How a food crisis in India enriched America's library collections

In 1996, Ananya Vajpeyi, a history doctoral student, discovered the fabled South Asia collection of books at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library.

"I've spent time in some of the leading South Asia libraries of the world, at Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Columbia. But nothing has ever matched the unending riches held at the University of Chicago," Ms Vajpeyi, now a visiting professor at India's Ashoka University, told me.

The 132-year-old University of Chicago houses more than 800,000 volumes related to South Asia, making it one of the world's premier collections for studies on the region. But how did such a treasure trove of South Asian literature end up there?

The answer lies in a programme called PL-480, a US initiative launched in 1954 under Public Law 480, also known as the Food for Peace, a hallmark of Cold War diplomacy.

Signed into law by President Dwight D Eisenhower, PL-480 allowed countries like India to buy US grain with local currency, easing their foreign exchange burden and reducing US surpluses. India was one of the largest recipients of this food aid, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s when it faced severe food shortages.

The local currency funds were provided at minimal cost to participating US universities. These funds were used to purchase local books, periodicals, phonograph records, and "other media" in multiple Indian languages, enriching collections at over two dozen universities. Institutions like the University of Chicago became hubs for South Asian studies as a result. (Manuscripts were excluded due to Indian antiquity laws.)

Another reason why Mr Michelson-Ambelang calls the Western libraries colonial archives "partly is because they serve academics, often excluding those outside their institutions. While librarians understand the disparities in access to South Asian materials, copyright laws limit sharing, reinforcing these gaps".

So, what happened when the PL-480 programme ended?

Mr Nye says the end of the programme in the 1980s, shifted the financial burden to American libraries. "Libraries in the US have had to pay for the selection, acquisition, collection, and delivery of resources," he said. For example, the University of Chicago now spends more than $100,000 annually on buying books and periodicals through the Library of Congress field office in Delhi.

Ms Vajpeyi believes the books-for-grain deal had a positive outcome. She studied Sanskrit, but her research in University of Chicago spanned Indian and European languages - French, German, Marathi, and Hindi - and touched on linguistics, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and more. "At the Regenstein Library, I never failed to find the books I needed or get them quickly if they weren't already there," she says.

"The books are safe, valued, accessible and used. I've visited libraries, archives and institutions in every part of India and the story in our country is universally dismal. Here they were lost or destroyed or neglected or very often made inaccessible."