India Research Trip: January to March 2010

Exploring the “Public Good” and “Public Sphere” in India through Public Libraries

My sporadic blogging continues. I am back in India again, having arrived on 14 January 2010. I plan to stay here until the middle of March. While the focus of the research remains public and community libraries, concepts such as the public sphere, public good, civic rights, and infrastructure have crept into my thinking about the topic. I have had a number of interesting conversations with various people on this research trip so far - activists from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic researchers, and government bureaucrats. Despite the interest that my project has been generating in certain circles, I still face a good deal of skepticism from a number of Indian lay people about this research agenda. I just jotted some thoughts down here as a way to begin fleshing out my response to these skeptics. Here it goes:

The case for improved public and community libraries in India on the surface appears to be a concern limited to providing more access to books and encouraging literacy amongst the masses. On one level, this basic understanding is true. Public libraries in India, while uneven in their development, have played roles in promoting literacy and the habit of reading. This conception of public libraries was adequate up to a certain time, but in light of the technological changes of the last few decades, it remains an outdated concept. This is especially true given the changes in India’s socio-economic climate over the last several years.

A limited conception of public libraries as book depositories circumscribes their possibilities for promoting social change. In a country such as India with so many inequalities and other legitimate infrastructural needs (e.g., increased access to potable water, improved roads, etc.), the case for improved public libraries can seem like a luxury at best and a superfluous wish at worst. However, it is important to envision the roles that a renewed public library system in India might play in the promotion of the public good and the public sphere.

A more expansive conception of public libraries as community information centers is one way to increase the relevance of these institutions for public and civic life. This conception is not new - numerous examples exist around the world of public libraries serving communities through the supplying of information related to health, employment, and recreational needs. Perhaps even more importantly, the library can act as a physical hub of civic activity in Indian cities (and rural areas as well) - a public space for the promotion of public culture. The dearth of free, open, and non-purposive spaces in Indian cities is a major issue; revitalized public and community libraries can alleviate this problem to some degree.

I am hoping that my highlighting of these issues will slowly build awareness of the possibilities of improved public libraries in India. I am realistic and understand that this goal may turn out not to be feasible. However, an action research agenda takes time. Providing frameworks for change is the best I can do; effecting real change on the ground is the task of local stakeholders. Keeping these basic facts in mind helps motivate me to keep plugging away, one day at a time.

Research Grant!

Thus far my field research on Indian public libraries has been fueled by a couple of small internal grants from the University of Western Ontario. I used up these grant monies by December 2008 and in the meantime I had applied to a couple of large research grant competitions in the fall of 2008. International research and fieldwork is rewarding for a variety of reasons, including the opportunity to challenge oneself in different social and cultural environments as well as the ability to foster intercultural dialogues and exchanges. However, international research by its nature necessitates the procurement of grant funds, often in very large amounts.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is the largest grant providing agency in Canada for the type of work that I do and I applied to what is known as the "Standard SSHRC Grant" competition in October 2008. I spent a decent amount of time during the summer putting the grant application together, in anticipation of receiving a 3 year grant award. After a wait of several months, I found out in April 2009 that I did not receive the award. I instead received what is called a "4A" designation - SSHRC terminology for "your research is worthy and potentially fundable, but there is no money to fund it because other grant applications that were ranked higher than yours already received all the money." I was a little disappointed, but apparently receiving a 4A designation is not a bad thing and re-submitting the following year with revisions (based on reviewer comments) is recommended. The University of Western Ontario has also chipped in with some "reapplication assistance" funds for me to start the project during the 2009-10 academic year and resubmit in October 2009. So all in all, not too bad.

