First published on 2nd May 2024
Scholars of South Asian history have focused on colonial and postcolonial state archives and their logics. While any research on modern Indian history is considered incomplete without a visit to the British Library, London, we have not paid enough attention to the history and collections of our local libraries, particularly those in small towns. While there is scholarship on libraries, archives and museums in colonial India, erstwhile princely states are often ignored. The Muslim princely states were particularly good with practices of documentation and preservation, as evident from the Rampur Raza Library in Uttar Pradesh, the Persian Research Institute in Tonk, Rajasthan, the Osmania University Library and Translation Bureau in Hyderabad, Telangana, and the Bhopal State Archives in Madhya Pradesh. These centres have drawn their resources from the historic inheritances of the Mughal and Awadh states, where the rulers were not just patrons but also writers of books, and supported careful record-keeping.
The Rampur Raza Library evolved gradually from the private manuscript collection of Nawab Faizullah Khan (r. 1774-1794). He was the first Nawab of Rampur State in the aftermath of the Anglo-Rohilla War of 1774 and Laldhang Treaty. This collection, preserved in the treasury house (toshkhana) kept growing under the subsequent Nawab to become a full-fledged library (kitabkhana). It is now one of the biggest library collections in India, with Arabic, Turkish, Pashto and Urdu manuscripts, as well as Sanskrit and Hindi texts, for the study of Indo-Islamic intellectual history and culture. In the aftermath of the 1857 revolt and the abolition of the Mughal and Awadh empires, princely states like Hyderabad, Bhopal and Rampur became important centres of literary preservation and patronage. The Nawabs of Rampur were also well-connected with scholarly centres in Mecca, Iraq, Jerusalem, Kabul and Tehran. Many important texts from these countries found their way to the Rampur Raza Library and continue to attract international scholars.
The History of the Rampur Raza Library (Tarikh-e-Kitabkhana-e-Raza), written by Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shauq Rampuri (1863-1933), is a useful 20th-century account to understand how the social and cultural space of the library changed during the rule of Hamid Ali Khan (1875-1930). [1] The author begins by recounting the intellectual qualities of the Nawab and how his interest in knowledge about diverse cultures and literatures (saqafat) developed through his journeys around the world, and particularly to Europe, where he was deeply impressed with the Bodleian Library at Oxford. [2] He was well-versed in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English. He was a poet, who wrote under the name “Rashk”, and brought out a poetry collection called Diwan-e-Rashk. He also took great interest in matters of history and religion.
Rampuri points out that Hamid Ali Khan was sagacious enough to realize the value of the rich treasure of manuscripts and rare books owned by his family. Besides the preservation of oriental manuscripts, he decided to give new life to the books collection, transforming it into a renowned symbol of knowledge in colonial times. [3] Hamid Ali Khan’s rule, therefore, saw the library shift from a private collection to a princely institution in 1896, with a separate new building dedicated to it.
