State IT dept to facilitate scholars researching on life, works of Nazrul

Kolkata: The state IT and Electronics department has taken up elaborate steps to facilitate research scholars working on the life and writings of revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

The IT department has engaged the Society for National Language Technology Research (SNLTR), an autonomous organisation under the IT department.

Now, the officials of Nazrul archives and SNLTR will collaborate to create synergy on research, technology and on archiving Nazrul Islam. An archive on the rebel poet was inaugurated by Firhad Hakim, state Urban Development minister at Nazrul Tirtha in New Town in December 2017. The archive is a pioneering initiative of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) where physical and digital records of Nazrul's works are being preserved. It is the first-of-its-kind in the country.

Research scholars can work at the archive and those from other states can be put up at four guest rooms housed at Nazrul Tirtha itself. It may be mentioned that after coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, an avid lover of Nazrul's poems and songs, set up a university named after him. She also inaugurated Nazrul Tirtha and took the initiative to carry on research based on his life and works.

The archive has books by and on Nazrul, facsimiles of magazines edited by the poet like Dhumketu, Langol and Gonobani. There are copies of the letters written by him as well as those which he received. There are notations of songs composed by the poet as well. There are more than 500 songs and 25,000 documents on the hard disc of the archive.

Located in the SDF building, SNLTR is doing a great deal of research on Bangla language. Last month, SNLTR received recognition as a contract partner of the National Digital Library of India. All works of Rabindranath Tagore and Bankin Chandra Chattopadhyay have been digitally archived by SNLTR and now is accessible through the national Digital Library portal. It is now doing research on Kazi Nazrul Islam.