In Kolkata, every turn through the city’s bylanes offers a brush with history. One such hidden gem, tucked away in north Kolkata’s Goabagan is the century-old The Boys’ Own Library and Young Men’s Institute.
Founded in 1909 by Krishna Prasanna Ghosh, Jiban Krishna De and Prodyut Kumar Rudra, the 116-year-old library has been a cosy reading spot for readers from the neighbourhood for generations.
The Boys Own Library also contributed significantly to the Library Movement in Bengal, which was led by the Bengal Library Association, founded in 1925, with Rabindranath Tagore as its first president.
The reading room moved from the first address on the ground floor of Dr. Girish Chandra Dutta’s residence at 12, Ram Narayan Bhattacharya Lane to its current location in the building on 2, Boys’ Own Library Row in Goabagan, in 1968. Six years before the shift, in 1962, Satyendra Nath Bose laid the foundation stone of the building, and the three-storey space was inaugurated by union education minister Triguna Sen, with novelist Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay in attendance at the event.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation named the street after the library in 1981.
A glorious past and a concerning present
The library has a collection of approximately 25,000 books
The library and reading room on the first and second floor has always been open for readers, in the evenings from 6.30pm to 9pm. And it has a collection of approximately 25,000 books across genres, collected over generations — mostly bought from the library’s own money. But, history and heritage alone is often not enough for survival in modern times, and the Boys’ Own Library might shut shop in a few years. To keep the space affordable and encourage readers from all walks of life to come, they charge a nominal fee — Rs 5 per month from its young readers and between Rs 15 and Rs 25 per month from its adult readers — but today it is not enough to maintain the establishment.
Octagenarian Samir De, whose father Jiban Krishna De was one of the founding members of Boys’ Own Library, was the treasurer of the library for 20 years, until last year. Currently a board member, he still visits every evening from Monday to Saturday, come rain or shine. But now, he worries about the uncertain future of his beloved institution due to the lack of funds and erratic government grants.
Even today, The Boys’ Own Library charges nominal membership fees, so as to encourage readers from all walks of life
“My father was also the treasure of this library for almost 20 years. I became a member when I was six and at present I am 83. I was the treasurer of the library for more than 20 years, from 2002 to 2024. The grant that we received from the government was to buy books. We started receiving more financial support after the present government came into power, and also got financial aid from the MP LAD funds of Md. Selim and Ajit Panja,” he shared with My Kolkata. Several people in his family are also members of the library.
But, it has been a long time since any more financial support came their way. The library last received Rs 25,000 from the grant in February 2021, which was used to buy books.
The amount of money coming in through the grant varies, depending on the requirement and the grade of the library. The funds allocated from the MP LAD fund can also be used only for specific requirements — like construction or maintenance of the property. This means that there is constant financial stress, but present members of the library are trying to fix a steady budget and don’t want to sell the building to property developers.
With multigenerational members and a history spanning more than a century, you can find tomes from decades ago at the library
Striving to sustain itself
For many current members, the membership to Boys’ Own Library is something they inherited, yet the hallowed establishment is now looking at an uncertain future.
The library has a caretaker and a part-time helper. Paying an honorarium to them, maintaining the building, and upgrading the stock of books cannot depend alone on memberships fees or uncertain grants. So, the library committee renovated the hall on the ground floor and it is rented out for cultural performances. “We used a considerable amount from the fund to renovate the hall, and hope it brings us a dividend,” shared Samir De.
For many, membership at Boys’ Own Library is an inheritance, passed on from parents or grandparents
The neighbourhood used to be paradise for theatre goers, with Sarkarina and Biswarupa in the area, and artistes would rent the hall back in the day as well. To keep up with modern-day needs, the library management has added facilities like air conditioning, better seating and sound systems. They have also opened the space for workshops and classes.
“We also teach theatre and poetry at a nominal fee here to children. And the money that comes from renting the hall compensates the financial deficit,” shared De, one of the oldest members of the library.
Pages from ‘Balya Pratibha’ — a Bengali manuscript started by the three founders of the library in 1912
With finances in short supply, it is now difficult for them to buy as many books as they would have liked, but they continue, albeit at a much smaller scale. “We buy books every day. In the last financial year, we bought books worth Rs 20,000. But, when we buy books, we introduce them to the readers in two intervals in the year. We cannot buy costly books, especially the ones that have bagged any literary award,” De further shared.
Government help
The library management has not been able to contact the Minister of Mass Education Extension and Library Services, Siddiqullah Chowdhury. The minister remained unreachable when My Kolkata tried to contact him.
“We did not get the financial grant due to miscommunication with the District Library Office in 2023. We were not informed that the land deed was to be furnished. We followed the usual protocol, but were informed much later, upon probing, that the land deed was now a key document. In 2024, the department issued no notification, and this year too, we are waiting for one, which usually comes out between February and March,” said Mita Gupta, the present librarian.
Open in the evenings, the library is still visited by people of various ages from the neighbourhood
“The government notification does not state the necessary documents needed to apply for the grant. The advertisement is printed in a small corner of the newspapers,” she further shared.
When contacted, the principal secretary of mass education and the library department, Hirdyesh Mohan, said if the library appeals to the director’s office they can look into the matter.
In the meantime Samir De and the members of Boys’ Own Library continue to work towards sustaining this storied institution. “In today’s day and age, providing philanthropic services in return for no financial gain is not a popular idea. So, I am wary of the future. But I have a keen faith in the heritage of the library, and I hope someone will pick up the baton,” said De.
Know more about The Boys Own Library & Young Men's Institute here.