Published by Primary Source Microfilm

An important source of information for the study of Indian history, this collection includes over 1,600 items banned by the British Government in India prior to 1947.

India was one of the first developing countries to achieve independence, and its efforts to do so presented a potential threat to Great Britain's colonial empire. This rising tide of nationalism in India in the early 20th century, along with the mounting communal tension between Hindus and Muslims, found expression in a variety of propagandist literature published in both Western and Indian languages. It emanated from movements in India and from expatriate communities in Europe and the United States. The British Government attempted to suppress much of this material through censorship, banning and other restrictions imposed on the press.

This collection contains diverse subject matter on religious controversy, nationalist and secular politics and patriotic poetry. Researchers will find information on:

• Ahmadiya (schismatic Muslim sect)
• Ary Samaj (revivalist Hindu organization)
• Hindu-Muslim conflict
• Islam
• Kashmir
• Khilafat (Islamic movement)
• Sikhism and Sikh politics
• Sunni-Shia division
• Bhagat Singh (Punjab revolutionary)
• Boycott and Swadeshi
• British administration and India?s problems
• Communism and socialism
• Conspiracy cases
• Gandhi
• German propaganda
• "Mutiny"of 1857
• Indian National Congress
• Nationalist biography
• Redshirt movement
• Armed forces and government service
• Princely states
• Revolutionary activity
• Rowlatt agitation 1919 (first non-cooperation campaign)
• Second non-cooperation campaign (1930-1934)
• World War II and "Quit India" movement

Monographs, newspapers, pamphlets and posters provide substantial background information on the various movements which troubled India in the period of censorship and on government/press interaction.

Publications Proscribed by the Government of India contains material in a variety of Indian vernacular languages and includes works written in the Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Urdu and Dravidian languages (organized by language), along with material written in English and other European languages.

Publications Proscribed by the Government of India, a Catalogue of the Collections in the India Office Library and Records and the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, edited by Graham Shaw and Mary Lloyd, accompanies the collection and includes reel information for the microfilm.

35 reels