Indian Institute of Sindhology - Kutch

There is a huge library in Indian Institute of Sindhology with Thousands of Sindhi Books, many of them the rare ones, on various topics. All the Sindhi magazines published in India and abroad are also displayed and collected in bound volumes. The library is being run by the competent Sindhi knowing staff. The library is open for the scholars and public on all working days.

1 Books and Magazines
In the library there are three types of books available.

(a) Sindhi books (in both, Sindhi and Devnagri scripts)
(b) Books on Sindh and Sindhis in English and other languages.
(c) Books written by Sindhi authors in English and other Vernacular languages, original as well as the translations.

All books are classified and catalogued as per the rules of Library Science. Lately the two separate sections of literary classics in English and Hindi have been opened.

2 Magazines
In this section the present as well the old magazines published in Sindh, during pre-partition era have been collected and bound together year wise. The present day magazines like " Koonj", "Sangeeta", "Rachna", "Sipoon" and older ones like " Naeen Duniya", "Kahani" and of pre-partition era like "Sindhu", "Phuleli" and "Mehran" are available in the library. Many magazines published by Government and Semi Government organisations and also by different Sindhi associations, like "Halchal", "Moomal", "Pushp" "Jahazrani", "Alka", "Sorath", "Jeejal" and their annual numbers are preserved in this library.

3 The Rare books
There are many volumes of rare books preserved in the library. These books have been collected from the personal collection of elderly writers as well from those libraries which had to close down the shutters. There are many books of historical importance, published in 19th century.

4 The Scanning of Rare books
There are many rare books in a very delicate condition. The worn out pages are so brittle that they get torn by mere touch of the hand. The pages of the books are being scanned to preserve them for posterity. Three / five copies of such books including old title page and advertisements, are preserved for safe keeping in Sindhology. Printed on best quality of paper, they shall last for another hundred years, without getting damaged. These books scanned by computer are also preserved in CDs, so that more copies of these books are printed whenever demand arises. There are scores of such books already preserved by this modern technique.

5 Search for rare books and manuscripts scattered all over India and overseas to preserve them by Photo coping or Type setting
The literature of many old and new writers in printed form or in manuscript form has remained untraced. Sometimes it is available in old magazines and has not appeared in any collection. Sindhology has tried to tackle it in two ways :

(a) The unpublished works have been obtained from the heirs of the authors. These have been printed in book form with the help of computer type setting. 3/5 copies of such unpublished books have been printed and preserved at Sindhology as reference material for scholars. The matter has also been recorded in CDs. At present scores of such rare, unpublished works are available at Sindhology.

(b) Short stories / Poems / articles of the writers who have passed away, have been searched from various magazines and compiled in collections and are printed in book form. 3/5 copies of such works are now available at Sindhology for future reference of scholars.

6 Script Bank
Sindhology has collected hundred of One act and full length plays from various sources and stored in a Script Bank. Anyone who wishes to perform any play on the stage can get the photo copy of the script of play on nominal charge. The photographs of many play writers along with Bio data is also available with Sindhology.

7 Historical Events
Related to history, geography of Sindh and other cultural events have also been compiled in chronological order after thorough research.

8 Writer's Corners
Corners of many eminent writers furnishing all the information of their life and works is made available here including the

(a) Details of all books written (both published and unpublished)

(b) Details of all the articles written by the author and scattered in various magazines / books including those which have remained unpublished.

(c) The articles written by other writers on the author, both published and unpublished.

(d) The letters of the authors, both published and unpublished.

(e) Photographs of the author with his family and friends.

(f) All the information about the authors collected from his friends and relatives, obtained orally or in writing.

(g) The prizes, Shields, Certificates, felicitation bestowed on the author.

9 Manuscripts
It is a different task to procure the manuscripts of the authors, who have passed away. But Sindhology has succeeded in obtaining few, some of them in a very deleterious condition, which have been restored by proper lamination etc