On the brighter side, I applied to a grant competition internal to UWO in November 2008 known as the Academic Development Fund (ADF) Major Grant and found out in late April 2009 that I received the grant. This grant provides signficant monetary support to research projects for a one year period, with an extension for another year. I requested funds to begin fieldwork studying the roles public libraries in India can play with regard to community information provision and was lucky enough to receive my whole request. I am excited to begin this project and am planning to base my case study research in and around the Bangalore region. A lot of this summer will be spent with planning the fieldwork, submitting my research ethics application (needed to even get the grant money released to me), conducting more literature reviews, getting in touch with Indian contacts, and figuring out how to allocate work for student research assistants. I am also trying to teach myself some basic Kannada reading and writing, so when fieldwork begins in January 2010, I'll at least be able to have a functional literacy in the language. With research grants come more responsibilities, but I'm not complaining...

India trip, January - February 2009

I followed up my research trip to India from January to March 2008 with a return trip to the country from January 15 to February 24, 2009.  The previous trip was my first experience doing actual field work in India, as I interviewed members from the library working group of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC).  This group had given a set of recommendations for the improvement of India's library systems and my interviews allowed me to better understand the dimensions and trajectories of India's library revitalization movement.

The trip generated some ideas about possible future research steps.  One aspect of the NKC recommendations was a focus on making libraries more effective "community-based information systems."  This concept was also echoed in many of the statements of my interviewees.  While this concept had some consensus, it remained fairly vague and general.  In an effort to explore this concept further, I have proposed doing a case study within the Bangalore region.  This case study would assess the community information service models of particular libraries in this region and would provide some insights into the roles of the state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the development of public and community libraries.   The role of public and community libraries in social development in India is relatively unexplored; part of this project would probe this area further, as well as potential links between a new library movement and wider social movements in the country.  I have applied for a couple of grants to fund the project and will find out by early April about the results.

This most recent trip to India was focused mainly on exploring the feasibility of this proposed study.  I also met some of my contacts and friends from the January - March 2008 trip.  During my stay in Bangalore, I met with some people involved with NGOs doing library development as well as democratic advocacy work.  These organizations include Dream a Dream, which focuses on after-school programs primarily for slum children; Hippocampus, which runs and develops programs for libraries, mainly in government schools and in marginalized communities; the Akshara Foundation, which also runs school and community libraries; the Infosys Foundation, the charity arm of the Infosys Corporation, a prominent business process outsourcing firm in India; and Janaagraha, a civic advocacy group pushing for more responsive local government in Bangalore.  These meetings were all productive and gave me a lot of food for thought in developing further lines of inquiry in this research study.

In addition to meetings with NGOs, I gave six talks at various conferences/seminars and research institutes.  These talks all gave me chances to reflect on my India library research, as well as on some work I have been doing that is exploring ideologies and power dynamics of the "information society."  My talks at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in Chennai and the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, in particular, were highly useful in providing feedback for the design of my study exploring the role of Indian public/community libraries in a wider social development context.  

Back on the blog...

After a long hiatus I am back to some periodic blogging about all things related to Indian public and community libraries.  More to come, stay tuned....

Arrival in Delhi

I reached Delhi the morning of Sunday, February 3rd on a non-stop flight from Bangalore. The cool and overcast weather was the first clear indication I had that I was no longer in Bangalore, where daytime temperatures were reaching the high 20's with sunny skies. In Delhi, the daytime temperatures were hovering in the low teen's and there was a dusty, smoky haziness that permeated the air.

This began the first leg of my journey on my own, without family. I have a cousin in Delhi, but since I was staying for over two weeks in the city, I didn't want to burden her and her family for such a long time. Also, I had my grant money, and needed to spend it! So, I stayed at a guesthouse in the Defence Colony neighborhood of Delhi, a fairly nice enclave made up of many retired Indian military officials. I had a taxi driver hired by the guesthouse pick me up, and it was the first time I ever landed at an airport and had someone hold up a placard with my name on it - "Dr. Ajit Pyati." That felt good.

I spent the first day feeling pretty tired, and just walked around the neighborhood. I spent some time at the Defence Colony Market, which had a few chain restaurants (Subway, etc.) and other eateries and shops. It was nice to be in a neighborhood where I could walk and get groceries and food, which was also relatively peaceful. The guesthouse had wireless Internet, and I started the process of getting in touch with my Delhi contacts. As the capital, Delhi is a center of a lot of activity, and I was looking forward to meeting the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Lov Verma, as well as the chairwoman of the NKC Working Group on Libraries, Ms. Kalpana Dasgupta.

