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Legal framework for the Digital Archive and public domain status of Lakshminath Bezbarua’s works
Lakshminath Bezbarua died on March 26, 1938, in Dibrugarh, Assam. Under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, which governs copyright law in India, literary and artistic works are protected for the lifetime of the author plus 60 years following their death.
All transcriptions submitted to the Digital Archive must be accompanied by documentation of their source material. This includes:
Our editorial team compares submitted transcriptions against established editions held in academic libraries and verified digital collections. Any discrepancies are flagged for contributor clarification.
Each submission is reviewed by at least one editorial team member with specialized knowledge of Assamese literature and Lakshminath Bezbarua’s corpus. Reviewers assess:
To ensure that submitted transcriptions represent original work rather than copied content from other digital sources, all submissions undergo plagiarism detection. We use digital tools to screen submissions against existing online texts, ensuring that contributors have performed genuine transcription work from verified print sources.
Once a submission passes all verification stages, it is formatted according to our style guide and published in the appropriate category of the Digital Archive. Contributors receive:
Across all these works, certain themes recur: the absurdity of rigid social hierarchies, the gap between traditional values and modern realities, the incompetence of colonial bureaucracy, and the resistance to progressive reforms. Kripabar Borborua’s voice remains consistent—simultaneously affectionate toward Assamese culture and ruthlessly critical of its shortcomings.
Lakshminath Bezbarua died on March 26, 1938. Under Indian copyright law (Copyright Act, 1957), literary works enter the public domain 60 years after the death of the author. This means all of LNB’s original works entered the public domain in 1998.
This legal status allows us to freely publish, archive, and distribute transcriptions of LNB’s works without permission from any rights holders. However, we maintain strict standards to ensure:
All biographical information and critical analysis published on Sahityarathi.com is based on verified scholarly sources. We prioritize:
Date of Death: March 26, 1938
Copyright Protection Period: 60 years from end of year of death
Protection Expired: January 1, 1999
Result: All original works by Lakshminath Bezbarua are in the public domain in India.
This public domain status means that LNB’s original writings—including Burhi Aair Xadhu, his plays, poetry, satires, essays, and autobiographical works—can be freely reproduced, translated, adapted, performed, and distributed without requiring permission or payment to any rights holder.
Sahityarathi.com focuses exclusively on public domain primary source materials. When we reference modern scholarly analysis, we do so under fair use provisions for educational and commentary purposes, with proper attribution to copyright holders.
While the underlying text transcribed from public domain sources belongs to no one (it is public domain), the specific effort of transcription performed by a contributor constitutes an original work that may be eligible for copyright protection in some jurisdictions.
When submitting a transcription to Sahityarathi.com, contributors grant us a:
All contributor transcriptions published on Sahityarathi.com are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This means:
Full license text available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Original content created by the Sahityarathi.com editorial team—including critical essays, thematic analyses, biographical synthesis, and site infrastructure—is copyrighted:
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However, we encourage educational use and scholarly citation. Brief quotations (up to 500 words) from our original content may be used under fair use provisions for academic papers, reviews, and educational materials, provided proper attribution is given.
Bezbarua, Lakshminath. “Title of Work.” [Original publication year]. Transcribed by [Contributor Name]. Sahityarathi Digital Repository, accessed [Date], [URL].
[Author Name]. “Article Title.” Sahityarathi Digital Repository, [Publication Date], accessed [Date], [URL].
If you have questions about copyright, licensing, or believe content on this site infringes your rights, please contact our legal team at: legal@sahityarathi.com
Works of Lakshminath Bezbarua (1864-1938) are in the public domain under Indian copyright law.