Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (32 page)

Bharat-Bharati
’s larger significance was its contribution to sharpening of Hindu–Muslim identities and the effortless ease with which the terms ‘Hindi’, ‘Hindu’ and ‘Indian’ were used interchangeably among writers, journalists and a section of politicians. When Gupt and Poddar met in Calcutta,
Bharat-Bharati
was already the rage and the poet had acquired cult status. Poddar would not forget Gupt when planning the
Hind
u Sanskriti Ank
of 1950—knowing full well that Gupt was not in good health, Poddar insisted that he write at least a page. ‘You are the tallest among the virtuous poets of the Hindi literary world who is also a big devotee of Hindu culture. Therefore, I am making a special request. Take care of your health but please send something.’
¹⁵¹
Finally, a small poem ‘
Apn
i Sanskriti
’ (Our Culture) was extracted from Gupt’s
Hindu
, a collection of poems published in 1927 where he took an anti- British stance and in which the notion of Hindi/Indian nationalism got sharper.

Earlier, in 1945, Gupt had disappointed Poddar by not writing for the annual
Gau Ank
on grounds of ill health. Convalescing in his village Chirgaon in Jhansi district, Gupt told Poddar that both he and his younger brother Siyaram Sharan Gupta, also a poet, were very unwell, with some breathing problem. But he told Poddar to ‘extract poems on gau-badh (cow slaughter) from
Bharat-Bharati
’
.
Gupt added that he had not had a ‘darshan of
Kalyan
for a long time but news of its growth and widespread circulation keeps coming to me. If not for anything, I am happy for Hindi.’
¹⁵²

Shivpujan Sahay, ‘the typical, impecunious, and itinerant freelance Hindi journalist’
¹⁵³
from Bihar commanded immense respect in the Hindi literary world across factions, for his chameli or flower-like prose.
¹⁵⁴
He was also the Hindi world’s Mr Congeniality. If Nirala, the irreverent, was so fond of him as to take care of Sahay’s wife’s serious illness in Calcutta,
¹⁵⁵
Poddar, the dogged editor, would pursue him relentlessly to contribute to
Kalyan
, and the entire galaxy of Hindi writers, poets and critics would trust him for his honesty. An institution builder who single-handedly managed the Bihar Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in its formative years after 1947, Sahay had been editor of the weekly
Jagran
in Banaras in the early 1930s. Poddar had praised the work of
Jagran
and requested Sahay to write for the
Ishwar Ank
,
Kalyan
’s 1932 annual number.

No letters from Sahay are to be found in the Poddar Papers, but it is clear that he did make a promise to write. This is evident from Poddar’s letter thanking Sahay for accepting the invitation, and even requesting him to remind Jayshankar Prasad, who lived close by in Banaras, to send the article he had promised.
¹⁵⁶
Though ill health prevented Sahay from writing for
Kalya
n
, he was a keen reader of the journal and would request copies of issues he had missed. Poddar obliged whenever he could.
¹⁵⁷

Poddar was consulted on religious articles published in
Jagran.
For instance, asked to provide a list of books on Tulsidas, Poddar replied to
Jagran
staffer Pravasi Lal Varma that the existing books on Tulsidas were of doubtful authenticity and the poet had written only a very brief profile of himself.
¹⁵⁸
The hagiography
Gosai-charit
, believed to have been written seven years after Tulsidas’s death by his disciple Benimadhav Das, was considered the most authentic account but no copy of it existed. In 1926, when a manuscript said to be of Das’s work had been found in Bihar, the event had caused both ‘excitement and scepticism’, with many scholars dismissing it as a ‘nineteenth-century fabrication’.
¹⁵⁹
However, Gita Press published it in 1934.