My trip to Delhi would prove to be fairly fruitful....

Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore

On the 1st of February, I made a visit to the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) - http://www.isec.ac.in/ - in Bangalore. This institute is a social science centre focused on various Indian development issues. ISEC has a good reputation in India, and awards PhD's in various disciplines. As I have learned during this trip, many institutes in India are where a lot of academic research takes place, and where PhD programs are located. In the Western context, we focus on the research university model - in India, many university professors often do not do much research and are primarily teachers. Scholars at these institutes are mainly responsible for doing research and supervising doctoral students, with a few seminar-style classes that they have to conduct sometimes.

My uncle, Mr. GVK Rao, had a hand in the development of the institute. He was the chief secretary (head administrative officer) in the state of Karnataka many years back, and also held a high administrative position in India's central government at one time.

He was a man of great dignity and integrity, and I have never personally known a person as universally respected as he was. I could spend many paragraphs writing about my uncle and what he meant to all of us, but I will have to save that for another time. He passed away in 2007, and his presence was greatly missed during this trip.

I mention my uncle not only because he was a great man and for his affiliation with this institute - as I will discuss, the case of my uncle also illustrates the power of "name-dropping" and affiliations in India. I visited this institute with one of my cousins who received her PhD at ISEC, and she constantly introduced me to people as "GVK Rao's nephew." In the West, we are often hesitant about name-dropping or using who we know to get us ahead. In India, on the other hand, using all the name-dropping tools and affiliations at your disposal (no matter how spurious) are utilized. Personal connections are key. Everyone is looking for an advantage and sizing people up. Who you know, who your relatives are, etc. are all key indicators of your standing and importance in society. In a society as hierarchical as India's, these connections become even more crucial.

Enough with my anthropological analyses. The reason I wanted to visit ISEC was to begin linking some public library issues in India with greater concerns about good governance, public sector transparency, and promotion of the "public good" in India. If public libraries are about government entities serving communities, then these types of issues should be discussed. From my reading of the public library environment in India, these issues are implicit but are not discussed in great detail in either policy or academic circles.

I met with Dr. Sangita, who does work on e-governance issues in India. He discussed how e-governance is more advanced in Karnataka, with respect to other states in India. Some areas in which e-governance has taken hold in the state include: 1) digitization of land records; 2) property registration and documentation; 3) e-learning; and 4) e-training. He also discussed how complaints for police and local authorities to handle are being managed by e-government tools.

While I mentioned to Dr. Sangita that public libraries can be considered to be part of larger public governance issues, I was not surprised to hear that he had not thought of the issue in these terms. However, he agreed with me that there is a logical connection - I guess it will take more work on my part to make this issue gain greater traction.

He also told me something that I found quite interesting in terms of good governance. Good governance in general, according to him (and others for that matter), involves a balanced relationship between the state, civil society, and markets. Libraries and community technology projects will not be effective without a proper relationship between these factors, as we discussed. This discussion made me think about potential partnerships between state and non-state actors in the development of India's public libraries, and the challenges that this would entail.

Dr. Sangita also mentioned to me some work that is happening with information kiosks in Karnataka. Certain "e-Seva Kendras" are being managed by the government for information dissemination, and there is a plan to develop more of these types of kiosks at the village level. How the kiosk model might be incorporated in the public library movement is a question of increasing importance to me as I continue doing this research. Since libraries also provide information, can libraries adapt to take on types of kiosk service models, or vice versa?

City Central Library, Bangalore

On January 31, 2008, I was given a tour of the central library in the south zone of Bangalore, near my uncle's house in the Jayanagar neighbourhood of the city. As I learned, the public libraries in Bangalore are divided into five zones, with this library being the largest in its particular zone. The director of this branch is a Mr. Nagesh - a gentleman originally from Haveri district in northern Karnataka state.

