The order of the day is "Coming together." The technology has brought unprecedented changes in our perception of the world. The real and the virtual co-exist in a symbiotic relationship. The real is close but the virtual appears closer. So much so, that the appearance defies reality. Technology has transformed human capability of experiencing and observing natural and human world. New devices, gadgets and software have increased human potential of accessing information procured earlier and that which is yet to be recorded and preserved. The boundaries of disciplines are also getting porous allowing greater flow of ideas across them. Academics is becoming an increasingly multifaceted, multidimensional and multipronged field of knowledge.
The upcoming discipline of Digital Humanities is an area of academic interest which has grown as an outcome of this technological advancement. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, an American scholar, concisely defines the scope of Digital Humanities as, "For me it has to do with the work that gets done at the crossroads of digital media and traditional humanistic study. And that happens in two different ways. On the one hand, it's bringing the tools and techniques of digital media to bear on traditional humanistic questions. But it's also bringing humanistic modes of inquiry to bear on digital media." The professed objective of Digital Humanities is to systematically integrate computer technology into the activities of scholars of Humanities, as is done in contemporary social sciences.
This is not for the first time that it has been thought to incorporate methods of social sciences and scientific approach in the study of humanities. There have been region based studies, linguistic studies, historical studies, sociological studies and psychological studies in spheres of humanities. A large portion of media studies relies on the application of multimedia. From script to screen has been a rich area of literary research in which the transformation of literary texts into feature films, soap operas, documentaries, animation films etc. has been studied.
What is so new about Digital Humanities is the fact that it opens up a large canvas of cyber space to the scholar and facilitates an easy access to sources of information spread across the world. Through virtual conferencing it can facilitate real time conversation between scholars. The new researches in robotics claim that computer will be able to read the emotions of men just as neural language processing can read human voice and converts it into typed text. The conversion of information, printed texts and audio-visual texts in the form of micro films through digitalization has saved a lot of library space and also time of the scholars by locating the required information with unprecedented speed. Thus Digital Humanities is a discipline that relates to creation of digital data banks and data mining as well.
Though it is a comparatively new discipline, questions have already been raised about its vulnerability to political misappropriation. Today, the maxim is "Knowledge is Power." So, one who wields this power dominates. Since technology is concentrated in the hands of those who wield power, it is possible that the discourse of Digital Humanities becomes the discourse of the
class that wields power. It may be argued that in a democratic capitalist society, access to technology is open to all. But this is true only in principle. In practice the technology often serves the powerful. Those who hold monetary power and those who hold political power are often collaborators and in such a situation, the hegemony of academic dominance comes into force. Questions about the racial bias of Digital Humanities have been raised in America itself.
Digital Humanities can play a supportive role in the pursuance of a study of Humanities. But it will take some time before it develops into an independent field of academics.
Nonetheless, the importance of the discipline of Digital Humanities cannot be undermined. It is important to acquire a clear understanding of the discipline and make use of its potential in furthering research in Humanities. One should try to be cautious of the pitfalls of using it but ignoring it would not lead to any solution.
Dr. Valiur Rahaman , Assistant Professor in the department of English, Central University of Rajasthan, Kishangarh, Ajmer has endeavored to write a full length book on Digital Humanities. This is a pioneering effort and should be hailed as a welcome step. The book is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the discipline in all its dimensions and the second part reproduces two of the critical articles on the theme.
I am confident that the book will fulfill a need and will be received by the scholars and critics with great enthusiasm. The department of English, Central University of Rajasthan, in the dynamic leadership of Prof. Supriya Agrawal, has been doing exemplary work and this book is a proof of the scholarly atmosphere that exists in the department which has facilitated its creation. My greetings and best wishes to the author for this quality publication.
Dr. H.S. Chandalia
Professor, Department of English
Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth
Udaipur, Rajasthan
