Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (35 page)

Turbiani had discovered similarities between the Gospel and the Gita. He also began writing a book of Hindi grammar in Italian. Hindi, he said, was a beautiful language with a great future.
²¹⁸
Turbiani would present even his minor worries to Poddar. For instance, after having read Yogi Ramacharaka’s
Hatha Yoga or the Yogi Philosophy of Physical
Well-Being
, he read another book that severely criticized Ramacharaka and accused him of writing on hatha yoga without practising it. He asked Poddar to suggest the next step.
²¹⁹

By the early 1960s Turbiani’s quest for spiritual knowledge had taken him to religious texts of Islam, Christianity and Hinduism—and to the conclusion that ‘Gita is the greatest and all men should read it’
.
²²⁰
He further said that, in his view, 1961 was the year when India and Pakistan had again become friends. Unconsciously echoing what the extreme right-wing elements of Indian politics had always advocated, Turbiani hoped that ‘one day the two nations would become one’
.
His hope was drawn from an article in an Urdu magazine that talked of Urdu being a branch of Hindi, as well as the cultural similarity between the two nations. Turbiani’s prayer for peace and integration of the two nations was dashed four years later when India and Pakistan were locked in a battle over Kashmir.

In later years, Turbiani authored two books—
La Vairagya: Sandipani
d
i Gosvami Tulsidas
(1977) and
Il Sikhismo: la religione dei divini maestri
(1987)—and contributed an article on the Ramanandi sect in a Cambridge University Press compendium on devotional literature.
²²¹

Like Turbiani, Vladimir Miltner got in touch with Poddar and Gita Press as a student. Based in Prague, then capital of the former Czechoslovakia, Miltner was studying ‘Indo-Aryan languages but had special interest in Braj and Awadhi languages’
.
He had many works of Tulsidas but not
Hanumanbahuk
, and requested Poddar to send him a copy, promising to send in exchange some Czech books translated into English. The book arrived and Miltner requested a few more by Tulsidas and Surdas so that his collection of works by these authors would be complete. He started using ‘Jagannath’ (lord of the world) as his middle name.
²²²
Later, Miltner became a leading Indologist, authoring many books such as
Folk Tales from India
,
The Mahabharata
,
The Hindi
Sentenc
e Structure in the Works of Tulsidas
and
Theory of Hindi Syntax:
Descriptive
, Generative, Transformational.

Karl G. Gesh was a scientist from Germany who was familiar with Gita Press and
Kalyan.
His letter to the editor had already been published in
Kalyan
when he decided to visit India in 1957 on what he called a ‘pilgrimage’ for a few months—travelling to Bombay, Wardha and Gorakhpur. Well versed in Hindi, Gesh faced problems with his travel plans but went around in search of knowledge. Years after his visit he continued to write to Poddar, talking of getting invited to deliver lectures on Hinduism.
²²³

Philosopher Raymond F. Piper of Syracuse University wrote for help in locating a painting of Shiva by B.K. Mitra, earlier an artist for Gita Press publications. He had written to Mitra, then working with Lalit Kala Akademi (Fine Arts Academy under the Indian government), and also taken the help of the Self-Realization Fellowship of Los Angeles in approaching him, but had received no reply.
²²⁴

The Hindu Centre in East London established in 1967 had built a temple and a large resource centre complete with library. The Centre’s founding member B.K. Goyal contacted Gita Press for its publications, including
Kalyan
and
Kalyana
-
Kalpataru.
Delay in the delivery of books worth 30 pounds sterling, despite repeated reminders, forced Goyal to write directly to Poddar, who was unwell, and even allege that ‘someone in the office has misappropriated the draft money’.
²²⁵
Within days of Goyal’s letter reaching Poddar, the manager of Gita Press confirmed receipt of the money and the dispatch of twenty-two bundles of books. Possibly irked with Goyal’s allegation, the manager promised to take up the ‘matter with postal authorities’
.
²²⁶

