Mumbai library preserves rare Persian, Urdu translations of Hindu scriptures
In a century-old building in south Mumbai, a quiet preservation effort is underway to save a collection of rare Persian and Urdu translations of Hindu scriptures, offering a glimpse into India's long history of cultural exchange and coexistence.
The Karimi Library, housed within the 152-year-old Anjuman-I-Islam institute near the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, is restoring more than 32 Hindu religious texts printed between 1867 and 1896.
The collection includes rare Persian and Urdu editions of the Mahabharat, Ramayan, Bhagavad Gita and Shiv Puran, among other sacred texts.
The library is home to books and manuscripts in Sanskrit, English, Urdu, Persian, Marathi, Pashto and Arabic, covering subjects ranging from history, philosophy and theology to literature and geography. Some of the material dates back more than 150 years.
Padma Shri Dr Zahir Kazi, president of Anjuman-I-Islam, said the library was established in 1898 after merchant Kazi Abdul Karimi Porbandari donated 4,500 valuable texts. It was subsequently named after him.
The archive also houses royal decrees issued during the Mughal era, including those of Emperor Aurangzeb, as well as rare newspapers dating back to 1875, such as the Jaipur Gazette, Ambala Gazette and Cairo's Al Kaira.
The fragile collection is now being painstakingly restored as age, fungus and pests threaten the survival of the books.
"The books have become old and pages brittle. They need to be treated with special chemicals to weed out fungus and pests. Books that are not in good shape are pasted with special paper for preservation," Kazi said.
Experts have also been brought in to digitise the collection, with scanned pages being uploaded to Anjuman-I-Islam's cloud storage.
More than 1 lakh book pages and around 70,000 pages from newspapers and periodicals have already been digitised, library in-charge Mohammad Ghalib Mulla said. Only around 2,250 pages remain to complete the archiving project.
The newspapers offer a record of India's social and political history, including the early years of the freedom movement and the nature of journalism under British rule.
"The newspapers give details about the initial days of the freedom struggle, the social and political situation of those times, how journalism was — pro and anti-British," Mulla said.
The exact source of most of the newspapers is unknown, but Mulla believes they were likely subscribed to by Anjuman-I-Islam, which has functioned as an educational centre since its establishment.
For Kazi, preserving the collection is about more than saving old books.
"These books reflect so much of tolerance. It is an eye-opener for Indians that the country's heritage is very much there in this library," he said.
The Karimi Library, part of Anjuman-I-Islam's heritage complex, is also being renovated. Efforts are being made to retain its old-world character while making the collection accessible for future generations.
Kazi said several freedom fighters were associated with the management of Anjuman-I-Islam and that the library had hosted some of their meetings.
"We intend to reopen the restored library by October 2, subject to the completion of work. We also plan to host many national and international events in this library," he said.
