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SCHOOL OF CULTURAL TEXTS AND RECORDS, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY Director: Professor Sukanta Chaudhuri Joint Director: Professor Swapan Chakravorty Email: culture@school.jdvu.ac.in This is one of the newest interdisciplinary Schools of the University. It was approved in August 2003, and began functioning in January 2004 after allocation of space and funds. It has a broad and open-ended agenda of documenting, processing and studying the textual basis (both verbal and audio-visual) of human society and cultural life in the widest sense. Its approved activities include:
The School has growing archives of various kinds of material as detailed on this site. It has well-equipped project rooms with appropriate hardware and software support, as well as scanning, recording, filming and projecting equipment. In the earliest phase, project funds came chiefly from the University Grants Commission, particularly under the ‘University with Potential for Excellence’ scheme but also under Major Research Projects. More recently, three large projects have been funded by the British Library under its Endangered Archives Programme, and other activities under a collaborative programme with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. Projects have also been supported by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, and by ABP Limited.
ARCHIVE OF BENGALI LITERARY AND CULTURAL DOCUMENTS
The School has a fast growing archive of manuscripts and documents relating to modern Bengali literature and culture. We are receiving more and more new contributions, and would appeal to all writers and cultural personalities, and their families and friends, to make such material available to us. We can acquire, preserve and digitize the papers; or, if the donors prefer, maintain a digital archive while the original papers remain with the creator or his/her family. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, is currently our collaborator in this effort. A parallel digital archive will be maintained on their premises.
(A) ORIGINAL ARCHIVES
Sudhindranath Datta and Rajeshwari Datta Papers All manuscripts and papers of the poet Sudhindranath and the singer and musicologist Rajeshwari were bequeathed to Jadavpur University, and are now in the custody of the School. This treasure-house of unpublished, and often unknown, material has been sorted, identified, conserved and digitised, and a handlist prepared. Two volumes of material have been published, of Sudhindranath’s Bengali short stories, and his English writings.
Shakti Chattopadhyay Papers The family of the late poet has presented us with four volumes of his poetic manuscripts along with ancillary records and documents. Another four files were made available for digitizing. We have also prepared a CD from old video cassettes of events and celebrations concerning the poet, with many of his own readings and discussions of poetry.
Jyotirmoyee Debi and Saibal Gupta Papers The family of the late Jyotirmoyee Debi has gifted us the greater part of her literary manuscripts, letters and other documents; also many rare journals where her work was published. Along with this material, we have received a large collection of papers by and about the late Saibal Gupta. They contain valuable testimony to his thoughts on urban development and refugee rehabilitation, as well as his literary and cultural interests.
Tapan Sinha Papers The eminent film director has presented us with a large collection of papers relating to his work. It includes the shooting scripts of 20 of his films, sometimes in more than one version, plus a large quantity of correspondence and other material. The material has been sorted and a handlist prepared. Digitization is in progress. Shri Sinha has also generously entrusted us with keeping and caring for any documents relating to his work that may be available in the future.
Badal Sarkar Papers The latest addition to the School’s cultural archives consists of the manuscripts and other papers of the playwright Badal Sarkar. The papers contain manuscripts of plays such as Tringsha Shatabdi and Bada Pishima, alternative versions of plays for radio and other productions, Hindi translations of plays, manuscripts of essays and radio talks in Bengali and English, clippings of essays by and on the playwright from newspapers and journals, cast lists and set designs for a few plays, and miscellaneous correspondence.
(B) DIGITAL ARCHIVES
Buddhadeva Bose Papers The poet’s family kindly allowed the School to digitize and list virtually all his English and Bengali manuscripts in their possession, comprising 91 volumes. They include a great many unpublished texts, as well as significant variant versions of published works.
Arun Kumar Sarkar Papers The family of the late poet Arun Kumar Sarkar kindly loaned the School all extant manuscripts of the poet, with related papers, in their possession. They have been catalogued and digitized
OTHER ARCHIVES Archive of Recorded North Indian Classical Music This project aims to create an extensive database of recorded north Indian classical music, from the earliest phonographs onward, in cleaned and digitised versions. Nearly 2,000 hours of playing-time have already been recorded, and a further 1,500 hours obtained or firmly pledged. This includes a great deal of rare material from private collections, much of it recorded at private concerts and soirées and never commercially circulated. An ancillary collection of Rabindrasangeet and other heritage Bengali music is also being compiled. The work is funded by a Major Project Grant from the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library.