Outside the scholarly and religious world, there were ordinary expatriate Indians who looked to Gita Press and Poddar for spiritual sustenance and wrote with personal stories and suggestions. One G.P. Mishra from Mauritius would praise Poddar and Gita Press for helping people like him, living away from home, to remember and talk of God through their writings. He asked Poddar to spare time for his father-in- law, also a resident of Mauritius, who would be visiting India.
²²⁷
R.K. Srivastava who lived in Rhonda, Britain, would inform Poddar how he had successfully managed to remain a vegetarian despite his friends telling him how difficult it was to survive on vegetables in a cold country.
²²⁸
Ramesh Kumar Prasad from British Guinea (now Guyana), South America, would suggest that Gita Press should bring out Tulsidas’s Ramayana with its commentary, predicting it would be a ‘money spinner’.
²²⁹

The Ramakrishna Mission Sebashram, a charitable hospital in Rangoon, would request the
Kalyan
editor to send free copies of the journal for its newly opened library in the hospital. It was felt that a journal like
Kalyan
in the library would not only help patients to spend their time well but also promote their speedy recovery.
²³⁰
Being helped financially by the Indian government, the managing committee of the hospital regretted that exchange control regulations did not allow even remittance of postage costs. Gita Press agreed to send copies gratis.

 

Fitting into the Template
In the first four decades, the universe of Gita Press writers was constantly expanding, giving space to anyone who chose to care about sanatan Hindu dharma. It did not matter what aspect of sanatan dharma was being addressed as long as the writer agreed, even partially, that it was under multiple threat—from colonial rule, the competing interests of Muslims, and the rising culture of material consumption that Gita Press felt had a direct bearing on the moral fibre of individuals. The press’s rescue-cum-resurgence mission needed a wide range of contributors inhabiting several spheres: sacred, secular, communal, cosmopolitan, local and transnational.

Careful analysis reveals that, in the catholic world of contributors gathered by Poddar, there was a distinct pattern. He would reach out to anyone who might fit some aspect of the well-designed template. Each contributor was selected with a specific purpose. Mendicants, sadhus and Sanskrit scholars representing various sects and schools of philosophy built the sanctum sanctorum of
Kalyan
. They consistently delved into sacred texts, deconstructing complex concepts for ordinary readers in the simplest of language. Simultaneously, these writers, who included Poddar and Goyandka, worked hard to explain to readers the importance of rituals in the private, domestic and public aspects of one’s life. It is a different matter that the burden of these rituals with shastric sanction fell more on women who usually had very little or no say in matters concerning their space. The ideal world of a Hindu nari (woman) followed the narrow path of daughter, wife and mother. It was a task Gita Press took extremely seriously, as expressed not only through the pages of
Kalyan
but also in scores of pamphlets on women, the first one
Str
i Dharma Prashnottari
having made its appearance way back in 1926.

Non-experts who had a fair knowledge of sacred texts and were practising sanatanis formed another ring. This group consisted of scholars, both Indians and foreigners; Indophiles, orientals and occidentals; the odd politician such as K.M. Munshi, Govind Das or Sampurnanand; poets, writers, businessmen and school and college teachers. Poddar always walked the extra mile to get the best names to fill this category. They not only lent heft to the journal, their lives were often showcased as success stories of those following the path of sanatan Hindu dharma.

Those involved in the cause of Hindu and Hindi nationalism, cow protection, Hindu Code Bill and other contentious issues inhabited the next ring of contributors. It consisted of leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, a section of Congress conservatives like Malaviya, and politician-sadhus like Karpatri Maharaj, Raghav Das and Prabhudatt Brahmachari. Additionally, sections of the Hindi literary world also wrote in
Kalyan
, and representatives of a large number of short-lived organizations that came up during the intense communal phase from the 1930s added to the atmosphere of distrust and disharmony, contributing some of the worst language to the communal discourse.

Finally, there were the scholars and philosophers who did not see the crisis in Hinduism through the highly debatable and translucent prism of Gita Press, but still wrote in
Kalyan
. Writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Kshitimohan Sen, C.F. Andrews, S. Radhakrishnan, as can be discerned from their response to Poddar, genuinely considered Gita Press and
Kalyan
as a spiritual, cultural and religious intervention without subscribing to its communal agenda. But this interpretation has room for scrutiny, as some of these writers also associated themselves with other initiatives of Gita Press aimed at the creation of its ultimate vision of a Hindu rashtra (nation).

