The National Bibliography of Indian Literature: 1901 - 1953 (NBIL); 4 v. (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1962 - 1974), is a selective bibliography. It was compiled by a group of distinguished language specialists under the editorship of B. S. Kesavan, the then Director of the National Library. In addition to the original four volumes of the bibliography, the project was extended to include a fifth volume (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1990), ed. by Kartik Chandra Dutt. Nearly 56,000 titles with imprints prior to 1954 in twenty-two Indian languages are listed in the bibliography.

The scope of the NBIL is defined in the introduction as encompassing books "of literary merit, and important and significant books on Philosophy, Religion, History and the other aspects of the Humanities, written with originality, imagination and literary taste . . . ." In other words, the title of the bibliography should be construed broadly to include all of the humanities.

The scholars selected to edit sections of the NBIL within the scope of this project include:

• Assamese -- Birinchi Kumar Barua, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Professor and Head of the Department of Assamese Language and Literature at Gauhati University;
• Bengali -- Dr. Sukumar Sen, former Khaira Professor of Linguistics, Calcutta University, a renowned scholar and writer in Bengali;
• Dogri -- Shyamlal Sharma, a scholar of Dogri;
• English -- bibliographic staff at the National Library of India;
• Gujarati -- Umashankar Joshi, a prominent littìrateur and scholar noted both for his poetry and as the Director of the University School of Gujarati Language and Literature in Ahmedabad;
• Hindi -- Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, a renowned Hindi scholar and former Professor and Head of the Department of Hindi at the University of Punjab;
• Kannada -- A. N. Moorthy Rao, an influential Kannada writer and former Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Mysore;
• Kashmiri -- Mirza G. H. Beg "Arif", a well-known writer in Kashmiri;
• Konkani -- Tanaji D. Halarnakar, a scholar of Goan culture;
• Maithili -- Govinda Jha, a prolific author and retired librarian;
• Malayalam -- Suranand Kunjan Pillai, Editor of the Malayalam Lexicon;
• Manipuri -- M. Anandamohan Singh, retired librarian of the State Central Library, Manipur;
• Marathi -- Shankar Ganesh Date, famous for his single-handed compilation of the Marati Granthasuci, regarded as one of the most meticulously thorough bibliographies to be published in India;
• Nepali -- Kamala Sankrityayan, a noted scholar of Nepali;
• Oriya -- the Orissa Sahitya Akademi;
• Panjabi -- Dr. Ganda Singh, an historian and former Director of Panjab State Archives, Patiala;
• Rajasthani -- Hiralal Maheshwari, a noted Rajasthani and Hindi scholar;
• Sanskrit -- bibliographic staff at the National Library of India;
• Sindhi -- D. K. Mansharamani, a Sindhi writer and teacher at Gujarat College in Ahmedabad;
• Tamil -- L. P. Kr. Ramanathan Chettiar, former Professor and Head of the department of Tamil and Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Annamali University;
• Telugu -- Dr. G. V. Sitapati, Chief Compiler, Telugu Bhasha Samiti; and
• Urdu -- Prof. Al-i-Ahmad Suroor, a prominent critic and former Professor of Urdu at Aligarh University and Kashmir University.

Selection principles used in creation of the NBIL were defined by the editorial staff and applied by the section editors. Each language was divided into the following units and the criteria of selection defined as:

• General works: important bibliographies produced in that language, general encyclopedias, and dictionaries of the language;
• Philosophy and religion: only works of significance or of literary merit;
• Social sciences: educational, social, economic, and political works, written with originality, imagination, and literary distinction;
• Linguistics: works that contribute to a better understanding of the origin, history, and nature of the language;
• Arts: outstanding art portfolios and books about the arts;
• Literature: works of literary merit and abiding value in the areas of general works (including histories of literature, anthologies, general works on literary criticism, and so forth), poetry, drama, fiction, essay, letters, humor and satire, and miscellaneous literature;
• History: seminal works on all periods of history, including biography, autobiography, and travel; and
• Miscellaneous: books of significance and literary merit which do not fall under any of the categories above.