BENGALURU : The recent incident of burning of free public library run by an elderly man Syed Isaaq in Mysuru elicited strong reactions from public. A friend who called to express her shock kept wondering why someone would commit such a heinous crime. Many TV channels aired footages of an anguished Isaaq. My Facebook timeline was peppered with posts condemning the incident. Help has been pouring in with books being donated and funds flowing in for a new library building. While these developments give us hope, one also cannot help contemplating why do books and libraries inspire so much hatred? Why are they burnt?
One of earliest recorded incidents of large-scale book destruction was by Vandals in Rome during 455 AD. The term ‘Vandalism’ was derived from this community. During the Dark Ages, after the fall of the Roman empire, Vikings ruined thousands of precious manuscripts in numerous European monasteries. During 1258, Mongols, under Hulagu Khan, captured the ancient cities of Baghdad and Alamut and destroyed all their libraries.
Vandalism of books can be broken down to several motives: it may be done for mere pleasure, it may be an act of revenge, it may be to sell and acquire money or it may be a political tactic. In her book ‘Burning Books and Leveling Libraries’, author Rebecca Knuth associates most incidents of biblioclasm with wars and power-struggles during early history. Moving to modern era, examining the infamous Nazi book burnings of 1933, Knuth opines that destruction of books, when motivated by social identity, can also feel noble to the perpetrators when they perceive it as serving a ‘greater good’.
One of the biggest modern incidents of biblioclasm was reported closer home, in 1981. Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka with around 97,000 books and important manuscripts was destroyed during a violent clash. The print purges during Pol Pot’s rule in Cambodia and Afghanistan’s Taliban regime marked a change in the cultural sphere of these countries. In a latest incident, famed author J K Rowling was berated by several fans for her political opinions. One commented that he is going to burn her books as well as the movies based on her works. Rowling’s tweet in reply was acerbic. “Well, the fumes from the DVDs might be toxic and I’ve still got your money, so by all means borrow my lighter,” she wrote.
Destroying libraries is a very public way of asserting a choice. The choice may be to bring down a belief system or ideology or to openly establish a censorship. Sayed Isaaq’s case, first of its kind in the State, has led to many raising serious concerns. During a recent literary discussion, I was delighted to learn that book sales across the world skyrocketed during the pandemic. I was also told that more people are listening to audiobooks and podcasts on myriad topics. This indicates that our society still leans towards individual preference, pluralism and pursuit of knowledge.