Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (27 page)

Jamnalal Bajaj, among the closest to Gandhi and called his fifth son, did not exhibit the same enthusiasm as his mentor when it came to writing in
Kalyan
, though he had contributed to its predecessor
Marwari
Aggarwal
. Bajaj wrote only one article for
Kalyan
on how taking God’s name helped him.

Another of Gandhi’s followers, G.D. Birla also did not write for
Kalya
n
despite being close to Poddar and Goyandka
.
After Gandhi’s assassination, he distanced himself further from Poddar and what Gita Press stood for. In 1958, Poddar asked him for a contribution but G.D. Birla regretted on the ground that he was ‘soon going abroad’.
²⁹

Jugal Kishore Birla was G.D. Birla’s elder brother. After amassing a fortune from opium, gold and silver trades he had relinquished everything and taken to religion, hobnobbing with leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha. A close associate of Poddar in the cow-protection movement and against the Hindu Code Bill, Birla wrote a few articles for
Kalyan
, including one in the 1950
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
that Poddar especially liked. Thanking Birla, Poddar discussed the continuing violence in various parts of the country. ‘Situation in the country is adverse. It is expected to get worse.’
³⁰
Kalyan
’s policy of publishing profiles of saints from Islam and Christianity invited criticism from Jugal Kishore Birla, who would often ask, ‘Does Hinduism not have enough saints that you keep publishing about Islam and Christianity?’
³¹

Gandhi and Malaviya represented two ends of the spectrum within the Congress. Both were considered important by Gita Press, though Malaviya was its vocal supporter and was thus seen as its true patron. Yet, compared to Gandhi, Malaviya was not as keen when it came to writing for
Kalyan.
Poddar would later admit, ‘He never used to give a categorical answer to requests for contribution. He was very good at talking, not so much at writing.’
³²
Malaviya contributed fifteen articles in all, many of them published after his death in 1946.

Others of the political class who were wooed by Gita Press included theosophist and Congress leader Annie Besant. Author of
Sanatana
Dharma: An Advanced Textbook
along with Bhagwan Das, Besant died in 1933 and did not see Gita Press prosper, though Poddar had convinced her to write an article on Krishna Lila for the
Shri Krishna
Ank
of 1931. Besant’s life story would be showcased by Gita Press as that of an ‘adarsh bharatiya nari’ (ideal Indian woman). Her writings would find place in
Kalyan
even after her death.

S. Rajaram, editor of
Bharata Dharma
, ‘a magazine of liberal Hinduism’
³³
and the official organ of Bharat Samaj, also wrote on Krishna for the 1931
Kalyan
annual. In 1939, S. Satyamurti, firebrand Congress leader from Madras Presidency and one-time London correspondent of
The Hindu
, contributed an article to
Kalyan
on the Ramayana as the source of human life. Then there was M.S. Aney, a prominent Tilakite, founder of the Congress Nationalist Party and member of the Constituent Assembly, who in 1949 during his stint as governor of Bihar would write on the spiritual impact of the Upanishads. Socialist Acharya Narendra Dev, as vice chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, would write on children’s education for
Kalyan
.

C. Rajagopalachari, a leading light of the Congress who would later found the Swatantra Party, contributed five articles to
Kalyan
, the first of which appeared in 1928 on Bhakta Kanappan, the legendary tribal chief in Tamil literature who gave away both his eyes to Shiva out of devotion. In 1935, Rajagopalachari was requested by Poddar to write on God, but politely declined. Instead, Rajagopalachari sought Gita Press’s help in printing the ‘condensed Gita’ that he had written in English for publication by the Inter-Religious Student Fellowship, a Madras-based institution that had brought out a similar condensed Bible by Verrier Elwin.
³⁴
Gita Press, however, did not oblige, possibly because Rajagopalachari made it clear that Gita Press would have to bear the ‘entire financial responsibility and loss or gain’
.
³⁵

The controversial
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
of 1950, that represented Hindu culture as the epitome of world culture, included an article by Rajagopalachari. But two years later, as chief minister of Madras, he would regret his inability to contribute to the
Balak Ank
(1953): ‘I send my best wishes, but feel sorry I am not able at present to do what I like.’
³⁶

Five articles by philosopher-politician S. Radhakrishnan appeared over three decades in
Kalyan
on a range of topics, including the concept of God in Hinduism and the importance of religion. On occasion he would decline to contribute but not without lauding
Kalyan
‘which has been doing good work all these years’
.
³⁷
Poddar roped in Radhakrishnan for other initiatives like the Gita Society.

