Library Genesis

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On the basis of input from one of my collegue, I share a link to an online library. Check it HERE. Well I have not been able to locate any desired book on this site but there are many good articles and books available from this site. The books and articles are directly downloaded to your system in pdf format.

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RTI as a Research Tool in History

Is anyone surprised by the title of this post?


Well, I am not giving any thesis here. I am not going to talk about invention which I may use in research in history in India or on India. I believe that whatsoever I am going to say here had been somewhere already referred to on H-Asia list from where I am presently de-listed because I have given @satyam.net.in email address.


Now I come to the point. I fear the infringement of copyright of some website as well being of plagiarism, so I will suggest the readers to visit the motive(about) page of the National Security Archive of USA. I intently emphasis that the readers from India attentively read that how the George Washington University has used Freedom of Information of Act. I believe or you may say that I have assumed that it is somewhat similar to Right to Information Act 2005 of India. I could have done some more google on it but a recent research says that every search on google produce CO2 which is not environment friendly, therefore, I am only giving importance to the content of the page. The page further gives detail on how the archive of university is using FIA for the collection of data - an important step in the historic research. It has also shared its other and further activities.


Now, I just wonder that can the similar thing be done in India by the people engaged in the field of history?

Well, I know that there are people who had sought information on the case of Subash Chander Bose. I think, that it can be a good question or experiment to execute in India. I think if I am able to frame my idea well, I can do PhD which I have not yet done and now Sixth Pay commission will not allow me to attach word Professor to my name if I do not do or get it done or purchase PhD. (No apologies if I have trampled on the tails of many of PhDs and ready to face the music if any agency want to prosecute me for saying such a thing in such a generalized manner for all the PhDs).


And one more important point which I will like to make full force and emphasize. I have visited three of the de-classified documents on Columbian police. All the pages were in PDF form and I have not faced any difficulty in reproducing them on my computer. In case of online resources in India, you face such difficulties. Has anyone recently visited Digital history of India? For me, I now generally route my search through the pages of Wikipedia.

Indian Carnival

Indian Carnival on history or in other words, Carnival of Indian History has appeared on the cyberspace. By now, two editions have appeared. It is notified that the new carnival will appear on 15th of every month.

It seems that it is well received by the world of bloggers. I have learned about it from an established blogger at Worldhisotryblog.com. Secondly, a noting is also made on the site of History News Network.


In the second carnival, JK of Varnam had included posts under twelve points. With such a carnival, the readers will find articles totally related to Indian history and historiography. It is a good thing to happen.


The Carnivals on history are there for some time by now. They are quite popular. It is an effective activity in the field of intellectual exchange in the field of history. As per the History Carnival Aggregator, there are eight such carnivals. All of them are quite popular. They are well organized and planned. I have found The History Carnival of great interest to me. It is also a fortnightly affair and well participated. Then there are carnivals like Carnivalesque, Asian History, Military history, Four Stone Hearth, Genealogy, Biblical Studies and Bad History.


Bill Turkel had once written a post similar to carnival which was well received.


I have found the appearance of Indian History Carnival quite interesting. However, it has made me to think about some related issues. Is it a sign of progress or a development in the field of carnivals? There is a carnival of Asian History. It appears quarterly. I have found that the organizers keep on encouraging the participant to host the next carnival. The Asian carnival is generally hosted by Frog in the well. They take up the posts which are mainly related to Fast East. In the recent carnival, there was no post on Indian History as such. They have covered the posts on China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and some related issues. But there are many regions which have never found any representation on the carnivals. Should it be believed that there is a kind of fragmentation in such an activity? Similarly, the History Carnival takes issues which are Euro Centric or Western world oriented. They do cover many issues. But there are some such topics about which the people of other regions are not familiar with. Similarly, there are some civilizations like Incas, Aztec and Mayas which are not commented upon or written about more frequently. I have found a little mention about the African continent. If we consider and welcome the Indian Carnival, then it can be appreciated only if we expect that it is a positive branching out of carnival culture in history. Soon, there may appear more carnivals dedicated to nations, regions, culture, civilization and trends. The carnivals like Military history, Four Stone Hearth, Genealogy, Biblical Studies and Bad History are dedicated carnivals. Therefore, similar branching out of carnivals should be welcomed and appreciated. I consider the coming of Indian History Carnival from that perspective. It is a branching out of the carnival culture.


However, some care should be taken about such branching out. There should not be overlapping of the carnivals. It has been taking place but it is a difficulty which can be well tackled if some activity continue to take place in that direction. I mean to say that there should be more branching out of similar carnivals. There should be carnival dedicated totally Chinese history. In case of H-Asia email listing, I have found scholars taking issues on Chinese history more than other issues. Similarly, there should be carnival on African continent and may be on Arab countries also. I hope that such carnival will remain in the realm of intellectual activity as the present carnivals have remained quite balanced and mostly unblemished.


Similarly, trend based and period based carnivals should also emerge. I suggest that the scholars may take a clue and tips from email listing on H-Net.


On the whole, I welcome the Indian History Carnival.

