Sikander Mirza Changezi, Founding Member of Shah Waliullah Public Library, showing the Diwan [book] of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Diwan-e-Zafar. Photo: Video Screengrab.

Still standing

Old Delhi’s Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library.

Oohini Mukherjee and Zeeshan Kaskar are multimedia journalists. Zeeshan holds a master’s degree in Convergent Journalism while Oohini does in Mass Communication from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre (AJK MCRC), Jamia Millia Islamia. They both operate a short documentary collective called The Archived which delves in the art of subaltern storytelling.

Located in a narrow lane in front of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi, Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library is home to around 25,000 books including rare works in Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and English.

When the area witnessed communal riots in 1987, a group of young individuals formed the Delhi Youth Welfare Association (DYWA) in Shahjahanabad – today's Old Delhi, to help people with food and medicines.

With time, the group started expanding its activities to education and opened a library in 1994. This library was named after the revered Islamic scholar, Hazrat Shah Waliullah, who was a Muslim reformist in 18th century India.

Reporter, Camera & Edit: Oohini Mukherjee, Zeeshan Kaskar.

Special thanks: Taqi Mohammed, Mohammad Naeem, Sikander Mirza Changezi.

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India