Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (34 page)

F. Otto Schrader was an old India hand when he began writing for
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
in its early years. A doctorate in divinity from Strasbourg, Schrader had spent eleven years in Madras as director of Adyar Library before returning home. Having already earned a name as author of
Introduction to the Pancaratra and Ahirbudhnya Samhita
, a ‘fit conclusion to his tenure of office as director of Adyar Library’,
¹⁹³
Schrader became good friends with Poddar. From Kiel University, where Schrader was teaching, he would write in German for
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru.
Satisfied with his article for the
Yoga Ank
, Schrader told Poddar: ‘I think you will like it and find no difficulty in translating it.’
¹⁹⁴
Schrader was among the few contributors given the freedom to substitute a topic of his choice for the one assigned to him by Poddar. He was also a keen reader of
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
, seeking further edification from Poddar whenever he found anything interesting or unknown. When an article in
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
of July 1937 referred to the
Brahma Samhita
, Schrader immediately wrote to the editor seeking a copy of the text since he was ‘not aware of an edition of that work’
.
¹⁹⁵

Oxford-educated John George Woodroffe was just the kind of spiritualist Poddar had in mind when he argued about the supremacy of Hinduism. Here was an upper-class Britisher—son of James Tisdall Woodroffe, advocate general of Bengal—and an academic, lawyer and judge who had taken to Hindu philosophy and religion and become its staunch ambassador, translating Sanskrit texts and entering into polemical debate with detractors of Hinduism and India. When Australia-born Scottish-origin literary and drama critic William Archer in his
India and the Future
pronounced ‘India as a whole to be in the state of barbarism’, Woodroffe countered with a series of essays, later published as
Is India Civilised?: Essays on Indian Culture
, celebrating ‘the principles of civilization of old India with its
dharma
,
devata
and
Gomata
—a civilization in its depths profound, on its surface a pageant of antique beauty—the civilization of India of the Hindus’
.
Woodroffe was confident that the ‘inherited ideas and instincts (samskara) of a thousand years will assert themselves’ and if properly spread Indian culture will have a beneficial effect on men at large.
¹⁹⁶
In 1910, Woodroffe was ‘initiated’ by tantra guru Shivachandra Vidyarnava. He continued to write books—
Shakti and Shakta
, a commentary on the Shakta Tantra Shastra, under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon; and
The
Garland of Letters
, a commentary on the Mantra Shastra, under his real name.
¹⁹⁷

Poddar was well aware of Woodroffe’s scholarship, especially his translation of texts on tantra, when he invited him to write for
Kalyan
and
Kalyana-Kalpataru
in January 1934. The first letter to Woodroffe in London was returned to Gorakhpur, so Poddar wrote again requesting him to contribute to the
Shakti Ank
. Stating that
Kalya
n
with a monthly circulation of 22,000—‘a figure not yet reached by any vernacular magazine’—was keen to publish Woodroffe’s articles, Poddar told him about the plans for publishing
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
in English and that his article would also be carried in the new journal when it came out. ‘We know you have made a life-long study of the tantras and the sakta cult and feel sure that you will gladly and readily respond to our call . . . You will be placing not only
Kalyan
, but its numerous readers and sympathisers as well, under a deep debt of gratitude.’
¹⁹⁸

Arthur Berriedale Keith, the ‘chief ornament of Scottish learning’,
¹⁹⁹
was a polymath in the classical sense of the term. A barrister from the Inner Temple and Regus professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology at the University of Edinburgh, Keith straddled many worlds with ease—constitutional law, Indian culture, religion and philosophy—leaving behind a huge corpus of work. A contemporary of Otto Strauss, a German Indologist and also a writer for
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
, Keith (like Schrader) could not be easily convinced to write on a topic suggested by the editor. Asked to write for the
Sri Krishna Number
of
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
, Keith wrote: ‘I do not think that there is any subject on which I could contribute an article which would be wholly acceptable to devotees of Sri Krsna.’ Citing the occidental–oriental clash of vision, Keith told
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
editor Chimmanlal Gosvami that the ‘topic presents itself in a different aspect to occidental minds, and I should not care to present views which might not be in harmony with those of the great majority of your writers and your readers’
.
²⁰⁰

