I am studying the economic history of India (or South Asia) in my free time, and have found that Indian history is poorly documented when compared to British history, at the same time.
What are the conditions/events that led the British to meticulously document their times?
Please point me toward readings and books for non-historians.
First what time period are we looking at as this is important.
One main point perhaps is that there were more educated (read and write) people for the population and caught up in the Enlightment's ideas of observation and recording they wrote a lot about the world around them. This extended beyond the upper nobility and unto the proto-middle classes.
Other reasons was Britain was a much smaller/centralised place rather than the sprawling India with its many kingdoms, this meant that the civil servants in London needed to know what was happening around the country as such regular reports, newspapers and letters flowed around the country and were collected.
Finally I suspect a large chunk of historical Indian manuscripts were destroyed during the British conquest of India (especially during the Indian revolt).