A Storehouse of Primary Sources (Persian) on Medieval India

Edited Information 08052021: 

The main theme of the post can be accessed at the URL https://persian.packhum.org/main

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The Original Post without any edit: 

One can find a store of original sources on Medieval India translated into English from Persian, and Urdu at The Packard Humanities Institute, Persian Literature in Translation. The site of Packard Humanities Institute declares, “The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation dedicated to archaeology, music, film preservation, historic conservation, and early education. PHI is located in Los Altos, California.” There are some of the established sources like the book by Eliot and Dowson titled “The History of India, as Told By Its Own Historians” also available on the site. I had not studied any major work on Medieval India for some time by now. I have copies of works by Irfan Habib, J. N. Sarkar, and Alam with me but most of my time is taken by Modern India and American history. I have many questions on the Medieval Period of India which have remained answered because I did not have access to original sources or some better book. I have just studied one of the chapters by Abbas Khan Sarwani in his book Tarikh-i Sher Shahi”. From there I found the answer to a question that had remained in my mind since my graduation years. I had studied A. L. Srivastva and then J. L. Mehta in detail. I was highly impressed by the personality of Sher Shah Suri. However, in A. L. Srivastva, it was written the ancestors of Sher Shah Suri had come from Afghanistan in search of employment. I was never satisfied with the explanation given in there. Now, after reading Sarwani's account I have learned that how Behlol Lodhi encouraged that migration. One can find nearly 140 authors starting from 1100 A. D. to 1750 A. D. Khafi Khan is not included but there are Abu Fazal, Utbi, Yahya Ahmad Sarhindi, Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, Nurul Haq Dehlvi, Muhsin Fani (it is a pseudo Name, I did not know.), Sultan Jahangir, Harcharan Das, Gulbadan Begum, Farishta, Firdawsi, Fayzi, Faqir Delhvi, Munsi Sujan Rai Bhandari, Budh Singh Hatri, Barani, and many more.

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Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that I have located this source on the site of Wikipedia.

To the Readers of Munshi Premchand

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I am made to write this post because I have been receiving too many visitors to this blog only because of the post on Munshi Premchand Ki Kahaniya.


Some of the visitors have left the comments to that post. It seems that after visiting the site Munshi premchand ki kahaniya, some visitors have developed this impression that blog of stories is my creation. They have left words of praise for me. First of all, I thank them for visiting my site. I also appreciate and thank them for putting words of praise on my blog.


Now, I categorically state that the above mentioned blog is not my creation. The real author of that blog is Raman Kaul, a Kashmiri Brahmin who is readily available at http://kaulonline.com/. It is his job and imagination that he has brought these stories on the net which the visitors have been enjoying a lot if I can rightly judge from the visitors log on the site meter. It is from his site that I can further substantiate that all these stories can be accessed at C-DAC Noida titled Dawaray Dawaray Gyan Sampada. The readers interested in more Hindi Sahitya (Hindi Literature online) may also find more authors and stories at the CDAC Noida website. They must have Window 2000/XP on their system to access the material provided by C-DAC. The visitors with older version can access the site of Raman Kaul.


Those of you, who are interested in writing in Hindi, they may visit the site of Raman Kaul at Kauloline.com, reach the lower portion of the main page and locate the title Miscellaneous pages. Under Miscellaneous, click Devnagari Editors. Download any of the editors recommended by Raman Kaul and try your hand at them. Give importance to the comments of Raman Kaul for each editor. They are based on practical experiences with each editor. Some of the editor not recommended by Raman are also useful. They may also visit his associates about whom he has referred to at the same site. Even I have developed my hindi blog titled Sumir Sharma Hindi Main with their help. I have been quite indulgingly assisted by Debashish Chakarborty, Shashi Singh and their friends for developing that blog. You may get to their blogs and websites from the main site of Raman Kaul already mentioned above. When I learnt it from them, the google blogger did not have the right device to write in UTF 8 directly on this blog service. It is only latter that they have added this device to their service. I have also written one story on that blog. If you enjoy reading hindi literature, I am sure you may like that story also. I will be obliged if you read and find one of my story titled Phagwara Ka Phataka at that blog which I believe the readers from Punjab may appreciate more.

Historical Sources Online by Spinning Clio

Marc Comtois has prepared a weblography which I have been exploring for some time. I have already made a comment on him on the side bar of this blog. I had first come across his work at Introduction to Historical Methods: Index. It was back in 2005 when I first read this article. No doubt, it has been identified and well recognized by the rest of the world.

However it was only later I identified that the author of Spinning Clio was Marc Comtois.

No doubt, on his blog Spinning Clio, he has given a list of links on history related sources. In the Weblography, he has prepared a separate sheet on the links. It is done with great imagination. Some may find it too restricted. It is the interest of the author which has guided the compilation of the list. I find it quite exhaustive. I find it a good starting point for the beginners. It fulfills the need of main purpose of using Internet. The Internet is a vast place. The information is available on Internet. But where is it? How can one find the desired information and a dependable information? I believe these are the issues which come up when you start using Internet as a teaching and research tool. The list prepared by Marc Comtois is one of the best example, or rather a model, wherein the Internet can be effectively used as a teaching and research tool. No doubt, this is not the only list on the net. The HNN bloggers have prepared similar list. They regularly update it. Then there is example of Miland Brown. He has his own model which he executes with great commitment and consistency. Then, there is a group of Digital Historians who are also very effective in showing how the digital world can be useful for the scholars of social sciences. I have commented on them earlier. I have been using the list of Marc Comtois also but never commented on it. Here I fulfill it. I share with rest of the world the sources which I have been using for exploring the web for my subject History.

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Sources:
For Picture of Muses of History:
Spinning Clio
The Nine Greek Muses by Heather Clegg-Haman. (Special note: The references given for links to the Muses is not correct on this site. It seems it is mere a clerical mistake while preparing the manuscript.)

Social Scientist on Digital South Asia Library

Social Scientist is an important History Journal on Indian History. The digital form of the Social Scientist is available on Digital South Asia Library.

It is a chance finding. I have not found enough sources and authoritative writings on Indian history. The digital versions of the Journal are available from 1972 to 2001. It is a hurried posting and rest of the comments later.