State's oldest library on verge of closure
Jaysinh Rao library
State's oldest library on verge of closure
By Padma Bhargav, Freelance Journalist
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Gujarat, India-The 125-year-old Jaysinh Rao library, oldest in Gujarat located in the knowledge city Baroda could soon become a thing of past. The ancient library having a collection of more than 25,000 precious books in Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sanskrit and English literature is fighting for its survival due to lack of funds and political unwillingness.
Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, the then ruler of Baroda princely state had started a library for the educated section of the society on March 1, 1877 in the heart of the city. He was the first king during British rule who proposed and effectively administered the policy of compulsory education in Baroda. A separate building was later constructed in 1882 under Chief Engineer, Mr. C. Nicol Hill, which was named as Jaysinh Rao Public Library after the second son of Sayaji Rao Gaekwad. This public library presently provides the reading facility with 12 newspapers and around 30 periodicals published in different languages for approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people everyday absolutely free of cost. The majority of the books are rarely available and therefore conservation of books and renovation of the building is the need of the hour. The ancient structure with architectural beauty and house of knowledge treasure has only recently celebrated 125 glorious years.
The library is a knowledge treasure, and houses the 149-year-old Sanskrit drama, "Chaitanya Chandrodaya" authored by Pt. Vichanath Shastri. In addition it has a collection of complete volumes of The Mahabharata, Puranas, The Ramayana, autobiographies of Galileo Galeili, Christopher Columbus, the history of Gaekwad rulers, reference books pertaining to different types of industries which were existing around seven decades back and also an old Marathi book dating back to 1893. Some of the books are very rare and would not be available in any other library of the country.
The library was under Bombay state before independence and the royal family gave donations for maintenance of the building and purchase of books. In 1960, a separate Gujarat state was formed and the library came under government's control, which fixed an annual lease of Re.1 and gave the permission to operate it on tenant basis. Around five years back the Public Works Department raised the lease rent to Rs.101 per month all of a sudden, and the Corporation has fixed an annual house tax of Rs.18000.
Presently the library is being taken care of by Trust members who have been working on an honorary basis for more than 30 years, just to keep this public library alive. They are making attempts to renovate the building and add new books, but political lethargy and financial constraints are keeping their hands tied. It should be noted that the staff is being paid a very low salary and are working only due to emotional attachment with the building and its owners.
Hon. Secretary of Library Trust, Prasad Vipradas says, "I feel really sad that this wonderful public institution is today facing a severe shortage of funds. Today our main aim is to get continuous cash inflow to keep it running. We have tried from all sides and are managing only on individual donations, which is not sufficient to maintain this building leave alone the salary of the staff. Today we are appealing to various Indian organizations in abroad to fund our library. We got some donations some years back from the Maharashtra Foundation in New York and expect similar support from other organizations functioning overseas."
"The state government has passed the order to bring down the lease rent to the old rate of Re.1 per year, but PWD is not issuing the required orders. We have made so many appeals at various levels but nobody seems to be interested in maintaining this heritage property", he added.
The members feel that the absence of reading habits in people is also one of the reasons for the lack of required support. They are, however hopeful that some help from different social and educational organizations, individual donations, industrial contributions and government initiative will come in to keep the primordial structure alive.
Padma Bhargav is a freelance journalist and can be reached at e-mail: padma.bhargav@gmail.com
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