U.S. universities to rescue damaged books in India

September 14, 2000
Web posted at: 6:32 AM HKT (2232 GMT)

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- A consortium of U.S. universities will attempt to rescue a rare collection of century-old Urdu-language books and periodicals damaged in last month's flooding in India, organisers said on Wednesday.

The 26,500 books and 60,000 magazines, journals and other periodicals were buried in nine feet (2.7 metres) of mud by monsoon flooding that struck the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram building, a library in Hyderabad, India. The material dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries and contains information about Indian history.

The collection was placed in freezers throughout the city after the flooding in a bid to prevent mould from destroying the works.

"We are most concerned about the journals and other periodicals, which are quite rare," said James Nye, director of the South Asian Languages and Area Centre at the University of Chicago.

"The periodicals cover a wide range of topics, going back to about 1850, and are an invaluable source of information for anyone studying Urdu and the region," Nye said.

The periodicals cover traditional medicine, culture and other aspects of life throughout South Asia.

Nye said that once the works are cleaned up the process of reproducing them on microfilm will be resumed. The microfilm versions are due to be sent to the University of Chicago.

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