Newly Catalogued Pamphlets from the India Ofce Library CollectionCath - PDF document

1 Newly Catalogued Pamphlets from the India Ofce Library CollectionCatherine PickettCatalogue records for a collection of about 540 pamphlets, received in the former India Ofce Library (IOL) during the 1920s and 1930s and previously uncatalogued, have at last been added to the British Library’s online catalogue, Explore the British Library Almost all the pamphlets had been stamped as received by the IOL, and some contained handwritten catalogue cards. Some had shelfmarks written on the cover, indicating that the pamphlets were destined for the ‘Smallwood’ shelfmark sequence devised by a former librarian, but no longer used after 1933, when a card catalogue was established. It is not known why the cataloguing of these pamphlets was abandoned, but it may have been because by 1933 the IOL’s cataloguers were concentrating their efforts on describing current acquisitions and recataloguing older locations for the new card catalogue. The pamphlets may have been put aside as lower priority. During the 1970s and 1980s, they were still languishing in open plastic crates on the seventh oor of Orbit House, and were not touched until preparations were being made for the move of the collections to St Pancras in 1998, when they were hastily gathered into red le boxes. Following the move, a start was made on cataloguing them, but they remained virtually untouched until March 2012.On examination, it was found that many of these pamphlets were unique in the British Library, and that some were very rare, not even listed in large international databases such as WorldCat. Out of 540 pamphlets, 403, or 74.6%, proved to be the only copies held by the BL. The majority are South Asian imprints, but the collection also contains material from Europe (mainly offprints of periodical articles), and there are also a few British and American publications. The South Asian imprints cover a wide range of subjects, including education, religion, philosophy, politics, social conditions and linguistics. Some are of local or minority interest, which may explain their rarity. A few random examples may serve to illustrate this: Copy of the Resignation Letter of Sri Vadlamudi Muktheswara Prasada Rao, Temple Superintendent & Treasurer, Sri Meenakshi Sundareswaral … [A protest against the admission of Harijans to the temple] (Madura, 1939; IOL.1947.b.691); History of the Eden , by Rai Saheb Kunjabihari Basu (Calcutta, 1930; IOL.1947.a.2170); The Sinjhoro Police Torture Case (Hyderabad, 1921; IOL.1947.a.2289). Many of the pamphlets are responses to the political and social problems of the day, and give an insight into such issues as the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms: A Criticism of Montagu-Chelmsford Proposals of Indian Constitutional Reform, by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Allahabad, 1918; IOL.1947.a.2341); the non-co-operation movement: & Politics: Relation to Non-Co-operation [a pamphlet published by the Bombay Anti-Non-Co-operation Committee] (Bombay, 1920; IOL.1947.a.2457); and Hindu-Muslim relations: The pamphlets are located mainly in the shelfmark sequence IOL.1947.a.2127 to 2596, but a few larger items are placed at IOL.1947.b.684 to 718. Their condition is generally very poor, and it may not be possible to requisition some items until they have been properly conserved. These shelfmarks consisted of a lowercase t, v, w or x preceded and followed by a number, e.g. 40.v.74; the t sequence was for books and pamphlets measuring up to 21 cm., and the other sequences for larger items. eBLJ 2012, Article 12 2 The Bengal Ordinance: Nawabzada Syed Muhammad Hossein’s (of Shaistabad) Presidential Address at the Bengal Mohamedan Conference ..., (Calcutta, 1925; IOL.1947.a.2582). The chief importance of these pamphlets lies perhaps not in their individual worth, but in the overall contribution they make to an understanding of the currents of thought of a wide range of Indian educationists, social reformers and political activists in India between the First and Second World Wars. The cataloguing of these publications has also brought to light many hidden publications, and added to knowledge of Indian bibliography during the interwar period. Newly Catalogued Pamphlets from the India Ofce Library Collection eBLJ 2012, Article 12