Books to set off a revolution

 

The truth is, when Punjabis were divorced from books, they were reduced to caricatures of their former selves. This ordinance will revive Punjab’s spirit

 

At a time when bookstores are dying and e-books beginning to out-sell printed ones, Punjab is waking up to the need for legislation on public library and information services. Too late in the day, one may say. And some tech-savvy knowledge worker, who learns, loves and lives online, may just yawn at the news and sleepily mumble, ‘In our digitally networked world, libraries are an anachronism’.

But are they?

I would rather risk being dubbed a romantic than not confess that I can foresee a cultural renaissance in Punjab unleashed by a mere ordinance. The ordinance which, as reports suggest, will pave the way for the proposed Punjab Public Library and Information Services Act 2011, will be remembered when the greatly publicized Right to Service Act will have been forgotten and buried under the dust and ashes of time. The latter may promise greater political dividends, but the former has greater historic potential. While Punjab badly needed the latter, it has no future without the former. Thanks to the ordinance, the year 2011 may be remembered as a watershed in the cultural history of modern Punjab. The only doubt is - will its provisions be actually implemented?

Along with being the granary of the country, Punjab has been, since ancient times, also a nursery of ideas and a cradle of philosophies. It hurts, therefore, to see Punjabis reduced to certain stereotypes fit for either ridicule or flattery. But stereotypes too come from somewhere. As symptoms, they come from and point to an absence - in this case the absence of a substantial and serious culture of thought and imagination. The truth is when Punjabis were divorced from books, they were reduced to caricatures of their former selves. By attempting to restore to Punjab its attenuated culture of rigorous thought and ample imagination, the ordinance may help resuscitate the dying Punjabi spirit of intellectual adventure. This spirit is needed to electrify our all-too-Punjabi sensuous cosmopolitanism, and to enlarge our smug minds and shrinking hearts.

A widespread and easily accessible network of libraries has the potential to not only cultivate a scientific and rational temperament but also hone the skills and talent that are prized most high in the global workplace today. For the gifts of reading are numerous and include the ability to interpret, compare, contextualize, analyze, critique, evaluate and judge. This should give to our young people’s competitiveness a real sharp edge. And since the proposed libraries will also be general information hubs, they will simultaneously address the problem of unequal distribution of information typical of late capitalist societies.

The information deficit that ruins the prospects of numberless young women and men because they happen to be living in villages and slums will, hopefully, be taken care of. A less visible, but often insurmountable, impediment to the fundamental right to equality could finally be removed.

And there will bonus to boot. The habit of reading can be a potent antidote to pessimism and the sense of futility that drive a hapless person to suicide, whether instant or slowly induced by drugs. Reading can be an effective therapy in the present situation when a multi-pronged strategy is required to deal with the complex crisis Punjab faces in these times of disorienting socio-cultural and economic transformations. That our people, young and old, are hungering for books was evident last year when students of Punjabi University organized a two-day book fair. People rushed to buy books from far and wide, leaving the book-sellers astonished and the cynics embarrassed.

As of now, it is quite a disgrace that while every little town in the state has more than one business ‘mall’, as many as eight districts are without district-level libraries. Legislation should oblige the governments in future to remove this stain from the fair brow of Punjab. When the bill becomes an act, the state will at last join Haryana and Tamil Nadu, among others, which had similar legislation in place in 1989 and 1948 respectively. The plan, which may sound ambitious in statistics but is fairly practicable in reality, is to have a state central library, 22 district libraries, 141 block-level libraries, 157 town libraries and 12, 282 village libraries.

Mere legislation will not suffice. Crucial will be the way legislation is crafted and what it actually provides for translating its objectives into accomplishment. Committed funding, with regular budgetary provision, will be the key. Safeguards will be needed against unnecessary bureaucratic interference.

Entrusting the responsibility for setting up and running the network to competent professionals would be essential. And it would be good if the project for the public library network is integrated with related projects and missions such as rural development, urban renewal and literacy. The aim, eventually, should be to have neighbourhood public libraries so that borrowing a book or browsing it is as convenient as visiting the next-door grocery store.

Initially, the investment should be in reading material, not in buildings. Making use of available spaces in schools, colleges and community centres should be preferred over raising new buildings for the greater benefit of contractors and their godfathers. Slowly we should develop libraries into places that have comfortable reading rooms and active reading clubs. Private and corporate contributions should be happily forthcoming.

The New York Public Library, one of the greatest libraries in the entire world, is a shining example of what private philanthropy and public funding can together achieve. Way back in 1886, Samuel J. Tilden bequeathed nearly 2.4 million US dollars to ‘establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York’. Over the years, other people have chipped in, and the library today has over 50 million items stored in 90 locations.

In his third economic and philosophical manuscript, Marx condemns ‘crude communism’ for its ‘abstract negation of the whole world of culture and civilization’. For too long now the norm in Punjab has been an abstract affirmation of culture in a celebratory, vacuous, often macho, mode. The revival and establishment of public libraries at this juncture can become a concrete affirmation of culture and civilization. Political energy, of the kind that is manifest in bringing the Right to Service to the people, would help.



The writer is Associate Professor of English with Punjabi University.