From 1896, scholars and copyists (katib) were recruited to identify and procure books or copy them from Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bilgram and other old centres of knowledge. This period also saw a greater focus on the gathering and preservation of artefacts, especially Mughal paintings and manuscripts. The library possessed perhaps the best collection of paintings and manuscripts in late 19th-century India. [4] These included works from various courts and libraries in and outside South Asia. This procurement project was matched by proper organization, with lists and catalogues made by a professional staff. Hakim Ajmal Khan was put in charge of the library in 1896. He began a process of modernization and the library soon expanded into a research centre. This could be achieved under the guidance of distinguished scholars, who were invited to oversee the development of the collection. Under Ajmal Khan, a detailed survey of the library was undertaken, with its holdings classified subject-wise and arranged with detailed descriptive lists. Noticing the importance of this enterprise, Khan wrote an introduction to the library’s catalogue, highlighting its role in the preservation of knowledge as crucial to the progress and preservation of culture. [5]
After Ajmal Khan’s departure from Rampur in 1903, the library was brought directly under the supervision of the state department of Ijlas-e-Humayun and placed in the hands of the Chief Secretary, Abdus Samad Khan. Subsequently, Maulana Najmul Ghani Khan and Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shauq came to be involved in its development. The hard work of these scholars and the generous financial and intellectual support from the state resulted in a further transformation of the library. The well-known historian and Islamic scholar, Shibli Numani, visited the library on April 6, 1914, and found its book collection had surpassed in quality and quantity other libraries in India, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and even Europe. [6]
As part of his support to research, Hamid Ali Khan provided financial aid to scholars conducting new work. This included the famous poet, Ameer Minai, who produced a three-volume definitive Urdu dictionary (lugat), now known as the Amir-ul-Lugat. Unfortunately, Minai died before finishing the third volume. However, the task was then completed by the librarian-in-charge, Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shauq. During Hamid Ali Khan’s reign, the library moved beyond its Indo-Islamic collection to include vast corpuses of literature in other Indian languages such as Sanskrit and Nagari, besides requisitioning new English publications from colonial India and Europe. The library collection grew to approximately 18,218, and was an impressive showcase of engagement with tradition and modern ideas. [7]
When Viceroy Irwin paid a visit to Rampur on January 6, 1927, he gave a speech at the state banquet of the Nawab, praising the Rampur Library as being the finest of its kind in the East and providing excellent opportunities for research in history, religion and ancient art: “The Rampur Library is well known to be one of the first in India, and among its collection [are] 9,000 manuscripts, [for] many of which no other copies exist in this country. It is fortunate to find in the person of His Highness a generous patron of arts, who is both student and collector, and who is steadily adding to the reputation it has already gained.” [8]
Today, the grand princely interiors oftheHamidManzilhousetheRampur Library. This monumental embodiment of Nawabi grandeur and knowledge preservation in Indo-Saracenic architecture looks out of place, but it also points towards that hybridity in the princely polity under colonialism, marked by change in continuity.
In writing institutional histories of libraries, we should not forget individuals, especially librarians, calligraphers, preservationists and staff members who helped maintain princely collections in postcolonial India. Nurul Hasan helped provide national recognition to the Rampur Raza Library. Imtiaz Ali Arshi, Abid Raza Bedar, and more recently, Shairullah Khan, have also played important roles in promoting its significance. They have produced not just valuable scholarly writings around it, but Shairullah Khan has also helped preserve and revive other local treasure troves, such as the Saulat Public Library and the Madrasa Furqania and its personal library.
Last but not the least, libraries need readers, and a small town like Rampur attracts a diverse range of them from across India and the globe. The most heartwarming aspect of visiting the library is to witness its vibrant vernacular intellectual culture, where a local Urdu poet is consulting a Ghalib diwan, next to a Deoband student looking for a Hadith reference or a gender and queer studies scholar is reading the rekhti poetry of Jan Saheb, alongside an art historian examining an illustrated copy of Ramayana. This remains the rich Indo-Islamic histories and legacies of the library and of Rampur.
Dr Razak Khan is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Georg-August University, Gottingen. His monograph, Minority Pasts: Locality, Emotions, and Belonging in Rampur was published by (Oxford University Press, 2022). He also edited the English translation edition of Mir Yar Ali Jan Sahib: The Incomparable Festival (Penguin Random House India, 2021).
Notes
[1] Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shauq Rampuri, Tarikh-e-Kitabkhana-e-Raza (Rampur: Raza Library Publications, 1998).
[2] This section is based on and adapted from Razak Khan, Minority Pasts: Locality, Emotions, and Belonging in Princely Rampur (New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 2022).
[3] Amjad Ali, Oriental Manuscripts Worldwide (New Delhi: Ess Publications, 2005).
[4] Barbara Schmitz and Ziyauddin A. Desai, Mughal and Persian Paintings and Illustrated Manuscripts in the Raza Library (Rampur and New Delhi: IGNCA, 2006).
[5] Zafar Ahmed Nizami, Hakim Ajmal Khan (New Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India, 1988), 12.
[6] Ali, Oriental Manuscripts Worldwide, 204.
[7] Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shauq Rampuri, Tarikh-e-Kitabkhana-e-Raza, (Rampur: Raza Library Publications, 1998).
[8] Annual Administrative Report of Rampur State 1925-26 (Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1926), 4.