The South Asia Open Archives (SAOA), administered by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), has recently begun digitizing the Indian Newspaper Reports containing weekly translations and summaries of local Anglo-Indian and vernacular-language newspapers from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century, from throughout South Asia. The digitization of 110 microfilm reels held by CRL will make approximately 150,000 pages publicly available. The digitization is taking place at the facilities of SAOA partner the Roja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL) in Chennai, India, and the resulting files will be freely available on SAOA’s open-access platform in early 2019.

Aruna Magier (NYU), Chair of the SAOA Digitization Working Group, underscored the significance of selecting these materials for inclusion in SAOA’s curated collections: “The Indian Newspaper Reports are critical primary sources for research on the social, cultural, and political history of the provinces and regions of South Asia. For the first time, these historical materials will be freely available to scholars and researchers worldwide.”

The Indian Newspaper Reports consist of a wide range of titles, such as:  

• Selections from the vernacular newspapers published in the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, Central Provinces, and Rajputana [1889-1895]
• Report on native papers in Bengal [1899-1916]
• Report on Indian papers published in the Bombay presidency [1912-1918]  
• Selections from Indian-owned newspapers published in the United Provinces [1914-1915]

To suggest additional content for SAOA’s collections, please visit the Digitization Suggestion Form.