Archive of Street Literature The School is building up a collection of chapbooks for popular circulation, commonly known as heto books – books sold in haats or village markets, or peddled on streets, trains and buses. They cover a wide range of religious, educational, literary and instructional books, as well as aspects of daily life, entertainment and social issues. They open up an entirely new world of popular reading practices and demands, a little-known rural parallel to the more prominent Bat-tala books. Some 700 volumes have so far been acquired, including a collection from the 1950s and some specimens of Islamic kissa literature. A digital archive of Bengali street literature, embracing our own collection as well as other material, is being set up as a Major Project under the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme.
Ravi Dayal Archive The family of the eminent publisher has presented the School with his editorial archives. They include early versions of works by many major Indian writers in English, and illustrate the masterly editing of complex manuscripts for which Ravi Dayal had achieved a legendary reputation. This archive is accompanied by a set of all volumes published under the imprint of Ravi Dayal Publisher, kindly presented by their distributor, Orient Longman.
Personal narratives of the Partition of India, 1947 A large collection of interviews and oral narratives have been compiled from refugees and observers of the first phase of emigration and settlement following the Partition of India in 1947. Part of this material relates specifically to Bijoygarh Colony, while the rest covers a spectrum of settlements and experiences, as well as reminiscences of the refugees’ pre-Partition life in East Bengal. A volume containing these narratives and other relevant records has been published.
Archive of Modern Bengali Political Ephemera This is a collection of recent political ephemera from West Bengal. There is no comparable collection of printed ephemera anywhere in India. Some 500 items have been collected so far, chiefly of electoral campaign material but also other public notices, posters, manifestos, leaflets, etc. They emanate from all major and some minor political parties in West Bengal, as well as front organisations and associated public bodies. The material has been classified and catalogued, and notes made of the printing process.
Archive of Sylhet-Nagri Texts: See ‘Projects’.
PROJECTS Recovery and Editing of Texts in the Sylheti-Nagri Script The School is collecting, digitizing and editing Bengali texts in the now obsolete Sylheti-Nagri script which, down to the mid-20th-century or even later, was a rich medium of composition and social exchange in the Sylhet-Cachar region. Field trips to Cachar District, Assam, have been made to supplement the nucleus of material available in Kolkata. About 90 texts have been acquired, and 25 transcribed into standard Bengali. A CD has been prepared of the texts of 25 works. The first scholarly edition (of the volume Pahela Kitab) has been published, and other volumes are in preparation. Work on this material has received support at different times from the UGC and the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library.
Short-Title Catalogue of Bengali Books, 1801-1867 The School is preparing a Short-Title Catalogue of Bengali books – the first such catalogue for any Indian language. Each entry comprises a full bibliographical record of each volume plus complete transcript (including typographical data) of the title-page, with location register. The data has been recorded on cards and also entered in an electronic database. Work on the period 1800-1867 (approx. 3,500 entries) is complete, and the results will shortly be available to scholars. Data collection is in progress for the period 1867-1814. 11 major libraries are being covered, including the National Library, Asiatic Society, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Serampore College, Uttarpara Jaykrishna Library and British Library. The project has UGC support.
Electronic Collation of Tagore Texts The School is carrying out pioneer work in computer collation of Tagore texts and creation of electronic hypertexts incorporating all variant readings. The first software for this purpose in any Indian language, named ‘Pathantar’ (based on the earlier version ‘Tafat’), has been developed by the School. All substantive variant texts of the play Bisarjan have been processed by this means. Using copies of manuscripts generously supplied by Rabindra-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, we are now preparing hypertexts of the poetical volumes Manasi and Sonar Tari.
Database of Translations into Bengali This project comprises a full bibliography and computerised database of translations into Bengali from other Indian languages. Much of this material is difficult to trace, having appeared in rare and obscure journals, or in books long out of print. The work was conducted in association with the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, for incorporation in ‘Anukriti’, the consolidated all-India online translation database of the CIIL. Discussion is in progress with the CIIL for a second phase of work.
