North Gujarat rulers were pioneers in promoting reading

PALANPUR: As book lovers celebrate the World Book Day on April 23, very few know that the efforts to promote the reading habit in Gujarat were made long ago by the then rulers of North Gujarat Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Vadodara and Nawab Talley Muhammad Khan of Palanpur.
"Long ago in 1888, Nawab Sher Muhammed Khan established Victoria Jubilee Institute Library.His son Nawab Talley Muhammad Khan and Maharaja Sayaji Rao had made elementary education compulsory for boys and girls throughout the region under their domain which included Palanpur, Mehsana, Vadnagar, Visnagar, Vijapur, Kadi, Kalol and Patan," said an old-timer.
"The two rulers also made arrangements for home services for women to get the books at their door step as they were restricted from going out," said a scholar of cultural history of Patan Mukund Brahmkshtriya.
Shrimant Fatehsinh Rao Sarvajanik Pustakalya (SFSP) was another major library started in 1890. Old timers say that VJIL was spread over 10,000 sq feet in Palanpur and SFSP stretched over 39,000 square feet in Patan. They are among the oldest libraries in the state. VJIL is said to be even older than Central Library at Vadodara that was set up in 1910 by Sayaji Rao.
Brahmkshtriya said that apart from setting up the SFSP, the Maharaja also helped in setting a dozen other libraries later. He said that Soni Wado Library, Rajak Wado, Badridas Tank Wado Library and others are testimony to the efforts made by the visionary rulers to popularize reading.
They had presented thousands of books to these libraries. Dr Shailesh Sompura, president of the library committee at Patan, said, " Besides Gujarati, English, Marathi, Urdu and Persian, the libraries also have a rich collection of books in Sanskrit, Pali and Magh languages."
"The love of Vadnagar's people for books can be discerned from the example set by NRI Kartikey Mehta last year when he donated his 200 years old Haveli worth millions of rupees for setting up a library," said president of Sarvajanik Library Committee at Vadnagar Trikam Makwana.