Village library

Suman Krishna Kant at library
Suman Krishna Kant at village library

In the evening of his life, using up all of his cash savings, Babuji established a unique library in his parental home and birth place to actualize his dream of making Sikanderpur Majra a model village. He named the library after his father’s name: Lala Murari Lal Memorial Library. On the occasion of inauguration of the village library on his 76th birthday on 20th August, 1991, Babuji proclaimed that,”Libraries are indicators of the culture and progress of any past or present era and a source of inspiration for the future generations. These libraries are not only a source of recreation but also a significant foundation of national development. A nation that does not try to produce, promote and then collate its noble literature into libraries loses its existence because of ignorance and torpor. In India, there were 2655 libraries in Karnataka, 3077 in Tamil Nadu, 3952 in Andhra Pradesh, 6560 in Gujarat, 4170 in Kerala while only 50 in Haryana in 1985-86. There might be a few more now but it is noteworthy that all of these libraries were in urban areas and none in villages. This implies that 70% of Indian population that lives in villages has remained deprived from the literature and knowledge of country’s heritage since time immemorial”.

The village library has a large collection of history, politics, religious, philosophy and cultural literature. It has scriptures from all major religious traditions of the world including Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Gita, Guru Granth Sahib, Quran, Bible, Satyarth Prakash, Jain and Buddhists literature. In addition, the library hosts all books written by (or on) most leading freedom fighters (including entire literature on and by Gandhi and Vinoba), thinkers, poets, philosophers and spiritual leaders (like Jiddu Krishnamurthi and Vimala Thakar). There are biographies of most contemporary leaders of our times; as well as special sections of books for children and women.