Tim has been selected by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to attend a Workshop on South Asian Historical Records and Climate, at the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on 4th and 5th March.
The Workshop will be based around the recent release of records from the India Office by the British Library. Climatic conditions in India were systematically recorded in the form of official meteorological observations in India from the nineteenth century, though records exist for the earlier period in the form of ships’ logs or the daily weather records kept by missionaries. The India Office Records contain information on instruments and methods of observation; observatory operations including meteorological observations, tidal observations, magnetic operations, astronomical observations (general observations, transits, eclipses and star studies); rainfall; ozone; extreme weather events (including hurricanes, storms, floods and cyclones).
The aims of this workshop are to:
· Bring together academics from a range of disciplines , and curators of collections, from South Asia and the UK;
· Share knowledge of relevant sources in the British Library and in India, in both libraries and archives;
· Discuss the nature of the contextual material available and approaches for its interrogation;
· Recommend sources in India and the British Library for enquiry to support research collaborations;
· Develop interdisciplinary research collaborations based on the sources identified in India and the BL, including those listed in Science and the changing environment in India 1780-1920: a guide to sources in the India Office Records.
