Libraries should be built to connect youth with country’s history, language and culture: Amit Shah

GANDHINAGAR: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said libraries should be built to connect the youth with the history, language and culture of the country, and urged teachers to encourage students to visit the facilities to gain knowledge in the subjects of their interest.

Shah was addressing a gathering in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar after inaugurating the “Samau Shaheed Memorial” built as a tribute to 12 martyrs from Mansa who made the supreme sacrifice for the country’s freedom during the revolt of 1857. He also inaugurated a library. The Union minister said today’s youth will not be able to deliver a speech in Gujarati for 35 minutes without using English words as they are unaware of the richness of their mother tongue.

“Libraries should be built for the youth to connect to the country’s history, language and culture,” Shah said, stressing that had there not been a rich library in Mansa, he might be working as a businessman. “The library at Mansa gave me the opportunity to recognise our country’s culture, religion and language,” the Union minister said. He said there are 7,000 books in the library, and it pleased him to find ‘Bhagwat Go Mandal’ (encyclopedia of Gujarati language) and Gujarat grammar books on the list.

“If I ask the youth, especially the children of Samau village, to speak in Gujarati for 35 minutes without using English, I assure you nobody will be able to do so because the youth are unaware of the repository of our words, grammar, and rich language. "As a minister in Gujarat, I had organised a competition in districts for youth to deliver a speech for 20 minutes without using the English language. Nobody could do so,” the Union minister said.

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Shah appealed to the teachers of primary and secondary schools present in the audience to take the youth and children to the library, because “the future of Gujarat and the country will emerge from libraries”. At the same time, children should not be made ‘pothi pandit’, or one who learns everything by rote, as it will yield no result, he said.