Khalsa Samachar Newspaper

A weekly newspaper, founded by Bhai Vir Singh, started publishing in 1899.


History

Khalsa Samachar has a unique honor of being the Punjabi weekly, which was founded by Bhai Vir Singh in 1899 and was first published from Sri Amritsar on 30 November 1899. The tagline of the paper said ‘Weekly Paper of Sikhs’ and it appropriately covers all the important aspects relating to personal and Panthic life of Sikhs, be it historical, literary, philosophical, religious, or spiritual. A typical issue of the publication usually carries renditions from Gurbani, religious poetry, articles and stories based on the lives of the Sikh Gurus and Sikh history. Explanation of verses from Gurbani has been another important feature of the publication.

Importance
This is one of the oldest and very important newspapers. The newspaper not only covered important events, i.e. Singh Sabha Movement, Gadar Movement, Gurduara Reform Movement, World Wars, Independence Movement etc. but it also published Sikh point of view on all these issues. Important decisions relating to Sikh community have been published in this newspaper. It regularly published special issues on occasions. The paper remains one important leaf in the heritage of Panjab. It has preserved a very important period of Sikh history and added a lot authenticated to the annals of Sikh History. In addition, it has also preserved the views of Bhai Vir Singh in the form of his editorials.

Project
In all Khalsa Samachar has published about 6,000 issues of newspaper from 18992014 totaling around 50,000 pages approx..

Impact
Digitization of Khalsa Samachar will transfer it from perishable material to more stable medium and increase its reach for readers. Digitization will reduce the burden on brittle archive and an alternative commentary on contemporary issues from Sikh point of view will be easily accessible for scholars and historians. As an impact the state as well as outsiders’ narratives of history will not remain unquestioned and it will be a call for alternative history writing today as well as in the future.

Budget
Digitization process has four stages Location, Digitizing, Metadata and Online. The process for locating newspapers for Phase I is completed: 1,800 issues covering 19321966 with about 10,000 pages. To complete stages 24 of Phase I $5,000 is required.

Schedule of Deliveries
1st day – Start digitization
30th day – Complete digitization.
50th day – Complete Metadata
70th day – Online free access