In a tragic incident from Karnataka, miscreants allegedly set fire to a public library that had over 11,000 books. That included 3000 copies of Bhagavad Gita, as per a report in The New Indian Express.
The library is run by a 62-year-old daily wage labourer named Syed Isaaq. For the last 10 years, he has provided free access to books for the residents of the Rajiv Nagar and Shanti Nagar areas in Mysuru.
At 4 am, a man residing next to the library informed me that there was a fire inside. When I rushed to the library which is just a stone’s throw away distance, I could only see them being reduced to ashes,” he said.
Most of the books were in Kannada.
The library had over 3000 exquisite collections of Bhagavad Gita, over a 1,000 copies of Quran and Bible besides thousands of books of various genres which I sourced from donors,” he added.
Police have filed an FIR under IPC 436 and the hunt is on for the culprits.
The Bhagavad Gita often referred to as the Gita, is a 701-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic Mahabharata (chapters 23–40 of Bhishma Parva), dated to the second century BCE. It is considered to be one of the main holy scriptures for Hinduism, the world’s oldest and the third largest religion.
Source: India Times
