A few years ago, Gandhi Bhavan, located in Kumara Park East, used to be the spot where Gandhians, freedom fighters, farmers, and literary enthusiasts gathered to hold meetings and discussions to explore the thousands of books present in its library. However, in the last decade, the number of visitors to the 58-year-old institution has drastically gone down, barring events that take place in the auditorium.
With around 10,000 books in its library, a majority of which are Gandhian literature, Gandhi Bhavan has tied up with Servants of Knowledge, a volunteer organisation, to digitise its collection to make it more accessible to readers. On the second floor of Gandhi Bhavan is a room where a group of people are busy with digital scanners and computers scanning page after page of the large literary collection. Interestingly, ‘Scanning is the new spinning’ is the tagline of Servants of Knowledge.
“The youngsters do not know much about Mahatma Gandhi himself, let alone the literature written by and about him. Thus, we want to put these books out on the internet so that anybody from any corner of the world can access them,” said N. R. Vishukumar, Vice Chairman, Gandhi Bhavan.
