, to the Indian sub-continent and the Indonesian archipelago in the East, and even sub-Sahara.

Purchased in July, 1994, a small collection of 58 books and pamphlets about the harrowing days of the Sepoy Rebellion, including firsthand narratives by survivors, works of military and political analysis, three decker novels, etc. Also, see the libguide "Narratives of Rebellion" for more resources on this topic: https://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84228&p=541338

The Veerni Project is a non-governmental organization based in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, which provides secondary education and boarding hostels for girls from rural villages in the Thar Desert region. The collection documents the organization's operations, including funding, programming, administration, outreach, and impact.

6 carte-de-visite portraits from Calcutta, 1860-1869.