A hobby that became a public service
Anke Gowda’s story does not begin with a big institution or a government library. It begins with one man’s private collection that never stopped growing. According to his official Padma citation, he loved reading and collecting books from his college days, and even while working he spent a large part of his earnings on them.
Over time that hobby became “Pustakada Mane”, the House of Books. It works like a free public library for students, researchers, people preparing for competitive exams and ordinary readers.
32 years of work, then all his time for books
The official record says he worked for 32 years as a Time Officer at Pandavapura Sahakara Sakkare Karkhane, a cooperative sugar factory, and took voluntary retirement in 2005. Retirement did not mean rest. It meant time to organise the collection and open it to the public.
The shelves hold literature, history, art, culture, philosophy, music, science and social science, in Kannada, English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and other languages.
A home for more than 20 lakh books
The 2026 Padma citation puts the collection at more than 20 lakh books. He looked after it without paid staff, with help from his family. That scale, and the fact that anyone can use it for free, is what makes him more than a book collector: he is a keeper of knowledge. The Karnataka government has also given support for space to hold the growing collection.
A long, quiet road to recognition
He received the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in 2014 and a Limca Book of Records recognition in 2017, but the road to the Padma Shri in 2026 took almost half a century.
Preserving culture is not always about restoring manuscripts or monuments. Sometimes it is one person saving ordinary books from being thrown away and keeping them for the readers who come next. Anke Gowda did not lock his collection away as a private trophy. He turned his home, and his life, into a free library.
Sources
- Padma Awards 2026: official citation
- PIB: Karnataka Padma awardees 2026
- The Indian Express: 'One man, 2 million books'
- Public TV: interview after the Padma Shri
- padmaawards.gov.in/Document/pdf/CitationsForTickets/2026/English/202621.pdf
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2262338&lang=1®=20
- indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/unsung-heroes-one-man-2-million-books-meet-the-padma-shri-recipient-behind-the-worlds-largest-free-access-library-10519816/
- english.publictv.in/worked-without-expecting-any-reward-social-worker-anke-gowda-on-being-conferred-padma-shri-2026/