Rebuilding a century-old library book by book

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A group of 30 National Cadet Corps (NCC) student volunteers from the University of Kerala is rebuilding a historic colonial-era library in Thiruvananthapuram, antiquarian book by book and disintegrating manuscript by manuscript. 

Housed in a Victorian-era building in Vanchiyoor, the Sree Chitra Thirunal Grandhasala is a rich repository of nearly 2 lakh rare books, old manuals, magazines, and other out-of-print publications that have been lost to history. 

The students spend hours a day indexing, cataloguing, and preserving the rare historical treasure trove under the aegis of Young Indians, a national youth movement, in an effort to restore the 100-year-old library to its past glory. 

The work is laborious and painstaking, with students recording titles, author and “accession number”, a unique sequential code assigned to individual works for making a digitalised catalogue accessible to the public, including scholars and researchers. 

 For the cadets, the project has become an opportunity to interact directly with history. Ms Vismaya Tojo, a first-year BA History student and NCC cadet at University College, Thiruvananthapuram, said she was fascinated by the opportunity to handle old and rare books and manuscripts. 

Dr Achuthsankar S. Nair, academic, said the project would give the century-old institution a new lease of life as a state-of-the-art reading and learning space for the younger generation. Founded by N. Kesava Pillai, then a 16-year-old student, with just 25 donated books, the library also served as a theatre centre. 

Librarian Hari says that over the decades, the library staged dozens of plays annually to raise funds, nurturing thespian talent that later became prominent figures in Malayalam cinema, notably Adoor Bhasi, Bharath Gopi, Jagadish, and Aranmula Ponnamma. He recalled that former judge Anna Chacko was the first woman to be part of the troupe.

Former President Dr S. Radhakrishnan was among the national figures who maintained a close association with the library, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014. 

Despite its rich legacy, the institution has struggled financially in recent years.
The revival project forms part of the Young Indians’ “Revive the Roots” initiative and seeks to reconnect young people with heritage institutions. Mathew Jacob, Chapter Chair of Young Indians (Yi) Trivandrum, said the objective was not merely to preserve books but to ensure that future generations benefit from the knowledge they contain.

(The writers, Sreenand M.S. and Malavika Devi J. R., are interns at the The Hindu Bureau in Thiruvananthapuram)