Current SAMP Projects

This page highlights current projects and will include project summaries and updates.
Completed projects may be listed in SAMP’s Guides to Collections page.

Amir Khusraw’s selected works

Amir Khusraw is one of the most important figures in the cultural history of the South Asian subcontinent. Many of the printed editions of his works are extremely rare and in need of preservation. This project will both preserve the editions carefully selected by senior scholars and improve access to those editions.

The Antiseptic

The Antiseptic was the earliest English language journal dedicated to medicine to be published from Madras.  It was founded by Rao Saheb U. Rama Rao and for many years was edited by Dr. T. M. Nair, a co-founder of Justice Party, a precursor to the Dravidian Movement.  In addition to articles on medicine, it carries articles related to medical history and medical education in early Madras.  It contains book reviews, notices on conferences during the period, case studies, and advertisements. SAMP will acquire 66 reels of microfilm covering 1904 through 1969 for this title, which was preserved by the Roja Muthiah Research Library in India.

Bihar Ki Khabren

This Urdu publication by the government of Bihar's Public Relations Department is contributed by the University of Virginia.  SAMP has microfilmed and digitized Virginia's holdings from the early 1960s. 

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC)

The CSSSC possesses some of the most distinctive Bengali literary and historical journals in existence in its Hitesranjan Sanyal Memorial Collection. This material was preserved in Calcutta, though positive copies of film were never made. SAMP has entered into an agreement with the CSSSC to duplicate the important holdings of 19th-century Bengali periodicals, monographs, and reports filmed from the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat and other collections. The 576 reels of film produced will be delivered to SAMP, while digital copies will be made available to the CSSSC for local use. For information on this collection, visit www.cssscal.org/.

India Land Settlement Reports

SAMP continues to attempt to acquire all land settlement reports. The British Library has additional reports on film not available previously. For details, see the original proposal.

Microfilming of Indian Publications Project

To date, approximately 24,000 of the 55,000 projected titles have been filmed under the auspices of this grant (originally supported by the United States-India Fund (USIF) and the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities) and its follow-up activities. The Government of India has decided to withdraw its financial commitment to this project. SAMP urges the continuation of the bilateral commitment and ongoing participation in the project.

Nepali Newspapers (Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, Kathmandu)

SAMP has approved a proposal to acquire newspapers filmed by the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), which were never duplicated. SAMP will fund duplication of the material in exchange for film copies, and will provide additional funding for the MPP to continue filming materials. Titles available to date include: Ajako samacarapatra [Dec 1995–Sept 1999], Samiksha [May 1960–Aug. 1975], and Udhyoga [Aug 1935–Apr 1949].

Official Publications of India

SAMP will receive a duplicate copy of up to 17,000 volumes of the Official Publications of India. This material will be sent to Chennai for processing, cataloging, and microfilming.

South Asian publications on microfiche

Since 1981, SAMP has been cooperating with CRL in purchasing the complete set of South Asia publications in microfiche produced by the Library of Congress field office in New Delhi. CRL purchases all serial titles, while SAMP purchases monographs. The collection is shelved by microfiche number; titles can be accessed through CRL’s catalog (incomplete), the Library of Congress publications "Accessions List: South Asia" (–1996) and "The South Asian Bibliographer" (1998–present).

Sunday Observer

The Sunday Observer (Madras) is one of the most important English periodicals associated with the Self Respect Movement, founded by E. V. Ramasamy Naicker. The newspaper was published from 1930 to 1957 and contained articles written by important leaders of the period. The activities of the Justice Party and the Self Respect Movement, both of which laid the ground for the later Dravidian Movement, are well documented in the newspaper. No copies have been traced in any library, including the British Library. This project covers about twelve years of this publication.

Featured: Unique Urdu and Hindi Collection

Prof. Robert Phillips, lecturer for the Program in South Asian Studies at Princeton University, teaches courses in Hindi-Urdu and South Asian Studies, and has used both South Asia Materials Project (SAMP) and CRL resources to support different research, writing, and teaching projects.

Accessing Āmukha in SAMP’s holdings offered an opportunity to incorporate the crucial - but often less-collected - genre of the little magazine into his research on Hindi modernism and a subsequent conference presentation.