Library for all reasons

Rakesh Agrawal, Dehradun

CITIES like Delhi and Kolkata have their hubs of cultural activity. What does Dehradun, the capital of hilly Uttarakhand, have? It has a library which has evolved into a centre for debates, discussions, the arts, cinema and varied cultural activities. It is also, surprisingly, a hangout zone for the young.

The Doon Library and Research Centre (DLRC) has 37,353 books, 7,144 members, 55 journals and magazines, and 55 other publications. Located in the heart of the city, it is housed in a three-storeyed building. Students flock here for a variety of reasons. 

Neha Dobhal, a political science student at the DAV Degree College, a postgraduate degree college, has come with three friends. “We wanted to clarify the concept of federalism and ethnicity, after listening to our lecturer,” she says. 

The first floor houses hundreds of books on history, political science, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and Hindi and English literature, as well as on zoology, botany, chemistry and physics. Care has been taken to include a substantial collection of books on the social, cultural, economic, ethnological and ecological aspects of the Himalayas.

You can pick books and go to the 250-seater reading room on the second floor. Here you will find a computer room and a research publication section as well. It is open to the general public from 8 am to 8 pm. Anyone can come and read newspapers and magazines free of cost.   

The DLRC was established in December 2006 by S.K. Das, the then Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand, as an autonomous organization. It was inaugurated by Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the then chief minister.

Prof B.K. Joshi, founder director, DLRC, says they have been working assiduously to ensure the library is not perceived only as a repository of books but also as a venue for social, cultural and academic activities. 

“We are a one-stop destination for material on the Himalayan regions of India, especially Uttarakhand. It is a place serving the reading needs of an enlightened and book-loving general public. The library serves as a reference centre and a venue for cultural, musical, folk and academic activities,” he says.

An autonomous institution registered  under the Societies Registration Act, the DLRC  is managed by a governing body with the chief secretary as its chairperson. The other members of the governing body include secretaries of the Departments of Finance, Planning, School Education, Culture and Higher Education as well as eminent educationists and personalities nominated by the governing body. The administrative and academic head of the institution is the director.

The second floor also houses an e-library with 26 computers. It has been designed to meet the needs of students appearing for various competitive exams. “Since 2007, about 150 young people have cracked these exams and are now employed with the government,” says N. Ravishankar, honorary director of DLRC.

The third floor has a well-stocked Folk Museum, which stores and displays artifacts, vernacular architecture showpieces, and other items related to folk culture and rural life. There are replicas and open-air exhibits to bring local culture and traditional architecture to life for viewers. 

Next to it is a centre for group activities. On March 15 this year, 90 children gathered to celebrate Phul Dei, a month-long folk festival that marks spring. Children, mostly girls, go from house to house in their village or neighbourhood, offering flowers, plates of rice, jaggery and coconut. The girls pray for the well-being and prosperity of all. In return, people emerge from their homes to bless the children and give them gifts. It is seen as a festival that connects people to nature.  

However, over the years, due to migration from the hills, the festival had become akin to just another folk tale children heard from their elders.

“We wanted to revive the festival and make children aware of this forgotten tradition of their hill villages,” says Tanmay Mamgain, secretary of Dhad, the social organization behind the celebration.

“To cater to the academic and cultural needs of the children, we started this section for little ones. We have 500 books in Hindi, English, Kumaoni, Garhwali, Gurjari, Jaunsari and other regional languages. We also conduct storytelling sessions by writers, musical sessions by local folk artistes, nature tours, film screenings, quiz competitions and language learning exercises,” says Megha Wilson, who is in charge of this section.  

Apart from the children’s section, the ground floor has been reserved for cultural activities. It has a canteen and an open-air theatre. There is a 100-seater airconditioned multipurpose hall with a large screen, podium and audio paraphernalia. Here you can watch a movie or a play. Concerts are also held. Book launches, debates and discussions regularly take place here.   

Recent events include the screening of the film Making of the Constitution, and a concert by the Kabir Café band comprising Raman Iyer, Mukund Ramaswamy and Viren Solanki. Since 2007 more than 300 programmes have been held here.

The 50th anniversary of a yatra held every 10 years in the state called Askot se Arakot was marked here by a talk by Shekhar Pathak, professor of history at Kumaon University in Nainital. This yatra travels from Askot in Champawat district, at one end of the state, to Arakot in Uttarkashi, at the other end, to assess how the state’s ecology has changed.

People from various walks of life, including writers, poets, photographers, journalists, and social activists, take part, travelling through villages and staying in local people’s homes.

The ground floor also has space where NGOs and self-help groups can display and sell their products, be it food, handicrafts, textiles or research publications.

A research centre dedicated to studies on the Himalayan region, particularly from the perspective of social sciences and humanities, is also being developed. It is hoped the research centre will become a hub of intellectual and academic activity.

Contact: [email protected]/ C.S. Tewari: 09259185425