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In India, we do not have integrated local (district) level data available or accessible easily. The Chronicle Project aims to collect all possible information at district level, which is relevant, synthesize it meaningfully and present it intelligibly.

Think of all the information pertaining to a district in two categories, qualitative (part 1) and quantitative (part 2). We work with both.

Part I might contain everything related to local history (written and oral), folktales, cultures, artefacts, geographies, and other characteristics of a district or a taluka that give the characteristic identity to the place. 

Part II might contain all the developmental and governance-related information, for instance the data related to demography, urban development, industries, migration, health, education, policy and judiciary, labor, banking and finance, transportation, environment, electricity, revenue, agriculture,  local government, communications, trade and the like.

There could also be a third part in which the data can be analyzed and new insights could be generated.

Hardly. The Wikipedia pages (except those for big cities) are thin and Lonely Planet is narrow both in geography and scope. The government websites of district administration are not useful either. Frankly, while we can easily find a lot of information about India online, the same is not true for cities, towns, villages. In fact, the only and the best way to know about a certain place in India is to visit there.

We will not re-create data or conduct surveys, but only collect that data which is anyway being collected and stored by the government. The government already collects vast amounts of information and data in villages, talukas, districts and aggregates them into state-level and India-level data. The Census is one example. There are a large number of local level enumeration exercises constantly underway. We can collect that data and information (often publicly available) and integrate it meaningfully. All of this data is (or can be) in the public domain. We can also collect information from various committee reports and other sources.

Historical and archival narratives can also be collected from various sources, both in old gazetteers as well as in vernacular publications, archives and even various reports. For collecting folktales, oral histories etc., we will have to engage with the local population at multiple levels.

Never. This is a unique initiative with no precedent, and hence we are starting with a pilot in 2-3 districts. If successful, the pilot can then be rolled across the country, and hopefully researchers in their respective districts would want to use our framework to execute projects for their own local spaces. 

Perhaps the closest precedent one can think of about an example is that of  district gazetteers although that falls short in conveying the accurate impression.

District gazetteers were British/colonial documents that collected district level information for the benefit of the administration. If one has to think about conceptual categories  to place it under, a gazetteer’s imagination can at least be a good starting point. We may even say that the inspiration for our  project comes from gazetteers. But our product is qualitatively different.

The British wrote major volumes/books documenting India the way they saw it. These were calledgazetteers. Extremely crucial for the colonial administration, these books mapped the districts in great detail, much like an encyclopedia.

So for example, the District Gazetteer of Delhi 1883-84 for instance, is a 230-page book compiled and published under the authority of Punjab Government with a table of contents divided into District (descriptive, geology, fauna and flora), History, People (statistical, social life, religious life, tribes and castes, leading families, village communities and tenures), Production and Distribution (agriculture, livestock, occupations, industries, commerce, prices, weights and measures, communications), Administration and Finance (general, military, land revenue), Towns, Municipalities and Cantonments.

After independence, we have not been able to continue the tradition with as much vigor. Some states do better than the others but by and large, the efforts have not been as exhaustive.

Yes. We are not rewriting gazetteers. We are doing a lot more. Gazetteers still follow a British framework with their primary focus is on history. It is a volume done by and for the government.  More importantly, gazetteers are voluminous books locked in time, and hardly available online for most districts in India.

We are evolving our own framework that responds to the new India. We are doing it not for the government alone but also for an ordinary citizen on the street who is interested to know more about a region. We will make an online, web-based portal which will be accessible by anyone. It will also welcome continuous updates.

A crude analogy is that of the difference between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. Despite having similar categories, they are conceptually different. The Chronicle Project and Gazetteers also differ on the same lines, perhaps even more.

We plan to come up with a web-based portal that allows anyone to access the information. The portal will have been organized and designed to present all the information intelligibly and in a user-friendly way.

Over time, the same portal can be updated as new information comes in, and hopefully at some point we can put it all out as open-source so users can themselves enrich the information.

This portal can then be used to prepare a hard-copy volume, or a book as well.

We will rely on the technology to do so. Instead of tables for instance, we will have interactive graphs. We will also use GIS extensively to give a spatial representation. The portal will also have considerable pictures, videos and recordings to make the stories more captivating. This will be a highly creative product.

Totally. FLAME University is committed to enhancing knowledge and advancing society through action-based research. Despite the high costs involved in executing the project, it will always remain free of cost.

Indeed. The local government, local intellectuals, students, researchers in a range of disciplines, designers, writers, coders, you name it. This is a highly interdisciplinary space where potential for creativity is immense.

There is always so much work for everyone who is intellectually curious here. Just write to the Centre’s Founding Director, Prof. Yugank Goyal on his email address: yugank.goyal@flame.edu.in

Absolutely. This project will in fact rely considerably on students’ passion and skills to drive it forward. Given the multidisciplinary nature of engagement here, the project is open to everyone.