 

 

 

The
Hindu revival and reform movements that had begun in the nineteenth century with the Brahmo Samaj (1828) and Arya Samaj (1875) crystallized by the first quarter of the twentieth century into strident Hindu nationalism that used the narrative of Hinduism as a single religion with a hoary past as the basis for its political and social ideology. Romila Thapar calls it ‘syndicated Hinduism’, projected as the ‘sole claimant to the inheritance of indigenous Indian religion’
.
A facet of syndicated Hinduism is its over- reliance on the interpretation of brahminical texts like the Gita and dharmashastras in such a way as to ‘underline a brand of conservatism in the guise of a modern, reformed religion’
.
¹

After the lull in the activities of its forerunner, the Hindu Sabha, formed at Lahore in 1909 at the initiative of Lala Lajpat Rai, the Hindu Mahasabha was born in 1915. ‘Syndicated Hinduism’ became its staple diet; such invention of a singular history was justified on the grounds of creating a counterpoint to ‘the enemy image of similarly conceived Islam’
.
²
In the aftermath of the Khilafat movement (1919–24) and the Moplah massacre of 1921, Hindu mobilization of this kind was deemed acceptable, with its accompanying stridency of tone and sharpening of religious identities.

Two other events—the publication of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s
Hindutva
:
Who is a Hindu
? in 1923 and the formation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925—contributed in making the 1920s the most productive and significant decade for Hindu nationalism. Savarkar’s book, originally titled
Essentials of Hindutva
, was an attempt to historicize the origin of Hindutva (the quality of being a Hindu) of which Hinduism was only a ‘derivative and a part’.
³
Savarkar not only made a ‘distinction between Hinduism as a culture and as a faith’ but also (through liberal citations from works of Darwin, T.H. Huxley and Herbert Spencer) attempted to ‘fashion an ethnic nationalism’
.
⁴
He used the word Hindu and Sindhu (the Sanskrit name for the Indus river from which the name India is derived) interchangeably, arguing that the letter S in Sanskrit was changed to H in some of the Prakrit languages.

The founder of the RSS, K.B. Hedgewar, put forward his own concept of nation: ‘It is not merely some piece of land that is called a Nation. A Nation is formed by people who have held the same thoughts, the same customs, the same culture and the same traditions since long time past.’
⁵
This definition led the RSS and its affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to consider Nepal as part of the ‘Hindu Nation’.
⁶
The RSS, VHP and other organizations inspired over the years by RSS ideals together form the Sangh Parivar—or RSS affiliates.

Parallel to the ideological formulation and sharpening of religious identities, the 1920s saw Hindus and Muslims slugging it out in the open through a series of communal riots ‘marked by increasing violence and cruelty’—a ‘casual list’ puts the number of riots in this decade at twenty-nine through the length and breadth of the country,
⁷
from the Moplah riots in Malabar (1921), to Ajmer and Sindh (1923), Delhi and Lucknow (1924), Allahabad, Calcutta and Sholapur (1925) to Lahore and Nagpur (1927) and Bombay (1929).

 

In Defence of Hindu Dharma
Born in the middle of this surcharged decade,
Kalyan
was clear from the start about its stand on the Hindu–Muslim question. Poddar’s editorial in the inaugural issue put the blame for the riots squarely on the Muslims, bemoaned Hindu inaction, called for sanghbal (unity of strength) and invoked co-religionists not to turn the principle of non- violence into cowardice.
⁸

Hindu involvement in the riots was considered an act of defending the religion. In 1927, when a worried reader of
Kalyan
sought the advice of Jaydayal Goyandka since a warrant had been issued against him for involvement in a riot, Goyandka told him to be prepared for punishment if he was guilty, and not to behave like a coward, as he had acted in defence of the Hindu religion: ‘In case you are facing the problem for doing public service then go to jail like a brave man and prove your innocence through evidence . . . Why worry about arrest? It should be a matter of joy if you are hanged for a public service like this.’
⁹

In its early years,
Kalyan
slowly but surely bared its ideological wares to readers. It not only talked of how the decline in religious faith had adversely affected sanatan Hindu dharma, but also presented a new model of faith and devotion that promised instant results. It was a bania model of profit from bhakti. Steeped in the Vaishnava bhakti traditions, initiatives like bhagwan naam jap called on readers to recite God’s name to accumulate punya (moral or spiritual merit) that could translate into the benefits of good health, wealth and mental peace. A similar emphasis was placed on charity—including donations to or help in expanding the subscriber base of
Kalyan
—especially from Marwari businessmen.

