A BOOKSTORE, a few streets from where we used to live in Manhattan, announced that they would be closing down in a few months. The reason was simple: the rent was becoming too much and the location was a prime one and the bookstore could not generate the returns that restaurants and clothing stores could offer. Though the people of the neighbourhood tried to campaign against the closure, market pressures were too strong. So, the bookstore went and six months after that, we had a big clothing store in that space.
But the neighbourhood changed with the closing of the bookstore. The bookstore used to attract a number of visitors who would often spend hours, and quite regularly so, at the bookstore. My wife and I used to spend at least two to three evenings in a week browsing through, reading and buying books at the store. Outside and around the store, there were food vendors and coffee shops, and a lot of free seating was to be found in the tree shade. This was an entire neighbourhood ecosystem. We spent many a pleasant evening there, reading, eating or drinking coffee, chatting with all sorts of people from the area, and sometimes just sitting and watching the world go by. What a blessing the bookstore had been.
When it closed down and the clothing store replaced it, the whole space changed. People stopped hanging around. The food vendors left. A couple of coffee shops closed down and outside seating was more or less abandoned. There was no reason for people to visit the corner anymore. The entire neighbourhood felt the loss.
Lahore was once known as the city of colleges. It has had a rich tradition of intellectual life throughout history. Punjab University and some of the older colleges (Oriental College, Government College, F.C. College, Dayal Singh College and others) have been at the centre of the city’s intellectual life. Five academics or intellectuals, who worked in Lahore or were educated here, have been Nobel Prize recipients. There was a rich tradition of intellectual and cultural activities outside the colleges and universities as well — the Pak Tea House was just one such place.
But today, the city has a different character. Intellectual life seems to have receded a lot. Lahore might be known for its Food Street or signal-free corridors and its underpasses, but it is no longer known for its vibrant intellectual scene. We have a lot more universities, colleges and schools now (the rush hour coincides with school timings) but the intellectual scene does not appear to be as vibrant. Intellectual conversations in the public domain seem to have receded to the extent of just taking place at literary festivals and similarly special occasions.
A ‘Book Street’ could become a space for active intellectual engagement in Lahore.
If Lahore can make a Food Street in order to connect to one of its traditions, why can’t it have a ‘Book Street’ in the city as well? A street where we have 10 to 15 bookshops, where we have some cafés where people can sit and talk, where no cars are allowed and where there can be public seating on the street too as well as space for holding cultural events.
Imagine a space where we have 10 to 15 bookshops. Ferozsons, Readings, Liberty Books, Vanguard, Sang-e-Meel, and some of the booksellers from Anarkali and Urdu Bazaar could have shops there, where people could browse through all sorts of books. Imagine some cafés interspersed with the bookshops to allow people to sit, talk and enjoy coffee, etc. In good weather, when pollution levels are still tolerable, imagine having seating in the street for this as well. And imagine no cars on the street and space only for walking.
Prime real estate is expensive. The government might have to help a little in getting the street set up and may also have to provide a bit of subsidy to people to set up shop initially. That might not even be needed. But even if a bit of subsidy is needed, so what? Governments spend a lot more money on useless things; would it hurt them if they do something useful for a change?
But more than money, the government would need to organise the setting up of the street. We do have experience of that: Food Street was set up not too long ago. Similarly, right next to the Badshahi Mosque, another ‘food street’ was also set up. This is not too hard to do.
Think of the change that such a street could bring to Lahore. The street could become a space for active intellectual engagement for the people of Lahore. It could be the hub for a lot of activities with a focus on books, learning and education. We could have special initiatives around reading for young people there. We could seed book clubs for general and special interest groups. The space could redefine what healthy citizen engagement looks like. It would be a chance for citizens to connect to some of the vital intellectual traditions of the city.
Though it might be a global phenomenon, the reading culture has definitely taken a hit and spaces for intellectual engagement have narrowed or dried up. But as the attendance at literature festivals and the sales at book fairs indicate, there is a demand for such spaces and a yearning among the young to engage. We need to facilitate this. A ‘Book Street’ might just be the sort of initiative that is needed. One hopes that this column reaches the right policy circles.
The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.
Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2025
