LibGuides: HIS 346N INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1750-1950: Primary Sources

Finding Print Primary Sources

UT Libraries has many print primary sources related to the history of pre-independent India. Adding general and subject keywords will help you find primary sources. For example, terms like "personal narratives" often include diaries and memoirs, "sources" typically includes collections of primary documents, etc.

Helpful terms to add to catalog searches for this class include:

Biography
Diaries
Letters
Journal
Personal narratives
Sources

For example, potentially helpful subject terms and combinations might include:

Times of India (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1838 - 2005. Unlimited users.
The world’s most widely circulated English daily newspaper was founded in 1838 to serve British residents of West India.Today this historical newspaper serves researchers interested in studying colonialism and post-colonialism, British and world history, class and gender issues, international relations, comparative religion, international economics, terrorism, and more.
Covers key historical events such as the Sepoy Mutiny, which led to British rule in India; the formation of the Indian National Congress; and the rise of Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement. It captures the 1947 partitioning of India and Pakistan, the war over the Kashmir region, and the creation of Bangladesh. It reports on the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi; the Bhopal industrial disaster, which resulted in thousands of deaths; and the rise of Pakistan as a nuclear power. And, it provides coverage of sports, the Indian film industry, and other stories of everyday life.
South Asian Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1850 - 2010. Unlimited.
The South Asian Newspapers collection chronicles hundreds of years of colonial rule-- with the British as the dominant force from the mid-18th century on--as well as contemporary perspectives on independence movements, early statehood, and the extensive economic and social growth taking place in the region during this time. The collection covers several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and features multiple languages such as Bengali, Dari, English, Nepali, and more. With reportage dating as far back as the 1850s, the South Asian Newspapers collection provides a wealth of coverage and perspectives on major regional and global events of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Part of the Global Press Archive initiative. Open Access to this collection is made possible through the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Indian Express
1933-1994

Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
1685 - 1835. Unlimited users.
Provides full text access to British newspapers and periodicals from the 17th and 18th centuries. Features many short run items and very rare materials to complement other resources already available in this area. Integrates access to sections one through five of this digital project.
Access to this resource is partially funded by the Emily Knauss Library Endowment for the Liberal Arts.
Search across Adam Matthew primary source databases using AM Explorer

ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
1701 - 1800. Unlimited users.
Users may need to refresh cache and cookies or use a private browsing window for this resource. Updated regularly. An online collection of English and foreign language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the U.K. and the Americas between 1701 and 1800. Content is presented as full text page images which can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF documents. When complete, more than 33 million pages of material will support full text searching. The collection is an ongoing project based on The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), a machine-readable union list of the holdings of the British Library, as well as those from more than 1,500 university, private, and public libraries worldwide.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
1492 - 2007. Unlimited users.
Provides full text access to primary source documents from the British Empire (the Empire encompassed Africa, the Americas, Australia, Oceania, and South Asia). Documents include travel accounts, the literature of Empire, photography and illustration, religious material, and records on issues of race and class in the colonial context.
The material is divided into 5 sections
1. Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969
2. Empire Writing and Literature of Empire
3. The Visible Empire
4. Religion and Empire
5. Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism c1607-2007
Browse by names, places and topics Search by period, date, places, person and subject.
Also includes scholarly interpretive essays on the British Empire.

Search across Adam Matthew primary source databases using AM Explorer
India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window
1615 - 1947. Unlimited users.
Provides documents covering the history of South Asia between the founding of the East India Company to the granting of independence to India and Pakistan. Includes original manuscript material, comprising diaries and journals, official and private papers, letters, sketches, paintings and original Indian documents containing histories and literary works.
Access to this resource is funded by the Emily Knauss Library Endowment for the Liberal Arts.
Search across Adam Matthew primary source databases using AM Explorer
Nineteenth (19th) Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
1801 - 1900. Unlimited users.
A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century. The content is sourced from the world's preeminent libraries and archives. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.
Access to this resource is partially funded by the Emily Knauss Library Endowment for the Liberal Arts.

How to Analyze Primary Sources

While primary sources are often desirable for the raw, non-interpreted information they provide, it is important to analyze them for your research. Ask yourself these questions:

Who is the creator and what was their relationship to the event or issue?
Why did the creator produce this source?
Was the source for personal use? For a large audience?
Was the source intended to be public (newspaper) or private (correspondence)?
Everyone has biases. What biases or interests might have influenced how the source was created?
Can the source be substantiated by other primary sources? Can you confirm what the creator is saying?