Calcutta’s treasure trove lies in tatters at Writers’ library

Spiders crafting cobwebs on a record maintained at Fort William in 1863. A copy of a census of the population of Calcutta in 1770 gathering dust at one corner of a dingy and damp room. An atlas of Calcutta made by historian James Rennell in 1779-81 lies in tatters.

This is what one finds at the library under the land and land reforms department at the Writers' Buildings, thanks to the neglect of both the Left Front and the incumbent Trinamool Congress government.

The library houses books, documents, records, maps and other materials from the days prior to the arrival of Job Charnock, regarded as one of the founders of Calcutta. According to experts, parts of the collection are comparable with those in the Library of Congress in the US, British Museum in London, Khuda Baksh Library of Patna and National Library of Kolkata.

In fact, it was the land and land reforms department that the British first set up for revenue collection and distribution of ownership of land among the people. Started in Fort William in 1740, the library was later shifted to Writers' Buildings, which was built in 1776. At present it is located in a sprawling hall measuring 578.27 sq metres on the ground floor of Writers'.

The collection includes 34,500 rare documents and books, district gazetteer of 1800, Calcutta gazette of 1700, printed records after the Sepoy Mutiny (1857), proceedings of the legislative council during the Raj, proceedings of the state Assembly from 1937 — when it was set up - to 1980-82.

Since no stock-taking has ever taken place in the library and numerous documents remained unexamined, nobody has any idea how many invaluable documents have been lost to neglect.

Once in a while, researchers and officials from various government departments use this library manned by one librarian and two employees. However, since no cataloguing has ever been done, it is difficult to locate documents.

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