The library has a fairly large entry area, with a place for checking in one's bags and a central reception area. While not a particularly new building, it was clean and had several people milling about and reading books and newspapers. An upstairs area was filled with more people reading - my unscientific estimate was that most of the people patronizing the library were men. The main impression I had of the library, however, was that it was not well-lighted and felt dark in places. The stacks were upstairs and were classified according to Ranganthan's colon classification system. Several students and young people appeared to be studying for exams and doing school work on the desks adjacent to the stacks.

The early part of my visit was spent in the office of Mr. Nagesh - I drank coffee and ate biscuits with him, while he took care of some office work. Sitting in this office gave me the opportunity to observe typical Indian hierarchical office interactions - a number of obsequious workers filed into his office, with some signature or other needed on a piece of paper, which was attached to a ragged file folder. After observing this spectacle for what seemed like a long time, he eventually showed me around the library.

Some interesting points from our conversation and tour:

• 23 branches exist in the south library zone of Bangalore, as well as 120 slum libraries. What exactly a slum library entails was not clear to me.
• 1 mobile library exists in the south zone
• Mr. Nagesh claims that around 300 people per day visit the library. This number should not be difficult to ascertain - most public libraries I have noticed in India (in Bangalore, Chennai, and Delhi, for instance) have a visitor log that each patron must sign upon first entering the library
• Internet stations exist in the central library of the south zone, and have about 25 users per day, according to Mr. Nagesh. I observed a couple of people using the five or so Internet ready computers in the library during my short visit. Fees to use the Internet are 10 Rs. per hour. When I arrived, the Internet connection was down - the ISP for this library and all public libraries in Bangalore is BSNL, the government-based Internet provider. Outside of the few large public libraries in the city, most public libraries in Bangalore do not have Internet connections.
  
• Most libraries, other than the central libraries of each zone, are service stations with limited hours. For instance, I was taken to a smaller branch library in a residential section of Bangalore, which essentially was a converted bungalow. The hours for this branch and for many others like this one are 8:30 to 11:30 AM and 4 to 8 PM.
• Within this particular central zone library (and it would appear most public libraries in Bangalore) no reference librarians as such work with the public. Most of the staff with actual library degrees (BLS, MLS) do not work extensively with the public and are doing work in the back offices of the library. Library assistants (not necessarily having diplomas or degrees) are doing most of the work with the public.
  
• As with many of the libraries I have observed in major Indian cities (e.g., Bangalore and Chennai), colon classification is employed.
  

Return to blogging...

It is now May 2008, a full 3 months since my last blog entry. A combination of limited Internet connectivity, extensive traveling, and lack of motivation all conspired to limit my blogging productivity. I resolve now to get back to task and finish chronicling my recent Indian journey. I look forward to reflecting upon some of my more insightful discoveries....

Bangalore, Part II

I’ve spent over 4 weeks in India now, and am slowly recovering from a bad cold/sinus infection. This normally happens to me after spending a few weeks in-country – my immune system usually gets compromised due to the traveling, pollution, and weather. Getting sick is never fun, but it’s even less fun when you’re on your own, traveling on the road. At any rate, I’m on the path to recovery. It’s been a little while since my last blog entry, and there’s a lot I need to report on.

I arrived in Delhi from Bangalore on Sunday, Feb 3. My first reaction upon landing was the change of weather – a dim sky and cool breeze greeted me when I left the airport. But more about Delhi later. I need to reflect more on my last week in Bangalore, which was fairly eventful.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

On Monday, January 28, I had an afternoon meeting with Dr. S. Venkadesan, the director of the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) library. The institute is one of the top science universities in the country, and its library is considered to be one of the better ones in India. While he does not work in a public library, we discussed how the state of public libraries in India is fairly poor. Dr. Venkadesan observed that LIS programs in India may not be graduating enough well qualified people, and he remarked that library and information science is not a very highly regarded profession in India. With LIS often a “last resort” for some students, it is not surprising that the quality of LIS graduates in India may be low.

