The row over awarding Gita Press
the Gandhi Peace Prize

Q. Why is it in News?

·     The ruling BJP 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’.

·      Prime Minister NarendraModi, 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’.

·     Following the announcement, Congress called the decision a travesty, likening Gita Press to NathuramGodse or VinayakDamodarSavarkar, triggering a war of words.

Q. 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), AkshayaPatra Foundation (2016) and EkalAbhiyan Trust (2017) too have been awardes.

Q. 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 SrimadBhagwat Gita. As of date, the institution has published 41.7 crore books in 15 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.”

·    Spread over two lakh square feet in Gorakhpur, the Gita Press campus was inaugurated by then President Rajendra Prasad in April 1955. Its books are published in 15 languages including English, Urdu and Nepali. Gita Press has 20 outlets in the country and its books are sold through over 2,500 booksellers across India, as well as in other countries such as Nepal.

·    The institution was founded by Hanuman Prasad Poddar and Jay DalalGoyandka. 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.

Q. What have critics said about the Gita Press?

·     The book Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, authored by senior journalist AkshayaMukul, opined that the Gorakhpur-based press, under the garb of protection of Sanatan Hindu Dharma, was pursuing an agenda similar to the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BharatiyaJanata 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 writing about an independent India as a Hindu India without Muslims, similar to that year’s annual resolution of the Hindu Mahasabha, Mr. Mukul claimed.

·     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.