Scan to know the Mahatma: Rare Gandhi photos exhibited

Bengaluru: A rare glimpse into the life of Mahatma Gandhi unfolded in Bengaluru on Monday as RBANM’s Educational Charities, in collaboration with Servants of Knowledge, hosted an exhibition featuring unseen photographs and first-edition works of the Father of the Nation.

“This exhibition is primarily aimed at allowing people to see rare photographs of Mahatma Gandhi from our archives. Along with that, we are also showcasing his complete works and several first-edition books”, said Omshivprakash, co founder of Servants of Knowledge.

The exhibition drew attention not only for its historical content but also for the way technology was seamlessly integrated into the experience. Visitors could scan QR codes placed across the venue to access digitised collections of books directly through the organisation’s website.

Interactive monitors were set up at every corner, offering a hands-on exploration of their growing digital library. Adding a creative touch, a special stand invited visitors to design customised Gandhi-themed postcards, allowing them to choose from a range of archival photographs and stamps that could be printed on the spot.

The Servants of Knowledge is a volunteer-driven organisation devoted to democratising access to knowledge by digitising educational materials and making them freely available to the public, particularly in regional languages.

Explaining their process, Omshivprakash said, “The books are digitised through a process called Optical Character Recognition (OCR), where the text inside is captured in Unicode for respective Indian languages. This makes the resulting PDFs fully searchable, allowing users to easily locate specific books or even topics within them”.

The initiative has already digitised works in more than 20 Indian languages and continues to expand its efforts. Books from Gandhi Bhavan, the Lalbagh Historic Library - the oldest in the city, and the National Law School of Bengaluru have been preserved and made available online.