Sahitya Akademi has taken up the second series of the National Bibliography of Indian Literature covering the period 1954-2000 which will serve the scholars, librarians, publishers, booksellers and those interested in books, as a valuable tool of reference. The second series will cover all books of literary merit and abiding value in the field of literature and allied subjects published between 1- January 1954 and 31- December 2000 and will be published in 16 volumes.
Akademi firmly believes that this pioneering and infrastructural project will not be allowed to stand in isolation. The literature in Indian languages after Independence shall be rich field for a continuing volume of bibliography based on the selection by scholars of various languages.
Z.A. Burney (Mohd. Zahir Ahmad Burney) b. 1941, at Bulandshahar, U.P. former Selection and Cataloguing Officer of the United States Library of Congress Office (India). Studied at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, University of Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Urdu poet; has attended numerous seminars and presented papers on Urdu/Persian literature and book-publishing. He has also been associated with The Sahitya Akademi Project of History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956 as an Urdu scholar. Travelled widely in India and abroad.
The Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) was established in 1954. Among the very first projects it had planned was the compilation of a National Bibliography of Indian Literature. It was intended that all publications of literary merit, as also works of abiding value which come under the purview of humanities, should be the scope of this Bibliography and it was felt that the period from the 1" January 1901 to 31 December 1953 (First Series) would be a handy period of time to cover. It took twenty years to complete the project. It may also be mentioned that the work was done centrally at the National Library, Kolkata where all the books were physically available, along-with infrastructural support and the services of various Indian languages experts.
According to the Sahitya Akademi Executive Board's decision dated 19th August 2002, the Second Series of the NBIL has been taken up covering the period 1954-2000, to be of service to scholars, librarians, publishers, booksellers and those interested in the world of books, as a valuable tool of reference.
The work on the present series of 16 volumes was started under the editorship of Mr. K.C. Dutt; after him, Mr. Z.A. Burney is working as its General Editor. An Editorial Board of 22 language editors has done the basic groundwork of preparing the bibliographical sheets for each entry, language-wise. These are checked, collated and edited under the supervision of Mr. Z.A. Burney. The hard copy of the 16 volumes is being prepared and produced by Sahitya Akademi. Volume I, II, III, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII and XIV covering entries in respect of the Assamese, Bengali, English (in 2 parts), Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Tamil and Urdu languages respectively have already been published and the present volume is devoted to entries in Telugu language. Volumes covering Sanskrit-Sindhi and Gujarati are in press and expected to come out shortly.
This monumental work will be of immense use for the scholars who are working in Indian languages.
The second half of the twentieth century was a most productive period in the history of Indian publishing, especially in the field of literature, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Therefore, it was expected that the number of books of the above kind published in each language during 1954-2000, likely to be more than double, of those published in the first half of the century. There were more than 60,000 entries in the last series. It is estimated that in this Second Series we shall have to accommodate more than 1.30 lakh entries. Consequently, this series is going to be more than double the size of the previous series. The quantum of work involved and the time taken at each stage, including compilation, editing, checking, computerization and printing of volumes will be proportionately higher than that of the earlier series.
However, with the changed scenario in the second half of the century, in Indian languages as well as in English, we may have to redefine the scope of this Second Series of bibliography.
I think that this pioneering infrastructural project will not be allowed to stand in isolation. The literature in Indian languages since Independence, will be rich source material for a continuing volume of bibliography, based on selections by scholars of various languages.
I thank Mr. Z.A. Burney, General Editor, for his keen interest in the project and the fine accomplishment.
Sometime ago, Sahitya Akademi had published its first series of the National Bibliography of Indian Literature covering the period from 1901 to 1953. Now we have taken up the second series of the NBIL covering the period 1954-2000, which will serve scholars, librarians, publishers, booksellers and those interested in books, as a valuable tool of reference. The second series in its sixteen volumes will cover all books of aesthetic merit and abiding value in the field of literature and allied subjects published between 1" January 1954 and 31" December 2000.
I am extremely grateful to Prof. Gopi Chand Narang, former President, Sahitya Akademi, for entrusting me with the responsibility of the General Editor of the National Bibliography of Indian Literature (Second Series), 1954-2000. I fondly remember that he extended his full co-operation and kept guiding and inspiring me in the execution of the project.
As per the guidelines given to me, books of literary merit, and significant books on philosophy, religion, history and other branches of the humanities, written with originality, imagination and literary taste, were to be included in this bibliography.
Romanization was to be adopted in the transcribing of titles and authors' names. The collation and annotation, if any, were to be in English. This decision was taken to enable the bibliographical work to be of use not only in India, but also internationally as a tool of reference.
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