American bibliographer Dr James Nye on his South Asian digital archive

"Hawaai jahaaz aaya, maaf kijiye. Ek baar phir," sighs Dr James Nye from the CSIA in crisp Hindi, having just landed in India, while urging us to repeat a question over the phone lines. A bibliographer for Southern Asia at The Uni-versity of Chicago Library, Dr Nye has played a crucial role in documenting and preserving thousands of valuable pieces of writing and resource material available for historians in South Asia through two major initiatives - the Digital South Asia Library and the South Asia Open Archives Initiative.

A view of Bombay from the Rajabai Clock Tower

This evening, he will present a talk titled, India's Cultural Wealth: Image, Audio and Publications, an Open Archive for the People at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS). The talk has been facilitated by the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation in association with The University of Chicago's centre in New Delhi.

A slide depicting the cleaning of cotton

"The idea is to seek collaborative partners in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other parts of South Asia. These could be government bodies or not-for-profits interested in making parts of India's cultural wealth like books, periodicals, gramophone recordings, maps and manuscripts available to a global audience. The age of the material could range from ancient to modern. We only need to be careful about the copyrights," he informs.

A rare frame of the East Indian Railway

Past forward
The material collected through the process will be digitised and added to the existing catalogue on Digital South Asia Library's (DSAL) online portal, available to a global audience, free of cost. "We began the project in 1999 by taking important reference works such as dictionaries, bibliographies and encyclopedias. We have met with success till now, and in a month, we will see 3.5 million hits," shares Dr Nye, a specialist in Sanskrit, particularly medieval Indian texts - the Puranas and the Upapuranas.

Matras To Panticcerie (Madras To Pondicherry!), Tamil

He throws light on the significance of digitising content for South Asian studies, "Unlike Europe or East Asian studies where large amounts of material is available, South Asia has been slow to make available the resources scholars need, like historical photographs, maps and books in Indian regional languages. We are trying to collaborate with Indian libraries and institutions to increase the availability of resources to support any kind of serious study on India."

Dr James Nye

Preserve culture
Through collaborations with Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai, Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad and Mushfiq Khwaja Library and Research Centre in Karachi, the digital library has archived 1,000s of books and journals in Tamil and Urdu along with English journals, published during the 19th and 20th centuries.

"We are focusing on rare resources, especially newspapers because I believe that newspapers in regional languages are as rare as manuscripts. For instance, an Urdu journal, The Adabi Dunya is difficult to find. Sometimes, people need to visit several different archives to get a complete set," informs Dr Nye, adding that not knowing a language may hinder the bibliography process. Thus, they work with experts like Tapati Guha Thakurta (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata) and Professor Shahid Amin (University of Delhi) among other Indian collaborators to ensure sound decisions on the resources that need to be made available on the library.

ON Today, 6 pm
AT Visitor's Centre Auditorium, CSMVS, Fort.
CALL 22029613
RSVP jnafmumbai@gmail.com