South Asian Heritage in the IHR Collections

Author: Mrinalini Venkateswaran

Find in the Library: CB.95325/Ven 

This new release takes an interdisciplinary approach to South Asian historiography, partition studies, and the history of art. Venkateswaran explores new perspectives on how the past is collected, interpreted, and displayed in the context of colonialism, as well as how objects can communicate stories of migration. She encourages readers to look critically at museums, and more specifically at how India’s material culture has shaped national identity. The partition of India shaped modern Indian identity through the work of museums, particularly in Punjab where this book is focussed on, in a period when national identities were unclear and ideas of citizenship and belonging were heavily contested. 

Author: Nirad Chaudhuri

Find in Library: CLC.3148/Cha

In The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Chaudhuri reflects on his childhood in the Bengali countryside and his youth in Calcutta, offering a personal account of growing up under British rule in India. This book explores how colonialism shaped south Asian identities and society more broadly, as well as the thoughts, feelings, and political observations Chaudhuri experienced whilst living between two cultures and traditions in a changing nation. 

Author: Om Dhungel with James Button

Find in Library: CLD.3218/Dhu

Written at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, Bhutan to Blacktown is Om Dhungel’s memoir of going from being a senior government official in Bhutan to a refugee forced into exile, eventually rebuilding his life in Western Sydney. He shares his family’s personal journey and firsthand account of the ethnic cleansing of Nepali people in Bhutan. Dhungel also offers insight into Australia’s refugee resettlement experience, detailing the role he played in settling over 5000 Bhutanese refugees in one of the most successful refugee initiatives in the nation’s history. 

Author: Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor

Find in Library:  B.847/Dro

Grunwick: the workers’ story explores the impact on workers’ rights as just one example of the vital role South Asians have played in shaping modern Britain. This book emphasises that the Grunwick Dispute was about much more than wages, centring it as a key moment in Britain’s social and labour history. Dromey and Taylor examine the important questions the strike raised about the law and workplace rights, and how the courage of South Asian women demanding fair treatment at work highlighted migrant labour concerns and ultimately changed the way trade unions operate. 

Editors: Asad Ali and Kamran Asdar Ali

Find in Library: CLC.3161/Ali

Towards Peoples’ Histories in Pakistan: (In)audible Voices, Forgotten Pasts is a collection of essays which seeks to shed light on the lived experiences of ordinary people whose stories have shaped the history of Pakistan. Much of the works on the history of Pakistan have been centred on the state and its ideology, but this book looks to reclaim the voices which have often been overlooked, and many of these explore how migration has been central to the formation of the country.