From bus conductor to Padma Shri: Anke Gowda’s lifelong mission to share books

This year, Anke Gowda, has been awarded the Padma Shri under the Unsung Heroes category, recognising a lifetime devoted to literacy, reading, and access to books.

Gowda resides in Haralahalli village, near Srirangapatna in Mandya district. He made a Pustaka Mane, literally the House of Books, it is neither a university nor a government-funded institution. It is a free public library built entirely on one man’s faith in the power of knowledge.

At 20, Gowda took up work as a bus conductor. His salary was small, but he spent his spare moments reading and saving money to buy books. His hunger for learning eventually led him to pursue a Master’s degree in Kannada literature. Later, he worked for nearly 30 years at a sugar factory, steadily building his personal library alongside his job.    

Over the next five decades, Gowda channelled nearly 80 per cent of his earnings into acquiring books. In one of the most striking acts of sacrifice, he sold his house in Mysuru to expand his collection. That decision gave physical shape to Pustaka Mane, which today ranks among India’s largest free-access libraries.                

The scale of the collection is staggering. Pustaka Mane houses more than two million books in over 20 Indian and foreign languages. Its shelves hold everything from classical literature and philosophy to science, technology, mythology, history, and competitive exam material. There are rare manuscripts, old newspapers and journals, and close to 5,000 dictionaries, making it a vital resource for scholars and students alike.

What truly sets the library apart is its openness. There are no membership fees, no entry restrictions, and no commercial motive. Anyone can walk in, pick up a book, and read. Over the years, students, researchers, writers, and even Supreme Court judges have reportedly visited the library in search of specific texts.

Gowda and his wife Vijayalakshmi live inside the library itself, sleeping on the floor and sharing simple meals in a corner of the vast space. With support from their son Sagar, they personally clean, organise, and manage the collection every day. Thousands of books still await cataloguing, and the family hopes for volunteers and funding to help preserve and digitise the growing archive.

In an age dominated by screens and shrinking attention spans, Pustaka Mane stands as a quiet counterpoint. Located in a rural setting rather than a major city, it brings high-quality learning resources to communities often left out of mainstream knowledge networks.

Gowda says he never worked for recognition. His goal was simple: to make books available to everyone. With Pustaka Mane, that vision has become a living, breathing space where learning remains free, open, and deeply human.