By Dheer Sanghi India has one of the longest and richest histories of any nation in the world. From being home to one of the oldest civilisations: the Indus Valley civilization, to the Mughal empire, to British rule, to finally becoming an independent nation; preserving India’s story is pertinent to our national identity and culture. One of the best mediums to do so are libraries. Filled with influential books, important manuscripts, and inspiring art, libraries make knowledge accessible to the masses. India has hundreds of such libraries, all worth visiting, but this article will focus on a few that you must see. Illustration: Sneha Balaji The National Library of India Located in Kolkata, the National Library of India is the nation’s largest library in terms of volume. Housing over 2.2 million books, manuscripts, and records, its purpose is to amass and maintain printed texts made in India. The history of the National Library of India is a fascinating one. Starting off as the Imperial Library (founded in 1891) by merging smaller libraries in the area, it also doubled up as the official residence of the Governor-General of India until Independence. It was only open to government officials, however, restricting the public from accessing texts. In 1948, the new Indian government signed the Imperial Library (Change of Name) Act, resulting in the library bein...