Archive: Open Access Resources

1. CSSSC Archive makes available through the open-access the FID4SA portal a number of nineteenth and twentieth century Bangla periodicals
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/divisions/129/
https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/fachinfo/suedasien/zeitschriften/bengali/overview.html
Since 2011, CSSSC Archive has collaborated with the University of Heidelberg to contribute digital copies of Bangla periodicals microfilmed mainly from the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat (Kolkata), Konnagar Public Library (Hooghly), Shilpashram (Purulia), Moheary Public Library (Howrah), Kolkata Little Magazine Library-o-Gabeshana Kendra (Kolkata) and the private collections of Indranath Majumdar and Syed Abdur Rahman Ferdousi to first the CrossAsia portal, and now to the FID4SA repository. The periodicals were microfilmed by the CSSSC during 1993-2002 mainly with funds available from Enhanced Research Capacity (EnReCa), a collaborative research programme supported by the Government of Denmark; the Ford Foundation and the Japan Foundation – Asia Centre. These microfilms were then digitised with the support of the South Asia Microform Project at the Center for Research Libraries (Chicago).
2. CSSSC Archive makes available through the open-access FID4SA portal three unique Assamese periodicals
https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/fachinfo/suedasien/zeitschriften/assam/overview.html
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-193.html
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-194.html?lang=en
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-191.html?lang=en
CSSSC Archive has collaborated with the University of Heidelberg to contribute digital copies of three path-breaking Assamese periodicals microfilmed from the Assam Sahitya Sabha (Jorhat) with financial support from the Ford Foundation-New Delhi Office.
3. CSSSC Archive makes available through the open-access CrossAsia portal hundred and sixteen Bangla books and twenty-four rare publications in English
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/collections/c-17.html
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/collections/22.html
https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/fachinfo/suedasien/buecher/bengali.html
https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/fachinfo/suedasien/buecher/english.html
During 1998-2002, the CSSSC Archive copied 116 Bengali books of the circa 1799-1950 period and 24 other rare publications in English from the amazing private collection of Indranath Majumdar, Konnagar Public Library (Hooghly) and Moheary Public Library (Howrah), and later collaborated with the University of Heidelberg to share them here. Biographies, poetry, legal digest in Sanskrit, satires, grammars, textbooks, caste-histories, local histories, Sanskrit plays, medieval lyrics, philosophy, sexology, disease, music, royal tours, Hindu social reforms, evangelism, organizational reports are a few keywords that one can immediately think of.
4. CSSSC Archive, in its first ever collaboration with eap.bl.uk, copied two leading newspapers of South Asia, Jugantara Patrika and Amrita Bazar Patrika – approximately 270,000 pages available now on the open-access British Library portal https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP262 During 2009-11, CSSSC Archives copied two leading newspapers, Jugantara Patrika (Calcutta, Bengali, daily: 1937 - 1980) and Amrita Bazar Patrika (Jessore/Calcutta, bi-lingual / English, bi-weekly / daily: 1872 - 1890; 1892 - 1905; 1911; 1919 onward). Approximately 270,000 pages copied.
5. CSSSC Archive, in collaboration with eap.bl.uk, digitized rare books and periodicals, mostly in Bangla and English, from the collections of Chandannagar Pustakagar (Hooghly), Bankim Bhavan Gabeshana Kendra (Naihati), Bali Sadharan Granthagar (Howrah), Jadunath Sarkar Resource Centre, and Mudiali Library (Garden Reach, Kolkata). Digitized in 2010-12, the project output is now available on the open-access British Library portal. https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP341
6. The seat of Advaita Acharya’s lineage since the 15th century and medieval center of Sanskritic pedagogy, Vaishnavism, Shakti worship, and textile production, what animates Santipur (Nadia district, West Bengal, India) now? CSSSC Archive’s collaboration with eap.bl.uk takes its viewers on that very quest https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP781 In 2014-15, CSSSC Archive, in collaboration with eap.bl.uk, copied 1265 Sanskrit manuscripts from Santipur Bangiya Puran Parishad; 78 bound volumes of resolution books from Santipur Municipality (one of oldest in West Bengal); 584 books and serials in Bengali and Hindi from Santipur Bangiya Puran Parishad, Santipur Brahmo Samaj, and Krittibas Memorial Library cum Museum (Fulia); 510 paintings, sketches, prints and photographs by the artist Lalit Mohan Sen (1898-1954).
