What a perfect day to get inspired by the soul of Indian Independence, the Father of nation Mahatma Gandhi during his birthday, as Indian Government has brought thousands of Gandhiji’s Original writings, photo archive and other related works online through the launch of Gandhi Heritage Portal (gandhiheritageportal.org). The portal was inaugurated to the nation by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Gandhi Heritage Portal developed and maintained by the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, Ahmedabad which has the largest repository of Gandhiji’s original writings and has a photo archive of over 6,000 images of Gandhiji and his associates. It also has a substantial library of over 45,000 books on and about Gandhiji and the Indian National Movement.
Gandhi Heritage Portal offers a complete digital world of Mahatma Gandhi and his works. It host the ‘The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi‘ in three India languages – English 100 volumes, Hindi 97 volumes and Gujarati 82 volumes. The Journals provide electronic versions of Indian Opinion, Navajivan, Young India, etc. A sub-section provides some of the journals which make for a fuller archive of the Gandhian imagination and scholarship. Other Works in the Web Portal is a section that would take into account the vast and deep commentarial and memoire literature.
The Life and Times section provides slivers of information on Gandhiji that could lead one to broader and deeper explorations. The Gallery, likewise, provides audio, visual, film material as also caricatures, paintings and postage stamps. In all, the Portal presents more than 5 lakh pages, 21 films, 72 audio speeches of Gandhiji and over a 1000 photographs.
This effort from Ministry of Culture Indian Government is to help create and sustain an open source archive movement which democratises access to our intangible cultural and philosophical heritage.
So now remember and learn from this great man. Happy Gandhi Jayanthi!