A King and his librarian

To talk of libraries in present-day India is to go down a dangerous path. Very soon, one finds an old (sometimes young) gent holding forth on the destruction of the libraries of Taxila and Nalanda. Soon enough, the invective and the finger-pointing begins.

What of libraries in India today? Who cares! We are too busy fuming about age-old events.

More than a century ago, an enlightened monarch not only cared, but also walked the talk. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda (1863-1939) was by all standards an unusual monarch. His ascent to the throne was an accident. Hailing from an obscure and impoverished branch of the royal family, he was enthroned as a twelve-year-old in 1875, when the previous ruler was packed off into exile after he had attempted to poison the British Resident to cover up his financial shenanigans. During the course of his rule, Sayajirao Gaekwad proceeded to undertake a series of decisions that considerably improved the life of his subjects and propelled the kingdom to being regarded as something of a ‘model state’. Economic reforms, social and religious reforms, educational enhancement—the king left none of these spheres untouched.

Among the monarch’s many projects was to establish a string of public libraries. In 1910, Gaekwad appointed William Alanson Borden from the US to take charge of this project. Borden was then librarian at the Youngmen’s Institute of New Haven, Connecticut, a position he had held for more than two decades. He had lectured on the discipline of librarianship and modified the Dewey Classification System for libraries to be able to handle photographs, which by the late 19th century had become something that needed attention.

Gaekwad met Borden during the course of his travels in the US and was convinced that he was the man who could give wings to his project.

Over the next three years, Borden went the whole hog in realising the monarch’s dreams. He established the central library in Baroda, with a reference and lending section of some 40,000 books. Three more big (prant) libraries were also envisioned and two of them established. Perhaps, Borden’s greatest achievement was in establishing libraries in 36 of the 38 towns in the kingdom. And to top it all, 216 of the 426 large villages in the realm also established their own libraries. In addition, there were 140 travelling libraries. Borden had successfully transformed the monarch's vision into a comprehensive public library system. In 1913, he conducted a librarian training workshop in Baroda.

What was behind the king’s zeal to establish libraries? Plucked from obscurity, Gaekwad found himself at the helm in fortuitous circumstances. He was groomed and tutored by the redoubtable Diwan Sir T Madhava Rao. On taking charge, he went about the task of governance with legendary zeal. In 1906, he introduced free and compulsory education in the kingdom and scholarships for promising students for studies abroad. One of the beneficiaries of this scheme was B R Ambedkar. The scholarship enabled Ambedkar to study at Bombay’s Elphinstone College, at first, and later at Columbia University.

In 1950, 11 years after Sayajirao’s death, Ambedkar wrote to the then ruler expressing a wish to write a biography of the late ruler. “He was my patron and architect of my fortune,” went the letter. “It was he who gave me the higher education that has enabled me to reach the high status I occupy today in public life. I owe a deep debt of gratitude I wish I could adequately repay. The only way I could do is to write his life.”

Owing to his failing health and his political preoccupations, Ambedkar ultimately couldn’t act upon his wish, but the handwritten letter is an indication of Ambedkar’s regard for Sayajirao. This, despite the fact that on his return from abroad, Ambedkar was badly treated in the city and ultimately had to leave the kingdom owing to repeated humiliation because of his caste.

Besides establishing libraries in his kingdom, the king also donated a large sum of money for the establishment of Central Library in the Banaras Hindu University which is named after him ‘Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Central Library’. 

But clearly, the kings and popularly elected governments who followed Sayaji Rao did little to further the library movement. An infographic that went viral on Twitter a few weeks ago listed a mere 296(!) public libraries in Gujarat in 2019. The ones that the king and his librarian established had gone the way of Nalanda and Taxila!