Leg up for Urdu literature, 90,000 titles digitised in six years
The 90,000 e-books - a staggering
19 million pages - are classified into diverse categories including children's
literature, banned books, diaries and translations and can then be accessed by
people.
NEW DELHI: It's a virtual library where some 90,000 titles in Urdu
- including the Mahabharata and the Quran, as also autobiographies, fiction,
travelogues, translations, manuscripts and pop magazines - have been digitised
and made available on an internet portal for academicians, scholars and
researchers to benefit from.
In addition, the Rekhta.org portal offers a collection of 'shers'
and 'shayaris' and an essential collection of iconic poets - all this for free!
"Our e-book project took birth in 2013 after the idea of an
Urdu virtual library was discussed by me and a few university professors when
the absence of an Urdu archive was collectively felt by all. We then embarked
on a journey to overcome the barrier of inaccessibility and lack of resources
in Urdu learning and reached out to various sources, both public and private
across India, majorly covering cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Rampur, Bhopal,
Allahabad, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Patna and others," the portal's founder,
Noida-based entrepreneur Sanjiv Saraf, told IANS in an interview.
"Without archiving, an ageless language with its long due
recognition and respect would have died long ago, depriving our future
generations from cherishing the rich heritage of Urdu," Saraf added.
The 90,000 e-books - a staggering 19 million pages - are
classified into diverse categories including children's literature, banned
books, diaries and translations and can then be accessed by students, scholars,
researchers, litterateurs and lovers of the language anytime and from anywhere
around the world.
"We are continuing to scout libraries and private collections
for more books that can be digitized and made accessible to readers across the
world. Rare, out of print books that are totally inaccessible to the masses as
they are stored in various libraries all across the country which is prone to
damage and destruction due to termite, water and fire damage are being
sought," Saraf explained.
Most of the books were secured through camps organised by Rekhta
at which several publications and private parties willingly donated century-old
Urdu scripts.
Lucknow's Naval Kishore Press, founded in 1858 and arguably Asia's
oldest printing and publishing concern, was a major contributor, rendering some
2,000 books which included translations of the Mahabharata and the Quran and
rare manuscripts starting from the 17th century.
"Many of the texts received were tattered and torn due to
negligence and poor handling. Rekhta assembled all such texts which were then
reprinted, re-dyed and recreated for audience consumption," Saraf said.
"The same kind of archival has begun for Hindi readers with a
different team attending to Hindi texts and scripts available for digitization.
The project has been running successfully in its attempt to virtually
reincarnate Urdu literature as Western scholars and professors make use of
Rekhta's e-library in their studies," Saraf pointed out.
Some of the institutions associated with the project are
Idara-E-Adabiyat-E-Urdu (Hyderabad), University of Allahabad, Ghalib Academy,
Ghalib Institute, Jamia Hamdard (all three from New Delhi), Government Urdu
Library (Patna), Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Urdu, Arabi-Farsi University
(Lucknow), Saulat Public Library (Rampur), Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy
(Azamgarh) and Rampur Raza Library (Rampur).
Source | https://www.newindianexpress.com/
Regards
Mr.
Pralhad Jadhav
Master of
Library & Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
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