[ S Mundayoor ]

In the last article, we saw why the public libraries and the reading movement in Arunachal have become dormant due to our excessive dependence on government libraries and the absence of people’s participation and community involvement in reaching the blessings of reading to adolescent, adult and neo-literate population groups in rural Arunachal. It also focussed on the urgent need for bringing alive an ‘Operation Flood’ in books in our Arunachali languages to give a surge in reading habits among the masses, for whom English is just a classroom language.

How can we achieve this? Almost all state governments in mainland India have set up a state library council, an autonomous body to stimulate and encourage reading promotion among the common people. Success of the mass reading awareness and a strong library movement in these states is characterised by:

1. A strong emphasis on promoting literature and reading resources in mother language and local languages: An excellent example is Kerala, where books, weeklies and monthlies in Malayalam from 1870s laid the foundation of a vibrant reading culture. From early 20th century, nationalism fired the reading movement across India, with remarkable outputs in Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra and many parts of the Hindi mainland where many writers contributed both in Hindi and Urdu. Urge for social, economic and political reforms too fuelled reading habits, through stories, poems and theatre (plays) in Kerala and in varying measures across the nation. Extensive translations of books from English and other Indian languages too stimulated people’s interests in reading.
2. A long history of people’s leadership and contribution to spread the library network and reading culture across the region: Since poverty was rampant during the British rule, it was no surprise that reading enthusiasts tried to share their meagre resources, leading to the emergence of several community-run libraries and reading rooms across the nation. This high level of voluntarism led to the emergence of deeply committed librarians and library activists in the country. Martyr Shaheed Bhagat Singh had paid glowing tributes to his National College librarian in Lahore, Rajaram Shastri, who managed to get a wide genre of books needed for the revolutionaries. Educationists and eminent personalities like Gurudev Tagore patronised public libraries while several library-activists toiled to keep their own local libraries vibrant.

Apart from great library patrons like Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaikwad-III of Baroda and Dwarka Dass of Lahore, many other lesser-knownnationalist-minded philanthropists too contributed land and cash to set up and maintain community libraries during the 1930s to the 50s. The major credit for the mass socio-political awareness and activism as well as literacy and education in Kerala and other states would go to these community libraries.

Since Arunachal was not destined to have both of these, how can we make up? The way out is by the immediate formation of a state library council by our government. Though we have the Arunachal Pradesh Public Libraries Act 2009, it has only a State Library Planning Committee and not a library council. Since the Act does not specifically provide for recognition of community-managed libraries, such libraries in Arunachal have the status of only a virtual entity. Hence our state has only a handful of them, most of them recently set up. As against this, a state like Kerala has around 9,500 recognised public and community-run libraries -many of them a century old.

What can an Arunachal state library council do?

1. The library council promotes a strong voluntarism in the community in the field of promoting reading environment in the state. Hence the council encourages the formation of community-run libraries, managed by local volunteers, youth groups and NGOs. Hence,voluntarism in library services contributes to reading opportunities reaching people even in the remote areas of our state. (It is a bit strange why Arunachal, with a strong community-bound social life, did not evolve community libraries, when education and reading started to take roots in the 70s.)
2. A library council provides affiliation to community-run libraries and reading rooms. The libraries are given grades, depending on the size of the library and the range of services provided.

The council, being a body to support the growth of public libraries and reading culture, thus empowers these libraries. Hence affiliation becomes a major incentive and motivation for NGOs and CBOs to come forward to set up local libraries.

3. Since state-run libraries can hardly reach out to villages outside their limited zones, community libraries can complement them, extending library services to remote and rural pockets of Arunachal. They provide the local population a friendly reading environment as per locally convenient timings.
4. Affiliation of community-libraries help them to be a bridge between the state-run public librariesand the rural readers by helping readers to access the vast and excellent resources held by government-run libraries.

The Namsai district library has already been helping many such rural groups in the district to access its vast collection, without visiting the district library.

5. Community libraries would serve as a link between the book and the reader. Hence it greatly reduces the relapse of neo-literates into non-literacy, a great problem faced by rural Arunachali population.
6. The council supports community libraries to function as approved centres of internships for college and University/NSS students: From 2025, the UGC has mandated a 21 day/60 hours internship for university students. Thus, services of youths are channelised to evolve a better reading culture in Arunachal.
7. Community libraries supported by the state library council can help CBOs and NGOs to bring out books in local Arunachali languages and thus help the government to promote literacy and education in rural areas, at a very nominal investment.
8. The library council, being an autonomous body of the state government, will have members from the state library directorate, district libraries, educationists and social workers, as well as representatives of affiliated community libraries. The council advises the state government to initiate proactive policies for ‘transforming public libraries into vibrant social institutions that serve educational, cultural and recreational purposes’.

Other functions of a state library council:

1. Library council grants annual assistance in finance or in kind to affiliated libraries and reading rooms to procure books, periodicals, equipments and upgrading facilities, while a part of the investments like local land and buildings are contributed by the community/NGO.
2. The council also offers professional expertise and training to community library personnel in library management. It also supports local libraries to conduct reading promotion activities, vocational and skill-enhancement courses for public.
3. The council facilitates setting up of special reading centres/reading rooms/libraries like public hospital wards, women-only libraries and children’s reading-corners. This encourages these groups to freely develop reading habits.

No one can dispute that only a reading society can march into progress. Formation of a vibrant library council is a must for this. One ardently hopes our enlightened government, leaders and the educated elite of Arunachal would spiritedly work to make this a reality. (The writer is an educational and reading promotion activist, with over 45 years of experience with Arunachali youths, and the coordinator of the Lohit Youth Library Network.)