The lives of Baburao Vishnu Paradkar and Poddar converged for a certain length of time. A Maharashtrian, born in Banaras and educated in Bihar, Paradkar came to Calcutta for work and part-time study. He joined the newspaper
Bangavasi
and later
Hitvarta.
Impressed by Aurobindo Ghose (then head of Bengal National College) and his brother, Paradkar became involved with the revolutionary movement.
¹⁶⁰
Paradkar translated the Gita into Hindi at the behest of the Sahitya Samvardhani Samiti set up by young Marwaris in Calcutta, which is when he got to know Poddar. The translated text’s cover of Bharatmata with the Gita in one hand and sword in another, a standard depiction of India as a Hindu nation used by the RSS and other right-wing organizations, brought Paradkar to the notice of the British government. Poddar claimed Paradkar was also party to the Rodda Arms Robbery case, tasked with hiding ammunition.
¹⁶¹
Paradkar was externed from Bengal and came to Banaras where he eventually edited the Hindi
Aaj
, turning it into a leading newspaper of the United Provinces. Ugra, still in his teens, had his first article published in
Aaj
, thanks to Paradkar whom he considered his guru. Paradkar contributed a single article on goddess Bhagawati to
Kalyan
but, more significantly, was sought by Gita Press to translate Marathi articles into Hindi.
Laxman Narayan Garde was another translator of Marathi articles into Hindi and English for
Kalyan
and
Kalyana-Kalpataru.
Coming from the same small but intellectually significant Marathi brahmin population of Banaras as Paradkar, Garde worked at
Kalyan
in the initial years but, like many of his journalistic stints, this was a short one. An admirer of Tilak, a Gandhi-baiter and a known ‘votary of Hindutva’, Garde translated Veer Savarkar’s 1923 text
Hindutva
from Marathi to Hindi with the title
Hindupad Padshahi
. Ideologically rigid, Garde at one point used to give discourses on Tilak’s
Gita Rahasya
in Calcutta where he worked with
Bharatmitra
and later
Shri Krishna Sandesh
financed by Dr S.K. Barman of the Dabur family.
¹⁶²

For all his ideological firmness, Garde’s life was somewhat complicated and even at odds with all he stood for publicly. He would constantly consult Poddar, whom he considered his conscience-keeper along with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, for a way out of the ‘constant sins he committed’—he mentioned one instance when he returned from a cinema hall in Banaras on having visions of Poddar, and asked him to recommend someone who would morally guide him in Banaras.
¹⁶³
Though the only sin he referred to was watching a movie, going by the drift of the letter it seems that Garde had committed more sinful acts.

In his later years, Garde would write to Poddar of a court battle with his wife who insisted on her ‘swatva’ (own identity).
¹⁶⁴
Going by Garde’s account, his wife had left him and demanded monetary compensation, something he was finding difficult to fulfil despite sending her Rs 300 every month. He would also bemoan to Chimmanlal Gosvami, co-editor of
Kalyan
, the time he had to waste in courts, his inability to write and financial troubles.
¹⁶⁵
He contributed nineteen articles on various religious and cultural issues to
Kalyan
, including a highly critical one on Gandhi and Hinduism for the
Hindu Sanskriti
Ank
.

In the 1930s when
Kalyan
and Gita Press were trying to find a foothold in the United Provinces and outside, Harivansh Rai Bachchan had already become a household name in the Hindi world with his
Madhushala
inspired by Omar Khayyam’s
Rubaiyat
. It seems that Poddar and Bachchan got close after Bachchan wrote an invocation to God in the form of a geet (poem) for
Kalyan
in 1960.
¹⁶⁶
Poddar’s personal relationship with Bachchan may have been a result of the deep and lasting impression that Radha Baba, Poddar’s friend and associate, had made on Bachchan. Bachchan had met Radha Baba in Delhi in the 1950s through Ramnivas Dhandharia, an industrialist from Calcutta who was also a friend of Poddar. In letters to Poddar from Bachchan and his wife Teji, Radha Baba was always referred to with great reverence. Bachchan claimed that the Baba ‘through a dream gave me the inspiration to translate the Bhagavadgita’ into the Awadhi used in
Ramcharitmanas
.
¹⁶⁷
Thus was published
Jan Gita
. In 1958, on his younger son Ajitabh’s twelfth birthday, Bachchan went to Gorakhpur to recite the text to Radha Baba. After two editions of
Jan Gita
had come out, Chimmanlal Gosvami, Ram Bhai and Madhav Sharan (all associated with Gita Press) pointed out certain inaccuracies, and Bachchan made the corrections. When he went to gift the revised
Jan
Gita
to Radha Baba in 1964, the latter told him to prepare a Khari Boli version of the Gita. Bachchan took up the challenge and completed the translation in January 1966.
¹⁶⁸

The story of Hindi would remain partially told without reference to Shivprasad Gupt, magnanimous publisher of Gyanmandal Press who also launched newspapers and journals like
Aaj
,
Maryada
,
Swarth
and (when the colonial government was on his trail) the cyclostyled
Ranbheri
. At the time of Independence, he published
Samaj
, edited by Narendra Dev. Gupt was something of an enigma in Banaras, bankrolling institutions like Kashi Vidyapith with a grant of Rs 10 lakh, providing funds to the Nagari Pracharini Sabha, financing Congress workers and revolutionaries in equal measure and establishing the Bharat Mata Mandir.
¹⁶⁹
Through all this, Gupt maintained an unflinching loyalty to Gandhi. He also found time to write for
Kalyan.