7. In 2016-2018, the CSSSC Archive, in collaboration with eap.bl.uk, copied 195 manuscripts, 23 printed books, rarest of rare issues of the Chuchura bartabaha from the collection of Sisir Bani Pathagar (Guptipara, Hooghly); 80 manuscripts, some books and periodicals from the collection of Dr. Shyamal Bera; complete run of Nihar, the celebrated weekly newspaper from Nihar Press (Contai, Medinipur); 57 periodicals, 48 books, 3 manuscripts from the Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha (Bengal Buddhist Association); 491 volumes of periodicals from Sadharan Brahmo Samaj Library (Kolkata); 77 books and 73 manuscripts from Birsingha Vidyasagar Memorial Hall Rural Library (Medinipur) and Rajnarayan Basu Smriti Pathagar (Medinipur) together. https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP921 Working with languages as diverse as Odia, Farsi, Sanskrit, Pali, and Bangla, copying manuscripts from the royal court of Shrichandan kings of Narayangarh, documenting the local stirrings of anti-colonial nationalism in Medinipur to the articulations of Buddhist revival and Brahmo reform, this one remains the CSSSC Archive’s project with the most prodigious digital output.
8. https://www.jstor.org/site/saoa/ CSSSC Archive, one of the pioneers in the region to work consistently for open-access archiving, is a founding member of South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) https://www.crl.edu/programs/samp/saoa a consortium of North American and South Asian libraries and archives. SAOA and the not-for-profit learning organization ITHAKA https://www.ithaka.org/ have come together to share archival materials related to South Asia through the open access portal of JStor. As a contributing member of SAOA, the CSSSC Archives has already shared on open access JStor digitized copies of the Census of India reports from 1872 to 1951, Amrita Bazar Patrika and Jugantara - two preeminent newspapers from Bengal, and several Bangla periodicals, and is exploring the possibility of contributing more and more digital resources from its repository.
9. Founded by the brothers Shishir Kumar Ghose and Mati Lal Ghose, Amrita Bazar Patrika shaped anti-colonial nationalist discourse in ways more than one. In 2009-11, CSSSC Archives copied the newspaper and shared the 1898-1905 issues with the open-access portal CrossAsia for wider circulation. http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-257.html https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-257.html
10. Printed at Serampore Press and then at Bengal Secretariat Press, the multilingual Government Gazette carried information about the legislations and regulations of the India and Bengal Governments, news about auctions, job openings and court rulings. The CSSSC Archive copied some issues from Bangiya Sahitya Parishat, Konnagar Public Library, Indranath Majumdar’s private collection, and shared them with CrossAsia portal for unrestricted public access.
http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-71.html
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-71.html
11. CSSSC Archives copied a volume of The Calcutta Police Journal (1939) from Kolkata Little Magazine Library-o-Gabeshana Kendra and shared it with the open-access CrossAsia portal for unrestricted public access. Brought out by the Calcutta Police, the publication had on offer articles on murders, pick pockets, suicide, criminology, psychology, forensic techniques and other crime detection methods by authors including Jadunath Sarkar, N.N. Law, and B.C.Law. Also musings on “Can the Police Laugh?”
http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/2666/
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/2666/
12. National Indian Association (NIA) was founded in 1870 by Mary Carpenter in Bristol, with the assistance of Keshub Chunder Sen and it soon had several branches in United Kingdom and British India. Focused on women’s education and social reform, the association assisted Cornelia Sorabji to travel to England and complete her education. The CSSSC Archives copied some issues of the Journal of the National Indian Association from the private collection of Indranath Majumdar and shared it with the open-access CrossAsia portal.
http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-273.html
https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/schriftenreihen/sr-273.html
13. During 2018-2021, in collaboration with eap.bl.uk, the CSSSC Archive has digitized all extant 4242 issues of the Jangipur Sambad, a weekly newspaper started by Saratchandra Pandit (1879–1968) better known as “Dadathakur” in 1914 and published from Raghunathganj (Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India); around two hundred ninety four Sanskrit and Bangla manuscripts plus one Sanskrit book printed in manuscript form from Akshay Granthagar in Santipur (Nadia district, West Bengal, India), four hundred and thirteen rare books, chap-books, weekly newspaper issues, periodical-issues in Sanskrit, Bangla, Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, Rajasthani, Nepali, Bhojpuri languages from the collection of Dr. Rajarshi Ghose, and nine rare printed items published by Visva-Bharati from the collection of Mukund Madhav Jha. https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1031
14. During 2022, with a generous grant from Indian Council of Social Science Research, a digital archive and platform was created for Professor Hitesranjan Sanyal’s (1940-1988) photographs of Bengal’s brick temples and mosques, numbering close to 3000, which are an integral part of the visual archives at The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC).
http://www.religiousarchitecturebengal.cssscal.org./
http://hrsarchive.cssscal.org/
15. During 2022-23, in collaboration with meap.library.ucla.edu, CSSSC Archive digitized all extant issues of the weekly newspaper Birbhum-bartta held in the custody of Vidyasagar College, Suri and the digital output is now uploaded on the online portal of the Modern Endangered Archives Program at the UCLA Library. Birbhum Barta Founded in January 1903, the Birbhum-bartta was a weekly Bangla newspaper published from Suri town of Birbhum district. From the very beginning, the Birbhum-bartta supported the anti-colonial movements. In the post-1947 period, the newspaper by and large supported the Indian National Congress and was also vocal in its support for Bangladesh during the latter’s war of independence during 1971.