The innovative model of promising instant shakti (strength in all respects) in exchange for bhakti was strongly promoted by Gita Press through a series of illustrative stories from the lives of prominent individuals like Gandhi and Malaviya as well as of ordinary readers. If the repetition of Narayan had brought constant success to Malaviya,
¹⁰
Rama naam was the ultimate talisman that had shown Gandhi the way.
¹¹
One reader wrote about his acquaintance, a devout man who had the surreal experience of receiving an unexpected money order on the eve of his daughter’s wedding.
¹²
In fact, the chronicling of such instances of worldly benefits born out of bhakti has been a constant feature of
Kalyan
throughout its existence.

For Poddar, bhakti through the recitation of God’s name was the ultimate recipe to deal with the trials of life and ensure continued divine beneficence. When a woman who had been raped at a family wedding sought his advice, Poddar lamented the decline in morality among men and told her not to reveal the fact to her husband. For herself, she should recite the name of Rama at the rate of a hundred malas (108 rosary beads make one mala) daily for a year.
¹³

Kalyan
also became the most influential advocate of varna system (fourfold caste system) as the divine order on which the society, politics and economy of the country ought to be based. In this regard, Gita Press was significantly different from fellow-travellers like the Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha who advocated bringing untouchables within the Hindu fold. While issues of
Kalyan
lent space to both Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj leaders and avoided any direct confrontation on ideological issues despite clear differences, Gita Press was unwilling to dilute its position on the birth-ordained caste system.

This inherent contradiction shadowed Gita Press’s endeavour to put up a united Hindu face and become its sole spokesperson. The only concession it made was to include Hindus of all castes, including untouchables, in its call to recite the name of God at a time of their convenience and location of their choice.

In December 1939, Gorakhpur was sharply divided after a spate of incidents of communal violence that directly involved Gita Press and even threatened its existence. Poddar, who was unwell then, was at his native place Ratangarh. Muhammad Ali Jinnah had declared 22 December 1939 Deliverance Day for Indian Muslims, as Congress leaders had resigned from government offices in protest against the British decision that India would enter World War II, a commitment made without consulting them.

The annual Gita Jayanti procession taken out in Gorakhpur on the same day was attacked, resulting in widespread violence across the city. The riot occurred as the procession was passing a mosque in Sahibganj, and lathis and brickbats were used. The incident was serious enough for
The Times of India
to carry an Associated Press report. The Gorakhpur district collector clarified that the violence had ‘nothing to do with the Deliverance Day celebrations’ as ‘the only meeting held in this connection had already dispersed from the Juma Mosque’
.
¹⁴

Going by Poddar’s letters to his associates in Gorakhpur, many Gita Press employees were injured and detained by the police for attacks on Muslims and mosques. What made it tough for Gita Press was the Muslim rejection of peace through negotiation. The community wanted action taken against Gita Press.

As tension prevailed and the investigation began, Poddar was informed of developments. His reaction was typical—that the incident was the will of God and whatever followed would also be divinely ordained. He wrote to Chimmanlal Gosvami: ‘Our heart knows that we did not have any bad intention to attack Muslims or mosques. And no one attacked them. Even then if they (Muslims) are making a fictional case against us, we should see it as the will of God. God does everything. It is God’s will that led to the attack on the Gita Jayanti procession and God will also decide what happens in the future. We did not attack them but if the collector considers us to be guilty, it is the will of God. We are innocent before God.’
¹⁵
At the same time, the possibility of police action against Gita Press employees made Poddar see the need for legal recourse. He told Gosvami to engage a good lawyer and ensure that all the arrested employees of Gita Press were released on bail and their families taken care of. Recognizing that the matter might not end so quickly, Poddar continued, ‘At the most the Press would have to be moved out and we would suffer. If this is what is in our fate it cannot be changed. There is no need to organize false witnesses but we should argue our case well.’ He also advised Gosvami to take the help of leaders like Purushottam Das Tandon and others so that ‘sympathy stays with Hindus and no one is against us’
.
He also suggested the names of a few prominent Muslims of Gorakhpur, like Zahid Ali and Murtaza Hussain, who could be approached to help reach some settlement.

