19th – mid 20th century library buildings as heritage of India

Abstract

Libraries have always carried a symbolic importance to the societies they were built in and have played an important role in the dissemination of information. The development of libraries, thus is closely related to the development of the books they hold, the way they’re used, a conducive socio-political scenario where they’re built and the prevalent architecture. India has a rich national literary heritage with the vedas and the hindu epics believed to be written well before thousand B.C and Third Century B.C. respectively. The Pananiya Siksha deplored written records and it was Buddhism and Jainism that encouraged making and copying manuscripts which called for the need for storage. With gradual relaxation of the tradition, Kings, temples, and monasteries began to accumulate manuscripts and preserve them for posterity; with time, well meaning patrons, philanthropists and the ever growing western influence would bring to India the libraries as we recognise them today. Over a period of time, as right to information was seen to be more inclusive than exclusive, the library grew more public. Thus growing from private single room collections to institutional collections, from a small section of users to multiple users spanning various classes, from being closed and limited access to open access, from storage space to a community space. Eventually as the requirement grew and there was a need to keep being relevant in times, spaces kept on adding to these libraries. Historic libraries that have at any point not become a victim of pillage or fire are still in use which shows how valuable libraries have been to humankind. The number of readers and lenders of libraries, despite the growing presence of digital print, have only grown in number. Regretfully, the multiplying mass of books and the rapid change in information sciences, have left the library buildings built before early 20th century in a limbo. Each library, in its own way has tried to cope up with the rapid change in required infrastructure, but not only do these interventions have dubious efficacy but have also caused neglect to the historic built fabric of these libraries. Scholars in the field of library science, have produced several books, reports and theses on the history and development of libraries. The most significant of them being Ramakrishna Rao, R.K. Bhatt and P.S.G Kumar, all of which, as one might expect, focus on the establishment of these libraries and their collections. Leaving the the study of spatial development as a gap in the research. Thus, this thesis attempts to piece together this spatial development in Historic Libraries in History.