Otto Strauss was also approached to write for the
Sri Krishna Number
but he was too preoccupied to complete the article at short notice. Instead, he requested the editor to carry his ‘pending piece, a new interpretation of Bhagvad Gita’
.
²⁰¹
Schrader too did not contribute to the issue on Krishna ‘owing to indifferent health’ but sent his wishes that the issue would ‘prove no less successful than were the preceding ones’
.
²⁰²

Renowned mystic Richard Whitwell, author of the popular
Life of
Francis of Assisi
and
In the Desert a Highway
, wrote for both
Kalyan
a
-
Kalpataru
and
Kalyan
in the late 1950s on the theme of choosing the path of truth in life. In 1958 Whitwell sent an article—he does not specify the topic—‘some ways perhaps a little different’ from what he had ‘usually sent’.
²⁰³
Whitwell’s only article, on conversing with love, appeared in
Kalyan
in November 1954.

Giuseppe Tucci was among the world’s foremost orientalists, a master of Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese and the religions of the East. Sent to Santiniketan by Mussolini, Tucci taught Italian and Chinese there for many years, as well as initiated the study of Buddhist texts and inscriptions. A supporter of Mussolini and a staunch votary of purity of race, Tucci would often joke that in his ‘past life he must have been a Brahmin and then, due to some sin committed, he was born again in a barbarian land’
.
²⁰⁴
Along with his reputation as a scholar, such thoughts must have endeared him to Gita Press. Tucci had already become the toast of the Indian press when he joined Santiniketan in 1926. A reputed journal like
Modern Review
, praising Tucci’s academic achievements, had said, ‘We are thankful to Signor Mussolini for having sent such a versatile scholar to represent the Italian science in the republic of Indian letters.’
²⁰⁵

In 1958 Tucci was invited to write for
Kalyan
and
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
’s forthcoming issue on Humanity. However, by the time Chimmanlal Gosvami’s request reached Tucci, he had left Rome for East Asia. His assistant Antonio Gargano wrote to Gosvami that Tucci ‘is well aware of the work you are carrying on for the propagation of spiritual ideas, the only means of serving the cause of culture and therefore of peace and understanding among men . . . His return is not contemplated before next year. There is therefore no possibility of his writing a message such as you would like to have for your paper.’
²⁰⁶

F.D. Lessing of the University of California at Berkeley earned an international reputation for translating several Buddhist tantric texts into English, a task that would be completed by Alex Wayman after his death. Also behind the compilation of an English-Mongolian dictionary, Lessing, like Tucci and others, was aware of
Kalyan
, but could not contribute to the
Manavta Ank
: ‘Unfortunately, I am so tied up with my own research which involves various deadlines I have to meet that I have no time to take upon me additional obligations. It is physically impossible to make any promises.’
²⁰⁷

In its endeavour to make Gita Press and its two journals the sole authority on Hindu spirituality, rituals and culture, Poddar and others at the helm went all out to rope in the best minds of that time. Through his acquaintance Shiv Sharan, Poddar even got in touch with French metaphysicist Rene Guenon who had taken the Islamic name Sheikh Abd al-Wahid Yaha after being exposed to Sufism and various Islamic traditions. A prolific writer, Guenon had also written on Hinduism and Vedanta apart from a severe critique of theosophy that was taking root in India at the time. While in Paris, Shiv Sharan had written to Guenon and was awaiting his response. Poddar was interested in publishing the Hindi translations of Guenon’s works, but it seems that Guenon did not respond favourably.
²⁰⁸
The Poddar Papers do not have any follow-up correspondence on Guenon, neither is there any reference to any article by him being published in
Kalyan
or
Kalyana-Kalpataru
.

