On June 18, a jury headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to confer the Gorakhpur-based Gita Press with the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 for its “outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods”. The press, established in 1923 by Jaya Dayal Goyanka and Ghanshyam Das Jalan, two Marwari businessmen, has become a household name in most of the Hindi heartland with its low-priced, popular Hindu religious texts. It now claims to be the world’s largest publisher of Hindu religious texts with an objective to “promote and spread the principles of Sanatana Dharma, the Hindu religion among the general public”. The Gita Press publications can be found in most bus stops and public places across North India.
The publisher which started its journey a century ago at a ₹10 rented accommodation in Gorakhpur, a small-town in Eastern U.P. famous for the Gorakhnath Math, whose Mahanth is U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has now evolved into a giant institution with a wide variety of publications. The idea of the Press was sown years back in the early 1900s, when Jay Dayal Goyandka, who was travelling across north Indian towns for business purposes, formed groups of friends to discuss religious texts. Goyandka, a trader of textiles and cotton, failed to get any authentic translation of the Gita for discussion. After his attempt to get the text published by an external publisher failed, Goyandka decided to start his own publishing house with the support of fellow businessmen. Ghanshyam Das Jalan, informed him that in Gorakhpur, it could be initiated as it’s a religious place along with concentration of the Marwari business class.
Gita Press now claims to have published more than 910 million copies of 1,800 different religious and spiritual books and other materials in 15 languages since its inception. At least 70,000 books are printed every day at its modern printing press. The Press has printed more than 162.1 million copies of Shrimad Bhagwat Gita and 26.8 million copies of Puranas and Upanishads so far. More than 41% of its publications are in Hindi, while 5% make up English books. It has published 729 different Hindu religious and spiritual texts in Hindi, 78 in Tamil and 131 in Bangla. Similarly, the Gita Press prints 88 religious texts in English, 164 in Telugu, 98 in Oriya and 44 in Nepali.
