The 75th Independence Day yesterday was a momentous occasion, but the momentum was slightly missing for such an occasion because of the COVID pandemic. On this occasion, I would like to reflect on the role that libraries played in our Independence struggle and why libraries can be called the lungs of a democracy.
The National Librarians Day was celebrated 3 days back on August 12 in memory of S R Ranganathan, considered the father of library science in India. Ranganathan had taken up the newly-constituted job of librarian at the University of Madras very reluctantly but he became a passionate advocate of free public libraries 90 years back after exposure to the power of libraries in England. He saw the role libraries could play in enabling and empowering and masses and creating civil discourse and for that he not only advocated for permanent libraries but also bullock cart libraries.
This role of libraries as the lungs of a democracy is as relevant today as it was then at the time of the nationalistic movement in which it had a significant role. The Library Movement in Kerala had a key role in creating nationalist consciousness. Establishment of libraries and reading rooms in villages happened fast as people wanted to get updates about the nationalist movement throughout the country. People would gather, read and discuss the news and other books. It is because of these libraries that the nationalist movement in Kerala saw the participation of people from different classes, who had an awakening through their exposure and participation in the library. Because libraries were seen as dangerous, the state of Hyderabad, which was an ally of the British-imposed restrictions on setting up of libraries after the 1st Library Conference in 1925. But the library movement continued in innovative ways for example on boats as well as people saw the crucial role of libraries. Not surprisingly, an old Telugu adage was, “Look at the library and judge the village.”
This role of libraries in democratizing access to knowledge, and thereby fuelling the fire for Independence and for democracy was already seen in the United States, the oldest democracy. The first civic act of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, who is known as the ‘First American’, was the setting up of a library, of which he functioned as a librarian for a few years. ‘The Library Company’ had a significant role in creating the fervour of nationalism and in empowering the non-elites. As Franklin said in his autobiography, “These Libraries have improved the general conversation of Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defence of their privileges.”
Today, when information is available at one’s fingertips, the role of libraries is less important for access to information, particularly in economically developed societies. But the role of libraries in fostering democracy is all the more important. Public libraries are among the few places, where people of different castes and classes can come together today. It is a space, where people in the community can socialize, can share their skills with each other and help each other. This is all the more needed as people get glued to their digital screens for access to knowledge and information. Not surprisingly, promoting democracy is a part of social mission of public libraries as mandated in the Public Library Acts of Sweden and Hungary.
Even in developed economies, the role of libraries in democratizing access to knowledge, and thereby truly creating an aware and awake citizenry, is extremely important. In many countries in the West, the libraries are the places, where young people from disadvantaged communities go for digital access in addition to books. Libraries have had a great role in the creation of developed economies as well. For example, we know that America become a superpower in the 20th century. But how did the people, who immigrated to the US, the Spaniards, the Italians, the Chinese, the Dutch etc contribute to the American dream? They knew little English and would have been shy to join a primary school as adults. But they could borrow books from the library and build their skills in reading.
Many of those libraries in the US were set up by Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the United States in the late 19th century. Andrew, who had started out as a kind of labourer, used a library to develop himself and went on to become a steel magnate. His enduring legacy has been the free Carnegie Libraries that he set up throughout the US. Libraries are, in fact, the best places for self-initiated and self-motivated learning. There are many similar stories in India as well. Siva Subramani, an Odisha cadre IPS officer, for instance, was a bus driver at an engineering college. After driving the students to college in the morning, he would wait for the classes to end to drive them home. In this period, he started browsing through books at the college library and went on to crack the highly competitive civil services exam.
When we started Bakul Foundation and decided to have a mission of starting a library movement with the resources of volunteers, we knew that a vibrant democracy needed an active citizenry, and a library movement seemed an old fashioned but extremely relevant way to democratize access to knowledge. By creating spaces, where people could congregate, develop themselves, discuss and take up initiatives for change, we would be working towards ensuring that this freedom does not allow only a few the freedom to dream and that everyone had opportunities to develop wings to fly.
