The story so far: The ruling BJP and and the opposition Congress have locked horns over the decision to award the Gandhi Peace Prize 2021 to Gita Press in Gorakhpur — the world’s largest publisher of Hindu religious texts. This decision was announced on June 18, 2023, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 125th birth anniversary.
The prize was awarded to Gita Press for its ‘outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods’, the press release noted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads the jury for the prize, observed that conferring the prestigious award on the press house as it completed 100 years since its establishment, is a recognition of its work in community service. The prize recognises the contribution of Gita Press to the ‘collective upliftment of humanity, which personifies Gandhian living in true sense’, said the press release.
Following the announcement, Congress called the decision a travesty, likening Gita Press to Nathuram Godse or Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, triggering a war of words.
What is the Gandhi Peace Prize?
Instituted in 1995, the Gandhi Peace Prize is awarded for social, economic and political transformation through non-violence, to any deserving person/s or institution/s. The award comprises of a citation and an amount of Rs 1 crore and is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or gender and any association, institution or organisation. The awardee is selected by a five-member jury comprising of the Prime Minster, Chief Justice of India, Leader of Opposition and two eminent personalities.
Nominees must be proposed either by former jury members, former awardees, members of Parliament, Nobel laureates for the last five years, Secretary-General of the United Nations or heads of other international peace organisations, Vice-Chancellors of universities, Chief Ministers, or Governors. Work achieved within the ten years preceding the nomination is considered for the award. The decision of the jury is final and cannot be challenged or appealed.
Previous recipients include eminent personalities such as Nelson Mandela (2000), Coretta Scott King (2004), Qaboos bin Said Al Said (2019) and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (2020), Several institutions such as Indian Space Research Organisation (2014), Akshaya Patra Foundation (2016) and Ekal Abhiyan Trust (2017) too have been awardees.
What does Gita Press do?
Founded in 1923, Gita Press is a unit of Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya, Kolkata, registered under the West Bengal Societies Act, 1960. The press — one of the world’s largest publishers — is most famous for publishing the Hindu text Srimad Bhagwat Gita. As of date, the institution has published 41.7 crore books in 14 languages, including 16.21 crore copies of the Gita. The institution’s main objective is to promote and spread the principles of Hinduism via publication of religious texts, marketed at subsidised rates.
Apart from the Gita, the press has over 3500 archived manuscripts, including the Ramayana, Upanishads, Puranas, discourses of eminent Saints and other books & magazines. Its most prominent publication is Kalyan (welfare) – a monthly magazine being published since 1927. With over 2.5 lakh subscribers, the magazine carries articles by old and contemporary, eminent Indian saints and scholars apart from special columns like “Read, Understand and Do” and “To Think About.”
The institution was founded by Hanuman Prasad Poddar and Jay Dalal Goyandka. As per its website, the institution neither solicits donations nor accepts advertisements in its publications and any deficit in funds is met by services offered by its other departments. Apart from its main publishing house at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Gita Press has branches in Kolkata and Rishikesh. Gita Press also runs a Vedic school in Churu, Rajasthan and an Ayurveda medicine center in Rishikesh.
What have critics said about the Gita Press?
The book Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, authored by senior journalist Akshaya Mukul, opined that the Gorakhpur-based press, under the garb of protection of Sanatan Hindu Dharma, was pursuing an agenda similar to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)— to make India a Hindu state.
In his 540-page book, Mr. Mukul highlighted that early issues of the company’s magazine Kalyan were aimed at more than disseminating religious texts. He claimed that the Gita Press was a political project, working closely with the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, Jan Sangh, and the BJP.
Echoing the views of the Hindu Mahasabha, Gita Press wrote about cow-protection and Hindu-Muslim issues as early as 1926. By 1947, the Gita Press was writingabout an independent India as a Hindu India without Muslims, similar to that year’s annual resolution of the Hindu Mahasabha, Mr. Mukul claimed.
Speaking to The Hindu ahead of the Kovalam Literary Festival in 2015, Mr. Mukul said, “All the fears that you see from the right, about inter-caste marriage and Western education, are all seen in their pages. Even the idea of love Jihad, though not called the same name, was discussed in their book.”
He added that Gita Press had famously opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s support for temple entry for Dalits, but was not against its books being distributed among the Dalits. These religious books are cheap, but well-produced and are widely distributed in northern India, seeping deep within the core Hindi belt.
One of Gita Press’ founders — Mr. Hanuman Prasad Poddar — was among those arrested after the assassination of the Mahatma and had also presided over a Town Hall in Banaras to welcome then RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar after he was released from jail in 1949.
Wondering how Gita Press managed to survive ninety years in the publication industry, Mr Mukul said, “Ideological work of 90 years is paying off now, with the BJP government coming to power. This has been their dream, to come to power on their own. So they are restless to push through their agenda.”
