Read Time: 11 minutes

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana recently said at the Hyderabad Book Fair, 2021 that books have been responsible for revolutions in many ways and that books have played an important role in the Indian freedom struggle as well.

The CJI was delivering the keynote address at the Fair.

“When I was studying, educational institutions had to have 2 things compulsorily, one was the playground and the other was a library," he said.

The CJI further spoke about how the library at his school and the one at his village were the contributing factors to his growth, adding, "Everyday, I would read something or the other for 2 hours a day. It is unfortunate that children don’t read as much these days. The educational institutions these days don’t have libraries in their campuses compulsorily. The same way many institutions do not have play grounds despite it being compulsory, this is very unfortunate.”

The CJI opined that the amount of knowledge a person gains by reading a book is immeasurable and that one cannot gain it by reading on the internet.

He said “In the near future, we may not have to read the books. On switching on a device someone else will read it for us, it has come to this, this is dangerous. When we read a book by ourselves, the content of it remains in our brain irrespective of how much time has passed since we read it.”

He urged parents to ensure that they impart discipline, education and the habit of book reading to their kids along with a sporting spirit.

The CJI recollected, “When I was young there was an initiative by the likes of Nidumarti Umarajeswara Rao and Rachamalla Ramachandra Reddy (RaRa) to translate Soviet books to Telugu, they put in a lot of efforts to get these books printed. Especially some books by Dostoyevsky. I have read the books of Dostosyevsky many times and have gifted them to a lot of friends as well. “

The CJI reminisced that when our great leaders were imprisoned during the freedom struggle, they did not sit idle, they wrote books.

He said, "Today we have compilations of some of the letters written by these leaders from the prison, to their children. There is in fact a compilation of such letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Gandhi that has been published as a book. These letters inspired leadership qualities in her which came in handy when she became the Prime Minister.”

He further opined that in this day and age people communicate through WhatsApp messages and that these messages neither have any language nor have any expression.

He said “We can interpret a WhatsApp message in many ways, this leads to a lot confusion. However if we write a one page or a half page letter, one can communicate what they want to, in a clear way.”

The CJI reminisced how his father used to send him one post card every week, while he was in the hostel. 

The letter that the CJI’s father wrote would mostly to explain as to why he was not able to send more money.

After reading these letter the CJI would understand that his people at home are going through something.

The CJI said, "This is communication, this art of letter writing. It could communicate and express what one feels, however one cannot communicate as much using technology. You cannot express your feelings through messages or WhatsApp, you can however do it by writing letters.” The CJI opined that there is a  need to encourage the habit of letter writing.

He said that today it is assumed that one can get all the information they need from social media and internet. He said “It is wrong, if you read deeply, you will only get information regarding films and their publicity material. Not many websites run articles on books, this is primarily because people are not interested.”

Speaking of the difficulties that publishers undergo he recollected that during his days in law college he tried to start a publishing house it was very difficult to run. He said “We had to pay the editors and printing press regularly, we had to apprehensively give the books to book store because we wouldn’t know if they would pay us for the books.”

The CJI opined that it is more complicated now as these publishers are batting with piracy. He said “I keep telling my brother judges to ensure that they pass strict orders in cases pertaining to piracy.”

The CJI said, “How much does a book cost? It costs Rs.100. It must cost as much as 2 or 3 cups of coffee. But these books are much more stimulating than coffee.”

He said that writing a book is not as simple, each word should mean something and each sentence should take the book further. He urged the people to encourage book reading among children as books are the only things that can save our culture and traditions and keep them intact.

In conclusion, the CJI said, “Please read, encourage people to read. Instead of giving flower bouquets and shawls start giving books to the chief guests. Please patronise such book exhibitions.” The CJI also urged the publishers to distribute books to school and college students so that they develop the habit of reading.