The Upsurge of 1905: A Multimedia Presentation Material has been collected for a multimedia presentation on this historic event. The plans comprise a multimedia CD and a printed volume of documents. Material has been collected from the National Library (including the Newspaper Library), the State Secretariat Library at Writers Building, the West Bengal State Archives, the Nehru Memorial Library, the National Archives, New Delhi and the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, besides private holdings.
‘Desh’ archives ABP Limited has extended support to the School to sort, list and digitize the vast correspondence between the late Sagarmay Ghose, editor of Desh magazine for decades, and the eminent authors who contributed to the magazine – virtually a Who’s Who of the Bengali literary world across two generations.
Video Interviews with Film and Theatre Personalities A new project of the School, in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, is to record video interviews with personalities from the film and theatre world. These include not only actors and directors but all other categories of associated persons. In fact, special stress is laid on recording the recollections and views of persons who remain behind the scenes, and whose contributions often go unacknowledged. Three interviews were completed in the first two months, and many more arranged for implementation.
TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Certificate Course in Editing and Publishing The School conducts a 4-month Postgraduate Certificate Course in Editing and Publishing, to train students in the basic skills required to edit texts for the publishing industry and the media, and to see the work through the entire production process. The course comprises actual text editing, production design, printing-house practice and relevant computer skills, as well as marketing, entrepreneurship and intellectual property issues. It includes visits to printing and publishing units. We are preparing a textbook to facilitate the teaching of such courses. Many eminent Indian publishers, printers and mediapersons act as guest faculty for this course. It has proved popular with employers, as borne out by campus recruitment, subsequent job offers and internships. ENQUIRIES ABOUT ENROLMENT, CURRICULUM AND PLACEMENT SHOULD BE MADE TO DR ABHIJIT GUPTA OR DR RIMI B. CHATTERJEE, DEPT. OF ENGLISH.
Institutional Training Programmes The School is prepared to conduct custom-designed training programmes to suit the needs of particular institutions and groups. It has conducted a three-day programme for scientists of the Geological Survey of India, on preparing scientific papers for publication and interacting with the press. Such programmes can be organised in the fields of text preparation, editing and book production design, with relevant computer skills. Instructors will include Jadavpur faculty as well as professionals from the publishing industry and the media, as appropriate.
Short-Term Training Courses The School conducts short training programmes of one or two weeks in bibliography, documentation and textual research, including the use of electronic resources.
INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATION
The School has formal collaborative arrangements with · Rabindra-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan · the University of Bologna, Italy, in its Departments of Italian Studies and Oriental Studies · the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi · the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand It also has close interaction with · the Centre for Textual Scholarship, De Montfort University, UK · the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK; in particular with its Institute of English Studies · the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College, London, UK · the Scuola di Dottorato ed Internazionale in Civiltà dell’Umanesimo e del Rinascimento, Florence, Italy
PUBLICATIONS
1. Pahela Kitab. Critical edition of the Sylheti-Nagri text, with introduction, transliteration, translation, and textual, etymological and explanatory notes. Compiled from the School’s archive. Edited by Anuradha Chanda. Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 2006.
2. Dhvansa o Nirman. Oral history of the Partition of Bengal, comprising interviews with early refugee settlers and other associated persons, and various other records collected by the School. Edited by Tridib Chakrabarti. Sereban, Kolkata, 2007.
3. Sudhindranath Datter Galpasamgraha. Bengali short stories (original writings and translations) by Sudhindranath Datta, chiefly unpublished and unknown, compiled from the School’s archive. Edited by Swapan Majumdar. Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 2007.
4. Atmajibani: Jibani o Rabindranath. Collected essays on Rabindranath by the late Professor Sisir Kumar Das. Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 2007.
5. Kishorepathya Patrikapanchak. Bibliography of five Bengali children’s magazines. Edited by Amal Pal. Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 2007.
6. The Art of the Intellect: Uncollected English Writings of Sudhindranath Datta. Compiled from the Sudhindranath Datta archives held by the School. Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri. DC Publishers, Delhi, 2007.
7. Collected material on Rabindranath from the journal Sahitya. Edited by Subha Chakrabarti Dasgupta & Sampa Chaudhuri. Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata: in press.
[A number of other volumes are in preparation.]
CD:
Ekada o Ami: Shakti Chattopadhyayer sange kichhu muhurta. Interviews, readings, speeches and conversation by the late poet Shakti Chattopadhyay.
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