Pattabhi Sitaramayya, authoritative biographer of the Indian National Congress, would bring his scholarship to bear on the relevance of Ramayana and the role of parents in the life of children. Then there were conservative Congressmen like Purushottam Das Tandon, K.M. Munshi and Sampurnanand. Tandon wrote a piece on the tradition of Hindu women worshipping their husbands. Munshi, a lawyer and educationist opposed to conversion, had traversed the entire spectrum of politics from Congress to the Swatantra Party to Jana Sangh, and endeared himself to right-wingers by playing a key role in the rebuilding of Somnath Temple in Gujarat. Though he contributed only four articles to
Kalyan
, Munshi, also president of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, used the vast resources of Gita Press for his religious writings. On one occasion he asked Poddar for a ‘Sanskrit-Hindi translation of Hari Vamsa’ as he was writing ‘the romance on the life of Sri Krishna based on Puranas’
.
³⁸
On another occasion he would thank Poddar for sending 200 copies of the Gita for free distribution to visitors and students at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
³⁹

Sampurnanand’s writings in
Kalyan
varied from Christianity to Hindu culture, women and children. One-time education minister of the United Provinces, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and later governor of Rajasthan, Sampurnanand was so close to Poddar that the
Kalyan
editor felt free to write: ‘A request was sent to write for
Hindu Sanskriti
Ank
but we have not received any reply. I presume it is due to your hectic schedule and priority to official work. But
Kalyan
also belongs to you. You have always blessed us. Moreover, the topic is such that only competent people like you can write.’
⁴⁰
Poddar further mentioned that 125,000 copies of the issue were to be printed. When Sampurnanand had still not delivered, Poddar shot off another letter though the issue had already gone to press: ‘Your article should appear. It’s being eagerly awaited.’
⁴¹
Sampurnanand obliged with an article titled ‘
Hind
u Sanskriti
’ that had to be added to the issue in its final stages. Sampurnanand in turn exercised his right over Gita Press. Any delay in getting a copy of
Kalyan
would result in an immediate reminder being sent to Goyandka.

There was a history to this relationship. In 1937, a highly depressed Sampurnanand, who had been unwell for more than a month in Banaras, unburdened himself to Poddar about his failing health and lack of money: ‘I am an ordinary worker who is always short of money. Every thing is disorganized.’
⁴²
Poddar sympathized and promptly sent Sampurnanand some money. An overwhelmed Sampurnanand wrote: ‘The words with which you have sent the money have not only made it impossible to pay the debt but also made it difficult (for me) to thank you.’
⁴³

During his term as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Sampurnanand contributed to the
Bhakti Ank
(Issue on Devotion, 1958). Poddar had problems with the chief minister’s views on devotion and wrote to Sampurnanand explaining that though he disagreed with the views expressed in the article, ‘it has been decided to publish it with editorial comment . . . Hope you do not have any problems with that.’
⁴⁴
In his editorial comment, Poddar disagreed with the oversimplified path of the devotion or ‘bhakti marga’ that Sampurnanand advocated, saying that simplification did not mean there was no need to follow rules.
⁴⁵
Significantly, considering that the UP chief minister was the author, Poddar made it clear the article was not open to further debate.

Lawyer-politician Kailash Nath Katju was also a keen patron of Gita Press and would always find time to contribute. When Poddar’s request for a contribution to
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
came in June 1949, Katju at first declined. However, persuasion and persistence, as was the editor’s practice with big names, worked. In August, Katju, then governor of West Bengal, suggested that his piece ‘Bhagwat Gita and Communism’ written for the Independence Day special issue of the Allahabad newspaper
The Leader
be carried in
Kalyan
’s special number. Katju reasoned that while
The Leader
‘has, like the present day daily newspapers, a limited circulation in a limited area’,
Kalyan
would go ‘far and wide throughout the length and breadth of the country’
.
⁴⁶
Poddar acquiesced.