On another note, we had a discussion about the effectiveness of government in India – for a various set of reasons, it appears that centrally-funded initiatives in India (e.g., high level science, technology, etc.) are more efficiently run than state-funded ones. Thus, centrally-funded universities such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IISc can run fairly smoothly without much detailed government oversight, while state-run projects, from primary education to road building, can face many bureaucratic and logistical tangles. He brought out the example of a request for funding – if someone asks for money to support a cyclotron project, most of the potential funders will not have the requisite knowledge to properly question this request. While funding could be denied, a fascination with the “high-tech” and complex nature of this project (in addition to the ignorance of the potential funders) would make it a project that would get funded and developed without much government interference. However, with the case of a more “mundane” request like the funding of a library, more administrators and funders who think they know what a library is and how it should run (despite the fact that they most likely do not and are not aware of the professional skills needed to run one) will feel more of an urge to micro-manage and control this type of project. Governance issues, particularly at the state level, remain key to the development and revitalization of public libraries in India. Implementation at the state and village levels is so crucial for public libraries in India, but if politics, micro-management, and corruption rear their ugly heads, then all the lofty ideals of public library revitalization may be sadly tarnished.

Rural Library Visit

After my visit with the Karnataka Public Library Director, Dr. Rajendra Kumar, I was put in touch with a district officer for rural libraries, Mr. K.G. Venkatesh. He called me and set up a day to take me on a visit to some rural libraries in Bangalore district. Mr. Venkatesh came to my uncle’s house on the morning of Tuesday, January 29 in an old Karnataka state government jeep. We went south on Kanakpura Rd. in Bangalore, heading out of the city. Since I did not have a lot of time to make visits to areas that were “deep” in the rural hinterland of Karnataka state, we had to settle on visiting a couple of villages that were fairly close to the city of Bangalore, within the limits of Bangalore district. Despite that fact that Bangalore is a city of over 6 million people, bona fide villages with dirt roads are close by.

The first village we reached was named Talaghattapura, about a half hour’s drive from Bangalore. Located on a dirt road directly off Kanakpura Rd., the library I saw in this village is a “model library” built by the state a year ago in cooperation with the village. This library serves about five villages in the surrounding area, and the land has been donated by the panchayat (a type of rural governing organization in India).

What immediately struck me about this building was its bright colors – the library is bathed in neon green, bright yellow, and orange. It is surrounded by a wall, with a garden in its courtyard, and the interior courtyard walls have sayings from various Indian luminaries (in Kannada) about the importance and value of reading and books. The actual library, aside from the large garden courtyard, consists of a reading room and a small side room with books, most in Kannada and with a few in English. On the upper walls of the reading room are framed photos of various great individuals in Indian history. The library appeared to be well-used, with a number of people (mostly men) sitting in the reading room, browsing through newspapers. I saw some women gathered around the building, and met the person in charge of the library, a young man most likely in his late 20’s or early 30’s. For most of these village and rural libraries, the person running the library is usually a part-time volunteer with another job that supports him/her. This particular library is open from 9 – 12 AM, and from 3 – 6 PM.

My appearance also seemed to have been quite anticipated in the village. I saw a photographer show up and take photos of the readers in the library, and thought this was part of some publicity for the library, since it was a new “model” library for the state to show off. However, I soon learned that the extra people at the library and the photographer were there for me, the visitor from America. Apparently the public library director for the state had told all his staff about me, and they were prepared for my arrival. The photo-ops then began in full earnest – photos of me with the library staff, the district officer, kids from the village, random people, etc. While I must have posed for about 10 of these types of photos, it was endearing. It was nice to feel the affection of these people from the village, and the pride they seemed to have in the library was evident. One old man, probably in his 80s, talked to the district officer Mr. Venkatesh and me for several minutes about his time as a headmaster of the school in the village, and how he became the headmaster even with only an education up to the seventh standard. Seeing the warmth and affection of these people really made it come home to me about why I am interested in this work. I feel deep down in my gut that India’s development issues have to be really be dealt with at the rural level, and Mr. Venkatesh also emphasized to me that India’s rural library sector needs to be transformed for real results to be seen. Despite the burgeoning cities, India still has a majority rural population base. Being in this village also reminded me about how just a few generations ago my ancestors were living in villages just like this one, and how rewarding it would be to give back to the rural places that have given my family and culture so much.

