Digitizing Axom [UPSC Notes]

 A digital archiving and preservation project called Digitising Axom has been launched by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. This article goes into detail about the Digitising Axom initiative for the  IAS exam.

Digital Axom:

• Digitizing Axom is an initiative of the Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF) and is supported by the Assam Jatiya Bidyalay Educational and Socio-economic Trust. 
• Digitising Axom is launched to preserve the rare Assamese journals and books that were published between 1813 and 1970. The project is led by two Assamese-based trusts.
• Rare books and journals covered under the project include various ranges from love poems to political affairs, social commentary to children’s literature, humanitarian crises to tips on homemaking.
• The journals have been sourced from the personal library of Assamese littérateur Nanda Talukdar, who is one of Assam’s most well-known editor-biographers.
• Some of the notable magazines the project aims to digitize are:
  • Cartoon which is north-east India’s first monthly cartoon journal
  • Orunodoi (1846): Assam’s first magazine
  • Jonaki (1889) which introduced romanticism in Assamese literature 
  • Abahon (1929)
  • Ramdhenu 
• The scholars opine that the merit of the project lies in its preservation and accessibility of rare and precious journals and magazines.
• The journals and magazines will give insights into Assam’s society and culture. For example, the poetry and the prose of Jonaki will reflect the social currents of the 1900s.
• The Chief Minister also requested the public that those who possess rare books to come forward and give them in for digitisation.
• It is a community project where individuals and institutions such as universities, and college libraries are requested to join the project and contribute.
• In the first phase of the project, journals published between 1840 and 1970 have been digitised which includes a whopping 2,45,680 pages from 161 journals spanning 3,071 editions. 
• The second phase of the project, which is under process, is set to cover books published between 1813 and 1962.

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