I've always argued that antiquated books, sculptures and paintings should not be repatriated back to India due to lack of preservation ecosystem and culture. Just look at the historic sites (barring a very few popular ones), they are either literally pissed on upon or become a poster board for election campaigns.
Books are printed in quantities of more than one. I concede a fair amount of material might be the last copy extant, but isn't there an element of post-hoc rationalisation this impoverished stocks of Indian books?
Title is missing a "How" at the beginning. Without that it doesn't make any sense - I was wondering why people were expecting food in libraries.
So if they digitally scan the books and publish on the internet for free then there wouldn't be any knowledge gap. These purpose of a library is fulfilled after that in my opinion
as a UChicago student can confirm that this was incredibly shocking when I first saw it… the expanse of the collection is really unmatched and crazy
This is just a fascinating outcome of some public policy.
> India was one of the largest recipients of this food aid, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s when it faced severe food shortages.
Slightly tangential, but does anyone know why India faced such shortages in the 50s and 60s? I found an article on the subject [0] but it seems to come down to little more than mild crop yield variation combined with market speculation.
This is a period of India's history that I find particularly interesting by way of comparison with China's "Great Famine". The latter is often put forward as a strong condemnation of communist economics, for example in the "Black Book of Communism". But in Chomsky's article response "Counting the bodies" (which I cannot seem to find a link for) he points out that India's per capita excess mortality rate over roughly this period is in fact greater than China's.
I'm neither an authoritarian communist or a big fan of Chomsky's, but I would love to find reliable sources on this topic to come to my own conclusions.
[0] https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/india/food-problem/food-...
There are almost no recorded famines in India before Mughal or British rule, or after British rule either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_I...
[dead]
[flagged]
How people are unearthing knowledge from ancient libraries using Claude
The lack of respect for books in India is ridiculous. Very few use libraries, and forget temperature/humidity control: most feel no shame in mishandling books they borrow. The availability and care shown to books, new and old, in the US is very commendable.
Our prime minister and most citizens love to brag about "ancient culture" and "proud history", but preservation of our own history and public record was and is done much better by the British and Americans. It's truly nauseating.