Overall, I was happy to see this model library, and was impressed by its beauty and cleanliness, and the pride the people took in it. However, I knew this was an exception to the rule, and the next village library I visited in Somanahally (a few kilometers south of Tallaghattapura) reminded me of this fact. This library was in a rented commerical space, and had one librarian, a Ms. Gundamaddama, in charge of it. I did not see anyone patronizing the library, and both the collection and the building itself looked old and in need of refurbishing. The small crowd that developed later at the library seemed to be more interested in my and the district officer’s visit. As a more “typical” rural library in Bangalore district, it illustrated the great challenges that rural libraries face in being relevant, lively centres of information access for their populations. Is the Talaghattapura library a model for other rural libraries in Karnataka to follow? Perhaps this is a question to animate further work….

Research Notes, Jan 25th

Some research notes so far, as of January 25^th:

The Documentation and Research Training Institute (DRTC) is one of the premier library and information science training institutions in the country. I paid a visit to DRTC on Friday, January 18^th, as I interviewed Dr. A.R.D. Prasad, one of the more well-respected voices in the Indian library community. He is the first person I have interviewed in relation to the Indian National Knowledge Commission’s working group on libraries.

It took nearly an hour and a half to get to the institute from my uncle’s house in Bangalore – DRTC is located in the Indian Statistical Institute (apparently for no logical reason and without “significance”…yuk, yuk) on the southwestern outskirts of the city, near the city limits and adjacent to Bangalore University. It is located on a nice and quiet campus, reminiscent of a Bangalore that existed about twenty years ago. The air was clean, the campus was wooded, and monkeys even roamed some of the interior corridors of the buildings! I was surprised to see monkeys running around here, as they are fairly scarce these days within the Bangalore city limits.

Meeting A.R.D Prasad seems to be a key encounter. He appears to be one of the more dynamic people in the Indian library community and we seem to have a lot of views in common regarding libraries, technology, and issues related to India’s development (and the dangers of hyper-consumerism currently affecting the country). Having him as someone to talk to and consult with will be good. We had a frank discussion about a lot of topics, and it appears that the state of public libraries in India is fairly poor (not a complete surprise), and levels of technology remain fairly low. Prasad is an advocate for transforming Indian libraries into “community information centres,” but how wide and deep this sentiment is within the larger Indian library community remains to be seen. He suggested some other people to speak with, including the Karnataka Public Library Director, Dr. Rajendra. It seems that the Karnataka public library system is one of the better ones in the country. What that means remains to be seen…..

I spent parts of Monday, January 21^st and Tuesday, January 22^nd at a conference focused on the conservation of India’s scientific heritage. A contact of mine, Christina Birdie, is the librarian at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. She was one of the organizers of this conference, as it brought together a group of librarians, archivists, and scientists for a discussion about Indian scientific and cultural heritage preservation. While not a topic of great interest for me, it provided a good opportunity to meet some key people in the Indian library community. The conference brought about a surprisingly decent number of contacts. I met some prominent LIS people from Chennai, and consequently my time in Chennai appears to be fixed up, with an invitation to speak to a library science class at the University of Madras and a public lecture for the Madras Library Association. I also made a key contact whom I will meet when I visit Delhi in the first part of February.

I am cautiously optimistic, but it seems that I am in the process of developing a nice group of dedicated and dynamic Indian library professionals for potential collaborative opportunities. A bulk of my contacts are lined up in Delhi and Kolkata. I am flying out of Bangalore for Delhi on Sunday, Feb 3, and have booked a room for several days at a guesthouse in south Delhi. Some time around Feb 16 I am planning to travel to Kolkata. Then after a week it’s on to Chennai, then hopefully some R&R in Pondicherry, the former French colony on the beach about a three hour drive from Chennai.

