Some time ago, I happened to drop in to the British Council Library in Thiruvananthapuram. As an MA English student, I had spent many a happy (and air-conditioned!) hour reading here. This was in 1981 and I was studying at the prestigious ‘Institute of English’ then, and was all of 23 years old. The library, which began in 1964, had obviously changed over the 25 plus years that followed my graduation in 1983. On this recent visit, however, there was an additional undercurrent of disquiet. The newspapers of the day had confirmed the news: the library was going to be closed in the spring of 2008. Of the 11 libraries run by the British Council, two had been singled out for closure: the library in Thiruvananthapuram with over 28,000 books, CDs etc, was one of them!

As an international businessman, now based in the US, I knew instinctively that a mistake was being made. That’s why I sat down to write this piece so that our British friends might benefit from a review of this decision. Thiruvananthapuram is the capital of Kerala, a state that has one in six workers abroad and which generates seven times more income from international remittances than it receives in funding from the Centre. Estimates vary but many say that at least 40 per cent of India’s international revenue comes from the remittances of Keralites. Interestingly, at the national level, India accounts for 10 per cent of all international remittances and is the number one recipient of international remittances among all nations. So, put another way, Thiruvananthapuram is the capital of the state which is the number one source of India’s income from abroad.

... contd.