Katju’s article was suitably inimical towards the communist ideology that was seen by Gita Press as a threat to the Hindu social, religious and economic order. In fact, articles on samyavad (communism) as a cause of concern for the new nation would appear at regular intervals in
Kalyan
, and Gita Press would publish Swami Karpatri Maharaj’s ‘
Marxwa
d Aur Ram Rajya
’ (Marxism and the Ideal State) in 1957.

Though he contributed other articles to
Kalyan
, by the time of
Balak Ank
, while keen to contribute, Katju would say he did not ‘know what to write . . . The daily work seems to have made me completely dry.’
⁴⁷

Purshottamdas Thakurdas, one-time director of Tata Sons, cotton magnate, politician and editor of the Bombay Plan, wore many hats. An active campaigner for the protection of the interests of Indian industrialists, he was at the same time a member of the central board of the All India Anti-Untouchability League and the Hindu Sanrakshan Mandal in Bombay. He had already vociferously defended the role of Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj in the Bombay riots of February 1929.
⁴⁸

Thakurdas had an abiding interest in Gita Press and
Kalyan
. An article on the importance of Gita in the April 1942 issue of
Kalyan
by Mohammad Hafiz Syed, a regular contributor who was teaching in Allahabad University, interested Thakurdas so much that he would congratulate Poddar for carrying the piece and even ask for Syed’s address.
⁴⁹

When Poddar requested him to write for the
Gau Ank
of 1945, Thakurdas convalescing in Nasik would reply through his secretary that though he did not ‘ordinarily take up any additional work’, an exception would be made since it involved cow protection. Thakurdas agreed to write an 800-word article in English on the importance of cows, on the condition that it would be translated into Hindi for wider dissemination. He hoped the cow number of
Kalyan
‘would awaken the conscience of the Hindu public’
.
⁵⁰
But advanced age and failing health forced him to turn down the request to write for the
Hindu Sanskriti
Ank
. He also plainly stated that he was not sufficiently a scholar to write on any of the subjects listed in Poddar’s letter.
⁵¹

A fellow Marwari from the Central Provinces, Seth Govind Das, had relinquished his share of fortune to become a full-fledged politician, playwright, poet and a strident advocate of Hindi and cow protection. His grandfather Seth Gokuldas of the banking firm Sevaram Khushalchand had been a ‘big help to the East India Company in the Central Provinces’; he owned 158 villages and had the ‘title of raja prefixed to his name’
.
⁵²
A lifelong Congressman, Seth Govind Das would later collaborate with M.S. Golwalkar and Poddar for the Krishna Janmabhoomi movement in Mathura.

Das identified himself with the mission and method of Gita Press. For him, the contribution of Gita Press to ‘religion and culture was unrivalled’
.
He coaxed Poddar to publish his writings in
Kalyan
, mostly travelogues to present-day Uttarakhand and south India and a five-part play on Vallabhacharya (he would even insist that Gita Press should publish them as books).
⁵³
Das felt it was an honour to help Gita Press; as a member of parliament, he had taken up the matter of the steep hike in postage.
⁵⁴

In the almost endless list of politician-writers for
Kalyan
, the name of Jawaharlal Nehru is notably absent. Poddar and Nehru had met briefly when the latter visited Gorakhpur during the 1936 floods. In various accounts, Poddar claims that he had offered Nehru his car to travel for a meeting to Barhaj, close to Gorakhpur.

Let alone an article, Nehru refused to send even a short message when requested by Poddar for the
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
, and again for the
Manavta Ank
.
⁵⁵
Nehru’s home minister G.B. Pant was more enthusiastic and sent a short message for the
Manavta Ank.
Poddar and Pant had known each other for a long time. Pant contributed to
Kalyan
and supported Gita Press in all its initiatives. As home minister, he wrote to Poddar that during an official trip to Gorakhpur he would find some time to visit the Gita Press office.
⁵⁶
Nehru’s aloofness towards religion in general and Gita Press in particular would come up for discussion between Poddar and Pant, who shared the opinion: ‘Whatever Jawaharlal might say publicly, I think he is a believer.’
⁵⁷