KOCHI: There is no better day than Wednesday, October 2, when the nation observes the 155th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, to revisit the Mahatma Library in Tripunithura.
“It was founded in the 1930s, a time when political and social upheavals were aplenty— both in Cochin, the erstwhile state, and India. I guess you could say that the institution was a physical manifestation of the people’s desire to be involved in the great struggle,” P Surendran, former secretary of the library, tells TNIE.
The real impetus for its formation came when a march led by the firebrand leader A K Gopalan halted at Tripunithura. A learned man, AKG, as he is popularly known, “called on the people to take up the beacon of reading as a means to dispel the darkness in society.”
Taking inspiration from this, a clutch of youngsters from the nearby Tripunithura Boys High School founded the library on January 18, 1933.
“Though there were setbacks, the institution soon became a vortex of political and social activity. Perhaps the highlight of it was the arrival of none other than Gandhi himself,” Surendran says.
The following year, on learning that Gandhi was expected to arrive in Cochin, the library sent a letter inviting him to preside over its first-anniversary function. Gandhi agreed.
The news spread like wildfire. Anticipating a big crowd, the library decided to look for a space that could accommodate everyone. “The open ground in front of the People’s Urban Cooperative Bank (PUCB) was found to be ideal. Soon, preparations began,” says E P Sreekumar, writer and former general manager of the bank.
On January 14, 1934, Gandhi made his first visit to Tripunithura. “He spoke from the portico of the bank. In the now-famous photograph of this event, you can see the name of the bank very clearly,” Sreekumar adds.
Records tell us that Gandhi spoke on the freedom struggle and on harijan welfare activities at the event. “It was a big event at the time. Sadly, save for a few isolated functions, there has not been a concerted effort to honour this shard of history,” says a library member.
While a disinterest in books and reading among the public ate into the library’s prospects, the bank’s building was robbed of its sheen when it was leased out to the Post and Telegraph (P&T) department.
Later, when Sreekumar took charge as the general manager of the bank, things started to look up.
“After a long legal battle, we got rid of the P&T department and moved back in. To honour Gandhi’s visit, we redid the building, which had by then fallen into disrepair, exactly like it was when Gandhi visited it. We also commissioned a local artist to sculpt a statue of Gandhi,” Sreekumar tells TNIE.
“Elamana Hari, who was a Gandhian, inscribed a slogan into the statue’s pillar which edified the role of a social worker. It’s still there,” he says. The statue was redone a few years ago to match Gandhi’s sitting pose, exactly as you see in the 1934 photograph.
Though in the heart of Tripunithura, both Mahatma Library and the PUCB remain largely forgotten, save for occasions such as today’s.