However, no compromise was reached; the situation in the town remained tense and the police was on the alert, though the collector sent a telegram in response to Poddar’s inquiry stating ‘all quiet no cause for anxiety’
.
¹⁶
Poddar was unwilling to return to Gorakhpur as he had not yet fully recovered from his ailment; also he did not wish to disturb his spiritual programme in Ratangarh. Citing the collector’s response as reassurance, Poddar told Gosvami to take the help of Baba Raghav Das and ensure that the staff stayed together at one place for security.

Three days later, Poddar received a frantic telegram requesting him to come to Gorakhpur, as four employees of Gita Press had been arrested. Though Poddar did not go to Gorakhpur immediately, he wrote: ‘I do not want press people to think I was not with them at the time of distress.’
¹⁷
With Jaidayal Dalmia’s help, he hired a lawyer called Shyam Lal to defend the arrested employees. Realizing that the battle should now be fought at both political and communal levels, Poddar raised the question of why the Muslims who reportedly initiated the violence had not been arrested, and also criticized the Hindus of Gorakhpur for their inaction. He said that since Muslims had attacked the procession they should be punished so that such an act was not repeated in future. He floated the idea of approaching Veer Savarkar, the Gita Dharma Mandal and Gita Society to launch a nationwide campaign criticizing the attack on the Gita Jayanti procession. As Poddar did not want to let down the Gorakhpur collector with whom he had cordial relations, he left the decision on approaching pro-Hindu organizations and individuals to Gosvami.

By the end of 1939, a panel of lawyers was in place to defend the press employees and, in early January 1940, Baba Raghav Das arrived in Gorakhpur at the request of Jugal Kishore Birla.
¹⁸
Poddar suggested to one Shukla, who was injured in the riots and whose first name is not known, that a third party—the Hindus of Gorakhpur or Hindu Mahasabha or an independent inquiry committee—prepare a report on the riots. He, however, provided the broad outline of the proposed report that should include Muslim complicity in attacking the procession, indulging in rioting, spreading rumours about the recovery of arms from Gita Press and the charging of its employees under Section 144 (joining unlawful assembly). The collector was to be praised in the report. Poddar demanded a copy of the report which he promised to forward to senior government official Pannalal, ICS, ‘so that he would know in advance what happened and it would be of help later’
.
¹⁹
But Poddar advised against sending any telegram to the viceroy, governor, Gandhi or Nehru since this would not be of much help. ‘The view of Gandhi and Nehru would be to surrender before the Muslims. Though we want peace we do not support surrender.’
²⁰
It was planned that many religious and social organizations would carry out nationwide protests against the attack on the procession, but that Gita Press’s role in organizing such a protest should remain a secret.
²¹
This entire effort came to naught, and as the Muslims refused any offer of peace, the matter finally went to court. However, the cases were withdrawn after a few months.

Interestingly, the December 1939 issue of
Kalyan
carried a piece by leading Hindi writer Ramnaresh Tripathi, where he recounted his personal encounter with a Muslim tongawala (horse carriage driver) of Bareilly in January that year.
²²
The UP town was rife with communal tension when Tripathi landed there in the middle of the night. The writer deliberately hired a tonga whose driver had a moustache: ‘During communal riots Muslim tonga drivers become merchants of death. So I hired someone who had a moustache thinking he would be a Hindu.’ Tripathi’s story then descends into the usual stereotypes about Muslim looks and character. He talks of the tonga driver having a whispered conversation before starting off. As his tonga proceeded in the darkness of night it passed two men, one of whom was an acquaintance of Tripathi from Allahabad. This friend stopped the tonga and Tripathi then discovered that the driver had been taking him to a Muslim- dominated area, where it would have been easier to kill him. The incident narrated in
Kalyan
was meant to show how God had saved the writer, but the underlying communal tenor in the unverifiable tale is unmissable. Similar stories that raised questions about the personal integrity of Muslims appeared in various issues of
Kalyan
.