Widener's Indian Books: They Come by the Crate

Walk into Raymond Lum's office buried in the basement of Widener Library and you will see a staggering number of books on India, even for a librarian, including a 1981 census report and titles like "The Dimensions of Karma."

But these apparently eclectic tastes in reading do not belong to Lum, the library system's East Asian expert. Pointing to shelves which contain a couple hundred uncatalogued books, he explains that a new shipment of Indian books came in from Washington this Tuesday.

Approximately 10 times a year, Widener and 30 other libraries receive crateloads of Indian books from the headquarters of the Library of Congress. The books are purchased by a government fund which dates to the early 1960s, and a time when America shipped grain to India; Harvard pays only for the delivery.

In its 26 years, the program has imported nearly 10 million books, of which Harvard has received tens of thousands. Of such programs are collections made.

As the University considers creating an India center, this steadily growing collection is becoming more important than the sum of its parts. If Harvard ever establishes a center, one thing is certain: it won't have to worry about its library.

But some scholars have argued that because Harvard has been one of the major recipients of the government's manuscripts, it has a duty to promote modern Indian Studies.

Many books in the collection "are hardly ever used, because we don't have an area studies center," said Assistant Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture Ali Asani, who teaches modern Indian languages. Asani cited his current research on a collection of 150 manuscripts he stumbled upon--still uncatalogued.

"The point is that the material was there, but not accessible," Asani said. "If Harvard ever had a center, it would improve their collection and draw scholars and researchers," said the Indian scholar, looking up from one of the manuscripts.

But Lum counters that a research collection should not be dependent on the courses offered by the University. He said it would be a problem if Widener didn't contain materials about subjects taught at Harvard, but not the other way around.

"We maintain collections that are useful for research, this is not tied to what is taught," he said.

Ironically, Lum said, as the federal funds begin to be exhausted, Harvard will continue to receive its annual dole of Indian literature, even if the University has to pay the full $30,000 for the books.

The book exchange program began in 1961, whenthe Library of Congress established an office inNew Delhi to spend monies received from India forAmerican grain. The United States devised the bookpurchasing scheme as one way of spending grainpayments, totaling billions of ruppees, which areworthless in America.

In its heyday, the program sent more booksacross the Atlantic than any library could use."In the early years, everybody got what theywanted, and threw away what they didn't need,"said Chris Filstrup, chief of the Library ofCongress' overseas operations.

Even today, nearly a decade after India becamegrain efficient, the book purchasing plan issupported by a few percent of a one billion ruppee endowment which roughly translates into a $100 million fund, that goes to the Defense Department and other bureaus of the government.

With its small percentage of the fund, theLibrary of Congress spends a couple of milliondollars annually to support 90 New Dehli stafferswho search for and purchase books. Participatinglibraries pay nearly 30 percent of the price ofbooks for delivery and packaging. Harvard's billlast year was approximately $10,000.

The Indian government, however, ordered theAmerican money spent, objecting to such a large"neocolonialist" fund, Filstrup said. He said inabout seven years the fund will be exhausted andmember libraries will have to pay for the purchaseof Indian books, in addition to their delivery.

According to Lum, Harvard never accepts anybooks which it does not need whether the cost issubsidized or not.

Lum's counterpart at the Univesity of Chicago,James Nye, agreed, saying that because it costs somuch for a university to catalogue a book, it doesnot pay to accept books without any researchvalue.

Nye praised the fund, saying, "It helped createan infrastructure of Indian publishing. It was avery wise seizing of an idea.