Ruth Fuller Sasaki was instrumental in popularizing Buddhism in the United States. Having trained in Zen Buddhism in Japan for many years, Sasaki also took up the task of translation and dissemination of Zen texts into English. In the years when she was flitting between the USA and Japan,
Kalyan
approached her for an article, a ‘repeated request’ which failed to elicit a positive response.
²⁰⁹

But there were successes too. Asked to write for the
Humanity
Number
of 1959, Indologist K. De Vreese responded saying that despite the choice of subjects offered by Gita Press he did not ‘find one that is exactly in the field and scope of my life and character’
.
Instead, he suggested a new subject—‘Humanity and Scholarship’—and offered to write on his ‘guru’, the late J.Ph. Vogel, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Leyden, who had written on Mathura art and been associated with the Archaeological Survey of India. ‘Vogel was and will for ever be to me an example of real humanity,’ Vreese told Chimanlal Gosvami.
²¹⁰

In the vast volumes of Poddar Papers, there are a series of letters in the 1940s from a contributor with initials W.K. whose signature cannot be deciphered. Living in Villa Grussida, Switzerland, W.K. was an enthusiastic reader of
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
, often reminding Poddar that some issues had not reached him. Speaking of the ongoing world war, W.K. said: ‘This poor Europe of ours is in a chaotic state. No one knows where and when all this is going to end, and one cannot even hope that these are the birth pangs of something better to come.’ In the midst of all this, he told Poddar about the poem he was sending for
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
and wanted to know why extra copies of the journal in which he wrote were not being sent to him.
²¹¹

At the end of the war, when
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru
resumed publication, W.K. wrote again with three-fourths of an article he had written based on a class he had attended by Swami Yatishwarananda, a prominent swami from the Ramakrishna Mission. On a personal note, he confided in Poddar that eight weeks ago his sister had been in an area that was bombed, and ‘I am anxiously expecting news of or from her’
.
Three days later he sent another letter, accompanying the rest of the article, mentioning that all his sister’s belongings ‘are destroyed but hope still lingers that she will be found’
.
²¹²

Contributors came from various backgrounds—some were ICS officials like Otto Rothfeld, author of
Indian Dust
, and Charles Johnston, author of
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
; then there was H.G.D. Turnbull who wrote books on Shakespeare and Ibsen; Otto Maria Saenger of the German League for Human Rights; H.W.B. Moreno, author of
Palikpara and Kandi Raj
, an account of a zamindar family in Murshidabad; A. Cressy Morrison, chemist, former president of New York Academy of Sciences and author of books like
Man Does Not
Stand Alone
and
Seven Reasons A Scientist Believes in God
; Jean Delaire, who set up the first Christian lodge of the Theosophical Society and was a vocal advocate of health reform; transcendental scientist P. Adaros who took the name of Swami Brahmavidya and who was a friend of Poddar; Lowell Fillmore of Unity School of Christianity; and Arthur Mckay, a Christian priest who often interacted with Poddar.

An unusual correspondent was Enzo Turbiani from Genoa, Italy, who first wrote to Poddar as a young boy who had already learnt Hindi because he ‘liked India very much’; his letter written in Hindi contained some grammatical errors but made perfect sense. Of the texts he had read in search of Indian philosophy, the Gita had impressed him the most—he called it the ‘world’s most beautiful creation’. Like many westerners, Turbiani believed that only India could ‘teach the world about satya (truth) and mithya (falsehood)’
.
²¹⁴
He forged a long relationship with Gita Press and regularly corresponded with Poddar, often distressed by the glorification of materialism in his home country, and writing that ‘wise people are not satisfied with Christianity’
.
²¹⁵
His criticism would get more intense, saying that Christianity only sought salvation for Christians whereas a text like the Gita promised salvation to everyone—man, woman, child, untouchable—who believed in God.
²¹⁶
Two months later, Turbiani clarified: ‘I am not against any religion. I am against injustice. There are many great men among Catholic priests though a large section of them only knows politics.’
²¹⁷