A review of Tamil Digital Heritage, a digital archive of literature, music, theatre, and dance from Singapore's Tamil diaspora, directed by Arun Mahizhnan
Project
Tamil Digital Heritage
Project Director
Arun Mahizhnan, National University of Singapore
Project URL
https://tinyurl.com/tamildigitalheritage
Project Reviewer
Shanmugapriya T, Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad
Chitra Sankaran and Arun Mahizhnan
The Tamil Digital Heritage project is an attempt to archive all available materials on Singapore Tamil community’s literature, theatre, dance and music, for free, online access to anyone, anywhere, any time. Its original focus was only on Tamil literature on the occasion of Singapore’s 50th anniversary but it later extended to theatre, dance, and music.
The project was initiated by a small group of Tamil activist citizens — the Tamil Digital Heritage Group — deeply concerned about the future of Tamil cultural heritage in Singapore. They approached the National Library Board (NLB) about hosting the collections online, on its own platforms. NLB readily agreed. Community organisations and individuals active in the four cultural domains were mobilized. While infrastructure and technical support were provided by NLB, the four collections together involved at least 300 volunteers. Older material required technical enhancements to meet basic requirements of the archival process, and NLB took the lead in such matters. Special attention was paid to avoiding copyright violations by developing legal agreements with concerned parties, which wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of the rights holders.
One of the most difficult challenges in this project was the conversion of Tamil texts into editable text files, rather than PDF files. In the early 2010s, the requisite technology was only in the early stages of development, so NLB played a crucial role in advancing it. On the other hand, the digital archives of theatre, dance, and music were placed on NLB’s less-than-ideal platform (NORA) due to technical difficulties. All told, the four collections have gone some ways to start filling a great void in Tamil cultural heritage in Singapore.
The benefits of this project are as follows:
It is a historical record of Tamil creative arts, preserved over time. This will be a valuable — and unprecedented — addition to NLB’s efforts. This will also fast-track NLB’s own Tamil digitization programme.
It will be a record of a Singapore seen through the eyes of the creators, who had their own lenses, reflecting diverse perspectives from varied backgrounds. Collectively, they will form a rich cultural heritage from forefathers to future generations and a cultural roadmap to display the community’s trajectory.
It will provide inspiration to the Tamil artistic community and potentially to non-Tamils too.
This is the most comprehensive resource of Singapore Tamil arts for the use of Tamil teachers and students. It will also benefit scholars and researchers in tertiary institutions, such as the National University of Singapore, the Singapore University of Social Sciences and the National Institute of Education, all of which teach and research Tamil literature and Tamil culture. There is no comparable resource in Tamil for such usage by the Tamil teaching and learning community.
Tamil writers do not have access to the ecosystem that English writers enjoy. NLB is the only location where the most number of Tamil books are available in Singapore. Thus, a digital collection at NLB will enhance its service capability by a significant margin.
This 50th anniversary collection can be expanded to cover pre-1965 works as well as future writings over time — once the basic infrastructure is established through this exercise. It would be an extraordinary and continuing resource for Singapore and the Tamil diaspora.
Government support for this collection will assuage growing fears that Tamil may lose its status as an official language.
Singapore Tamil works will reach the Tamil diaspora creating opportunities for review and research.
Finally, the fact that Singapore is the first diaspora country in the world to initiate such a collection in Tamil arts will, once again, gain special regard for Singapore among the Tamil diaspora around the world. There are both strategic and economic benefits through such projections of soft power.
As this was largely a ground-up community project, with the initiating group of volunteers dispersing after the launch of the collections, there is no continuous or regular monitoring of the outcome of the project. During the launch and in post-launch period, there were both Singapore and international media reports on the collections. Project leader Arun Mahizhnan was invited to speak on the project in Malaysia and Canada, two countries with substantial Tamil diaspora populations. Singapore schools have been using the collections on a regular basis. NLB has some basic statistics on access to the digital collections but they are not granular enough to make any substantive claims.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of researchers have used the Tamil literature collection for scholarly and journalistic purposes. Two conferences on Singapore Tamil literature were held in Tamil Nadu, India, made possible only through the availability of the digital collection.
Shanmugapriya T
The Tamil Digital Heritage (TDH) project is a significant archival initiative that presents a comprehensive digital collection of Singaporean Tamil literature (1965–2015), hosted by the National Library Board (NLB) Singapore. This project features a wide range of digitized materials, including poems, short stories, research papers, plays, and a few novels in Tamil. Initiated by a dedicated group of Tamil cultural activists, known as the Tamil Digital Heritage Group, this project deserves high recognition for its volunteer-driven efforts. Their work not only preserves Singapore’s Tamil cultural heritage but also makes it globally accessible at the click of a button, expanding the reach and appreciation of Tamil literature and culture on an international scale.
Several aspects of this project particularly stand out to me:
1) Preserving Tamil Heritage: The project's primary goal is to safeguard the Tamil literary and cultural heritage in Singapore. By digitizing these works, TDH ensures that this rich cultural legacy is not lost to future generations and is easily accessible for academic and cultural purposes.
2) Innovative Digitization: Beyond simply uploading scanned PDFs, the project offers an interactive and user-friendly interface. Users can select specific chapters/sections through a hyperlinked Table of Contents. Additionally, the site provides detailed information about publishers, hosts, and copyright status in the About Us section. Materials can be accessed online or downloaded for offline use, allowing for greater flexibility in research and personal engagement.
3) Scope and Depth of the Collection: A brief overview of the 365 available collections reveals that 168 of them are poems, underscoring the project’s emphasis on Tamil poetic traditions. The diversity of genres — including short stories, plays, research papers, and novels — provides a holistic view of Tamil literary production in Singapore. The breadth of this collection showcases the richness of Tamil culture, reflecting various societal themes, artistic expressions, and historical perspectives. However, the website is still under construction, and I encountered a few glitches, which I hope the NLB will resolve soon.
This archive not only serves as a preservation tool but also acts as an educational resource for future generations. It opens new avenues for research in Tamil studies, cultural studies, and digital humanities, inviting local and international scholars to engage with Singapore’s Tamil literary history. By making these resources freely available online, the project breaks geographical barriers, allowing Tamil literature from Singapore to reach a global audience.
Moreover, this initiative fosters cross-cultural understanding and dialogues, especially within the Tamil diaspora, and highlights the interconnectedness of global Tamil communities. The volunteer-driven nature of the project emphasizes the importance of community-led efforts in preserving cultural heritage, particularly non-English languages and traditions. The collective dedication of the TDH underlines the significance of grassroots initiatives in sustaining and nurturing linguistic diversity in a globalized world.
The TDH project stands as a remarkable example of how digital technology can be harnessed to preserve and disseminate cultural heritage. Its innovative approach benefits Tamil-speaking communities worldwide and contributes significantly to the broader global digital heritage landscape.