A contact at the Bangalore conference suggested I attend a library advocacy conference in Delhi taking place on March 13 and 14 at the Max Mueller Bhavan (part of the Goethe Institute). After taking a look at the conference website, it seemed to be a great fit for my research interests and one of those things that I need to do. However, a slight problem - my flight leaves Mumbai on March 10^th. So, I spent part of Friday on the phone with Continental Airlines changing my flight to leave instead from Delhi on Saturday, March 15^th. The extra fee for changing the ticket was worth the opportunity to make more potential research contacts and have an audience for some of my research ideas.

The state of public libraries in India seems to be quite poor, as I have anecdotally known and now have a better sense of. How fruitful a focus on these institutions will be for long-term research projects remains to be seen. Perhaps re-framing the issue more broadly in terms of community information systems/programs might be more fruitful, as the concept of an Indian public library remains underdeveloped.

The talk with Dr. Rajendra, the Karnataka public library director, was useful. At least based upon what he has told me about the Karnataka public library system, it looks like a good candidate for a future case study. I am particularly excited about his discussion of turning libraries into village knowledge centres. It seems that a good area to focus on would be to pursue library developments at the village and gram panchayat levels. He admits that the level of technology in Indian public libraries remains low, but he has applied for money from the national government to turn libraries in Karnataka into technology centres and may also receive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Next week I will be taken on visits by Karnataka public library officers to both Bangalore city libraries and rural libraries close to the city. Needless to say, I am interested in seeing what transpires. Stay tuned….

Bangalore

I’ve just completed 2 weeks in-country now, and am starting to become acclimated to the chaos of India. I think I’ve also finally adjusted to the time change (they say it takes 1 day per hour of time difference – with a 13.5 hour difference between here and California, 2 weeks seems about right). The urban experience in India is intense, but Bangalore is certainly milder than places like Mumbai. When I landed in Bangalore on Wednesday, January 16^th, I actually felt comforted hearing rickshaw drivers and other assorted taxi fellows speaking Kannada, my family’s mother tongue.

While my knowledge of Kannada is fairly basic (I understand most casual conversation and speak hesitatingly with an intermittently appearing American accent), it nonetheless felt nice to hear a familiar language being spoken. Upon landing in Bangalore Airport, I went to the pre-paid taxi stand and bought a fare to go to my uncle’s house. I was given a fancy computer printout, and proceeded to go outside into the embrace of a jumbled queue. As I joined this hodgepodge assemblage of people, a fellow in a white jacket took my ticket without any introduction, and all I could do was follow him. I couldn’t tell whether or not I was being cheated – he just told me to wait while he brought the taxi. While he did eventually bring the taxi after about 10 minutes, it reminded me that things work in their own way in India. Had I been a foreign traveler first arriving in Bangalore, I would be completely confused about the goings-on. Needless to say, certain things in India need more polish, especially in the so-called information technology “capital” of the country.

India is what it is. I have to keep reminding myself about that. The inordinate amount of pollution at all levels (air, water, garbage, noise, etc.), the chaos of its streets, the unpredictability of its logistics, the type of grinding poverty that’s hard to find any place else – all of that is there. Its live and let live attitude, tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, endless adaptability and flexibility, joie de vivre – all of that is there as well. At some point, you just have to accept it and move on. India is what it is. Kind of like life. If you accept India as she is, she will take care of you. I believe that. Just don’t ask me why.

