Twenty-six years before India won independence, a library opened at the office of the Dewan of Travancore, long before the state of Kerala was even formed. Through the years, the library changed names twice. It was called the Legislative Library in 1921 and later renamed as the Travancore Cochin Assembly Library in 1949. The library got its present name, the Kerala Legislature Library, in 1956. A year after celebrating its centenary, the Assembly finally opened the doors of the library to the public on November 1, celebrated as the Kerala Piravi day. Until then, it was accessible only to the members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
On a Wednesday in the first week of November, there are only two people perched over books on a reading table. Members of the public must only have begun to join the library, long closed to the outside world. Armed with an identity card, you can enter the gates and begin the long walk to the building situated next door to the vast Assembly builidng. As part of the Kerala Piravi week celebrations, the entry hall on the ground has a display of some rare old collections from the archive.
Deputy librarian Indu MR says that as part of the centenary celebrations, the Niyamasabha (Assembly) library is trying to reach out to the public and create awareness about the work and services it does. “We are doing it district by district. The first one was held in Alappuzha, and then the next in Kozhikode. From November 28 to December 4, we will have an international book festival as part of the celebrations,” she says.
Deputy librarian of the Kerala Assembly Library, Indu MR, recently opened to the public, speaks about its 100 yr old history and the digitisation of assembly documents. #KeralaAssemblyLibrary pic.twitter.com/6kdliusJRX
— Cris (@cristweets) November 16, 2022
There are more than 1,10,000 books on the various floors of the library, copies of about 150 periodicals in English and Malayalam, and year by year editions of 20 newspapers. “It is a unique storehouse of knowledge,” says Indu.
Malayalam newspapers from the 1950s
Travancore Kochi news, 1952
The library has also been digitising its documents and putting them up online on the niyamasabha.org for the public to access. Indu says that the Assembly proceedings from the year 1888 are out there, and about 75 of them have been preserved in their original form. Other documents include gazettes, declarations of kings made before independence, administration reports, and directories of a time before the state of Kerala was formed, among others.
Kerala Gazettes, sorted by year
There are six sections in the library, starting from the reference section on the ground floor. The archives unit containing committee commission reports and central committee reports from the late 19th century is on a floor below. Digitisation and maintenance all happen in different corners of the surprisingly vast and mostly undisturbed library.
Old directories and yearbooks
The public can’t access the archives or the rare documents preserved through the years. But there is a good collection at the general section ranging from biographies to literature, and law journals.
Mathrubhumi magazine, 1957, showing an old film poster
Indu displays an enviable number of old periodicals carefully bound and tied up together. National Geographic and EPW magazines dating back to the 1940s and 60s, the Mathrubhumi Weekly published in the year of Kerala’s first government, old photos and film posters, and the writings of many generations are maintained remarkably well.
Mathrubhumi magazine on the year Kerala elected its first government
The National Geographic, 1947
Newspapers from 1924 are also among the collection, but they have to be handled extra carefully, and preserved, Indu says. She points to a shelf of books set aside for fumigation, to keep them worm-free. Maps from when Travancore and Cochin existed separately as princely states, Acts and proclamations of the individual states from 1895, souvenir collections, and the original Constitution, are all part of the library’s proud collection.