This veteran book collector from Tiruchi plucks out pages from history
The Hindu
S Muruganantham of Tiruchi has been collecting rare books for a long time, and preserves them in his home library.
A calendar issued by a socially-minded organisation in Tiruchi with pictures of the city’s inter-caste married couples is just one among the many unusual pieces of printed material awaiting the connoisseur’s eye at S. Muruganantham’s house in Woraiyur.
“This was printed regularly in the 1930s by Neelavathi Ramasubramaniam, a follower of E V Ramasamy (Periyar), who worked tirelessly for the Self-Respect Movement,” says Murugananthan, 76, a former farmer and businessman who has been collecting rare and arcane samples of books, newspapers and magazines since his college days in 1969.
“I have always been a voracious reader, and have the habit of setting aside interesting books for my personal library. Having been associated with former Chief Minister, K Kamaraj, through the Youth Congress, I also have a big collection of political literature,” he says.
The septuagenarian recently exhibited samples from his collection at the District Central Library’s World Book Day celebration, with other bibliophiles from in and around Tiruchi.
Once an avid hunter of old manuscripts in Chennai’s old Moore Market and antiquarian shops, Muruganantham has curbed his enthusiasm slightly as he is unsure of how to preserve his beloved collection.
“It is difficult to read some of the older Tamil literature, because the alphabet and style of writing has changed. And with the reading habit on the decline anyway, I often wonder what will happen to my treasure,” he says with a rueful smile.
He brightens up, however, when he talks of personal favourites in his collection. “This is a book from 1936 where the handwritten script of Ramalinga Swamigal (1823-1874), also known as Vallalar, can be seen alongside annotations on the facing side. I also have a reprinted version of the handwritten journal of E V Ramasamy (Periyar) written when he visited the Soviet Union in 1932.”
The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, permitted Anna University to deposit, in three monthly instalments, an amount of ₹73.23 lakh before the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT) as a condition to hear a statutory appeal preferred by the varsity against the Coimbatore Regional Provident Fund (RPF) Commissioner’s order to pay dues to the tune of ₹2.44 crore to contract employees.