Royal Society for Asian Affairs

Material concerned with the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (originally the Central Asian Society) and its interaction with the Royal Asiatic Society.

The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) was formerly known as The Royal Central Asian Society (originally, The Central Asian Society). The Central Asian Society was established in 1901 under the direction of Dr Cotterell Tupp, Captain Francis Younghusband, Colonel Algernon Durand, and General Sir Thomas Gordon. On 1 January, 1975, the Society changed its name to The Royal Society for Asian Affairs, reflecting a shift of emphasis from narrowly Central Asian matters to an embrace of Asia as a whole. The shift of emphasis had already been marked (in 1970) by the renaming of the Society's Journal as Asian Affairs. Formerly, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, the Society's Journal has been published continuously since 1914. The present remit of the RSAA is the contemporary economic, political and social developments of every Asian country.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.

The material was divided into two series:

• OS20/1 - Royal Central Asian Society
• OS20/2 - Royal Society for Asian Affairs

Open. Please contact the archivist using the email address given here. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID.

The material is part of the institutional records of the Society from its dealings with other organisations.

The papers were catalogued by Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2019.

Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.

These papers were sent and received by the Royal Asiatic Society in the course of its business.

The Society, holds in its Collections, Asian Affairs, the Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and also "Strolling about on the roof of the world : the first hundred years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (formerly Royal Central Asian Society)" by Hugh Leach with Susan Maria Farrington. Further details can be found here .