Ramnaresh Tripathi was a Braj Bhasha and Hindi poet, and a political activist who participated in the non-cooperation movement and was closely associated with an assortment of bodies like the Tilak Swaraj Fund and later the Nagari Pracharini Sabha. Tripathi’s contribution to the cause of Hindi was immense: a three-volume compilation of rural folk songs
Gram Geet
and a seven-volume collection of poetry
Kavita-
Kaumudi
. Tripathi established his own publishing house, Hindi Mandir, and edited the children’s magazine
Banar
, only to later give it all away to Sasta Sahitya Mandal. He retired to Basant Niwas, the house he had built in Sultanpur, but his later years were troubled ones, as the railways claimed the land on which his house was built.

A staunch patron of
Kalyan
, when he was asked in 1952 to write for the following year’s
Balak Ank
, an effusive Tripathi told Poddar: ‘The service you are doing to Hindus is unparalleled in history. To some extent it can be compared to King Ashoka’s service to Buddhism . . . I love children’s literature. But I do not have my own press or journal. Whom should I write for? Whenever you need an article please write to me. I am your friend.’ Tripathi praised Poddar for his commentary on
Ramcharitmanas
. ‘I was enthralled with your ability to explain Awadhi and its uses by Tulsidas [though] your language is Marwari. Even those whose mother tongue is Awadhi commit mistakes.’
¹⁷⁰

Jainendra Kumar participated in the national movement and was arrested during the flag satyagraha of 1923. He made his literary mark with the novel
Parak
h
that fetched him a Hindustani Academy prize.
¹⁷¹
Considered close to Premchand and a supporter of Hindustani, Jainendra Kumar was asked to write for
Kalyan
’s
Manavta Ank
of 1959 but he seems to have missed the deadline for which he apologized to Poddar. Aware of Poddar’s growing reputation as a spiritual guru, Kumar, in the same letter, expressed his ‘keen desire’ to meet him. ‘At times I get very worried with myself. Hope I get some reply.’
¹⁷²
In an era when the distinction between Hindu identity and nationalism was hazy, journals like
Kalyan
became an attractive proposition for an entire generation of Hindi writers who were yet to make a mark for themselves but were keen to engage with the nationalist discourse. So we find a host of writers drawn to Gita Press and its vehicle
Kalyan
with no pretence of being highbrow or even literary. All Gita Press demanded from its contributors was adherence to their stated discourse of ‘Hinduism in danger’, and in return promised a massive circulation and reach outside literary circles.

These writers included Pitambardatt Barthwal, originally from Garhwal and the first D.Lit. in Hindi from BHU; Ramdas Gaur, among the earliest science writers in Hindi who also dwelt on scientific advaita; Badrinath Bhatt, writer from the Dwivedi era and editor of journals like
Balsakha
and
Sudharak
; Gulabrai, minister of literary affairs with the royal family of Orchha; self-taught Ilachandra Joshi who took on the Hindi literary establishment in
Modern Review
; Gaya Prasad Shukla ‘Sanehi’ who made equal contributions to Braj Bhasha and Khari Boli and wrote nationalist poems under the pseudonym Trishul; Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, essayist, novelist and Santiniketan don who wrote an authoritative volume on Kabir; Padam Singh Sharma, eminent literary critic known for his brutal but honest writings; Dineshnandini Choradiya, a talented young woman writer and later wife of industrialist Ram Krishna Dalmia; Ambika Prasad Vajpayee, editor of
Swatantra
; Jhavarmal Sharma, editor of
Calcutta Samachar
and a close associate of Poddar during his revolutionary days; critic Kishori Das Vajpayee; Damodar Sahay ‘Kavikinkar’, a school inspector and eminent poet; and Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha, a historian from Rajasthan.
¹⁷³
Many of them cut their teeth in
Kalyan
and though they later found firm footing elsewhere, they retained the vision of cultural nationalism that Gita Press and the entire gamut of right-wing groups claimed to profess and cherish.