Historical Note on the Establishment of Calcutta Public Library
The Editor of the Englishmen newspaper Mr. J.H. Stocqueler
circulated an address in August 1835 among principal inhabitants of the Calcutta
city, advocating establishment of Calcutta Public Library. He wrote:
"As
considerable inconvenience is sustained by almost all classes of the community
of Calcutta, owing to the absence of any thing like a General Library,
combining the advantages of a Library of Reference and Resort with those of a
circulating library, it is proposed to take measures for immediately
establishing such an institution, upon a scale commensurate with the interest
and wants of the reading population.
From the
inquiries that have been made, it is believed that such a library, if based
upon broad and liberal principles, will receive very general support throughout
the metropolis. No establishment at present exists in any degree calculated to
answer the purposes to be attained by a Public Library, and hence the
accumulation of expensive Book Clubs and the continual disbursement of large
sums in the purchase of works of ephemeral value.
But to render
a Public Library permanent and every way worthy of the name it adopts, it is of
the last importance that the spirit of exclusiveness be renounced and
repudiated by all who may desire to share in its foundations. To use the words
of an able speaker upon the occasion of the formation of a similar institution
elsewhere, an Indian Public Library should be a mighty reservoir to all who burn
with the thirst of knowledge. We should not ask the comer from what land he
arrived, what tenets he professes; we should not mete his understanding by his
creed, nor his worthiness by lot of which he fills in life; but of whatever
country, of whatever desert he was born a denizen, before whatever shrine he
was taught to bow, to whatever hue the north-wind has bleached or the southern
sun has mellowed his complexion, we should bid him to approach, to drink and be
filled".
In a word, the
honourable task is proposed of diffusing a literary spirit amongst all classes,
and creating means for its gratification; of opening a rich source of
instruction and enjoyment TO ALL RANKS AND PROFESSIONS, subject only to that
moral propriety and strict observance of decorum, without which no society can
long remain respectable.
To ensure the
most complete success to the proposed institution, and to render it acceptable
to all persons of whatever station, it is intended to establish two rates of
admission - viz., five and three rupees per month, charging also a small
entrance of two gold-mohurs to the former, in order to create a fund at the
commencement, and granting to the first class subscribers sundry privileges
that may not desired by the second.
It is
requested that those who are favorable to the plan now submitted for
consideration, will sign their names below; and as soon as a sufficient number
shall appear upon the list, a meeting will be called to arrange the details and
all necessary preliminaries."
Hon'ble Sir John Peter Grant in a public meeting in Calcutta
on 31st August 1835 observed:
"I
believe this the only society of the same extent which has not a library of
some description; at the Cape, at Bombay, they are better provided, and Madras
has its Literary Society, but here in Calcutta, we are without the means of reading,
except by purchasing books, from Humphrey Clinker up to Hume's History of
England. This I think is a very great inconvenience, and we even have no means
except the expensive one I have just mentioned, of procuring books of light
literature which form the main reading of the greater part of the community; or
of those books which no man would purchase or refer to, except for the purpose
of seeking out some particular information or referring to some point. But the
particular object we have in view, will be better developed by the resolutions
which I hope will meet with general approbation. They have been drawn up to
meet the convenience of all classes of the community, by no means excepting
those young men, natives of this country, who are most meritoriously pursuing
their studies".
All these efforts led to
establishment of Calcutta Public Library (CPL) in 1836. CPL later became Imperial
Library in 1891 and then finally the National Library of India in 1948.
Reference:
Calcutta Public Library (1846), Preface, In: Catalogue of the Calcutta Public Library,
pp. iii-xx.
