Read, India's Historical Newspapers in One Click, Five Crore Pages of Rare Publications in 'Sapre Museum'

Many universities have recognized Sapre Museum as a research centre.

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: The Madhavrao Sapre Smriti Newspaper Museum and Research Institute, located in Bhopal, is a unique and unparalleled institution for the collection and preservation of national intellectual heritage in India. This rare material of the country kept in this museum is available with a single click of the computer. 

One can experience the thrill of seeing the history of India face to face in the writings of old newspapers and magazines stored here. The emergence and development of journalism in India has happened along with the renaissance. Authentic sources of important events, their background and their consequences of various subjects like political, social, economic, cultural, educational, science etc. are present in the pages of contemporary newspapers and magazines. 

Sapre Museum founder Vijay Dutt Shridhar said, "Rarest copies of Hindustan, Dharmyug, Dinman, Ravivar, Illustrated Weekly, Veer Arjun, Kalpana Kalyan, Hind Swaraj, Young India, Najvision are now available in digital form. Along with this, the entire works of personalities like Madan Mohan Malviya, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bharatendu Harishchandra, Ajneya, Raghuveer Sahay, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi have been digitized."

So far, more than 27 lakh pages of such rare material kept in the museum have been digitized. Along with the first issue of magazines, important issues of newspapers are also a part of this process in the museum. Sapre Museum founder Vijay Dutt Shridhar says, "In the next phase, after this digitization, we will make this material available to everyone online with some fee."

Sridhar explains that "The biggest challenge before us was how to keep this heritage safe to pass it on to the generations yet to be born. If even a page of these books or newspapers worth 4 paise or 5 paise gets damaged, then it is not possible to get it back even for crores of rupees. Hence we decided to get them digitized now. This has become a big facility for the students doing research."

राहुल सांकृत्यायन, बाबा नागार्जुन के पत्र सप्रे संग्रहालय को सौंपे
मैंने महापंडित राहुल सांकृत्यायन, बाबा नागार्जुन, रामनाथ अवस्थी आदि के लगभग डेढ़ सौ पत्र माधवराव सप्रे समाचार पत्र संग्रहालय,भोपाल को सौंप दिए।ये पत्र ग्वालियर के भाषाविद स्व.प्रो सत्यव्रत अवस्थी को लिखे गए थे। + pic.twitter.com/XIliy4GOXb

— Dr.Rakesh Pathak डॉ. राकेश पाठक راکیش (@DrRakeshPathak7) May 19, 2022

University research students from all over the country are taking advantage of the reference wealth of Madhavrao Sapre Smriti Newspaper Museum and Research Institute. Many universities have recognized it as a research center.

Sapre Museum has rare material of about 5 crore pages. The most notable of which are those newspapers, in which the political and social history of India can be seen in a live form. Whatever happened is recorded in these newspapers in the same form. Newspapers are like the diary of that day, when you read them, you reach that time. Sridhar says, "We have more than 3 thousand manuscripts of famous writers of the country. Apart from these, there are one thousand books. There are more than one thousand letters, which also include a letter of Rahul Sankrityayan. For creating an unparalleled example of collection of historical documents of Indian journalism and innovative initiative of research communication, Sapre Museum has been awarded 'Maharishi Ved Vyas National Award' (year 2012-2013) by the Culture Department. In the year 2012, the museum's founder Vijaydatt Sridhar was awarded the 'Padma Shri' decoration by the Government of India for authentic efforts in journalistic research and history documentation and journalism of social concerns.