However, accepting these facts as the natural order of things in India is not the answer either. Can’t we demand and want better for India? This question can seem rather patronizing from someone coming to India as a sympathetic researcher – I understand this. The IT revolution has brought India more fully into the grasp of global capitalism, with a burgeoning middle class armed with increasing wealth and purchasing power. A certain dynamism also exists in the country, which gives a sense that India is on the up and up. Despite the increasing prosperity of segments of the country, however, public sector and governance issues still have a long way to go. Rural development, better public institutions, and mass education (potentially in the form of enhanced and greatly improved libraries) will go a long way, longer than any IT and capitalist revolution, in solving some of India’s most vexing challenges. In no way, however, am I suggesting or advocating the type of sterile, trite and uninspiring visions of “development” that the West hoists upon the so-called “developing” world. Indigenous and creative solutions to India’s challenges exist, and many committed people in India are working in this spirit. Whatever I may be able to do with my research, it will hopefully be in line with this framework of indigenous creativity and renewal.

Arrival in Mumbai

My mother and I arrived in Mumbai the night of Thursday, January 10th. This was the first time I had flown on a direct flight from the U.S. to India, traveling on a Continental Airlines plane which took us from Newark, NJ non-stop to Mumbai. Despite the nearly 14 hours of travel on this flight (combined with the four and a half hours flying from San Diego), I didn’t feel too tired upon arrival. Though I normally never sleep on flights, I was somehow able to grab a few hours of sleep, saving me from my usual somnambulant state upon entry into India.

The stale, musty odor of Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport is pungent and unmistakable. The sweat of an entire subcontinent seems to greet you once you leave the confines of the jet walkway. A few small improvements are evident at the airport, including new bright, blue-trimmed signage (replacing the grim yellow-trimmed signs of the last few decades). In addition, a slew of construction activity gives one the impression that the airport is undergoing some major improvements.

The first few days of the trip were spent at a relative’s flat in the Juhu Beach area of Mumbai. This area appears to be one of the fairly well-to-do enclaves in the city, as the flat we stayed in is located less than 100 metres from Juhu Beach. The couple of days we spent here in this quiet neighbourhood served as a nice and gradual entry into the hectic and noisy urban life of India. Apparently the beach has been cleaned up considerably over the last year, at least according to my relative. I thought the beach was fairly pleasant for Indian standards, and Friday night we all took a nice walk along the beach, as I caught my first sunset over the Arabian Sea. This walk reminded me that despite all the cultural, physical and sociological differences between places like the U.S./Canada and India (and there are several), the unifying power of nature is still more powerful. Thus, a walk along the Arabian Sea on Juhu Beach is not so different from a walk near the Pacific Ocean in San Diego!

The intensity of urban India really came to life for me once again during a cross-town trip to a cousin’s flat in the northern part of Mumbai. We took a ride in a non-AC taxi to get there, which basically means that the windows are down during the whole trip and you get to inhale a continuous and full dosage of the toxic brew that is Mumbai’s air. I don’t think it’s possible for me to describe how terrible the air quality is in a place like Mumbai (or for that matter, in any of India’s large metropolitan cities). Diesel fumes from buses, auto rickshaws, scooters, cars, motorbikes, and ambient dust create this unfathomable haze that envelops the surface level air, as well as the distant horizon. Seeing the air pollution of Mumbai reminded me of one of the worst air quality days in the interior of Los Angeles during a hot mid-July day, but multiplied by at least 3 to 4 times. Needless to say, after this journey my lungs burned and I felt like I had smoked 2 –3 packs of cigarettes in that 40 minute journey. Now I know why people pay a premium for AC taxis!

My research will begin in earnest once I reach Bangalore after Wednesday, Jan 16. While I have yet to reflect deeply on the potential roles of revitalized public libraries in India for enhanced mass education and information access, I am again already reminded of the challenges I face. I just need to look at the state of other public infrastructure projects in the country to see how the idea of the public good and a social contract is so different in India than in many parts of the West. For instance, most of the major cities in India lack decent footpaths or sidewalks, and basic infrastructure like roads are crumbling under the intense pressure of a continuously burgeoning number of vehicles that enter the roads each day. Walking along a major intersection in India is taking your life into your own hands. Crossing a street becomes an existential adventure of negotiating the speed of oncoming vehicles and taking a leap of faith. Who needs to play video games when one can participate in a real life game of Frogger!

More to come later….