Nirnayasagar Press: Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens)

It was with some disgust that I recently finished reading “Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India” by Times of India journalist Akshaya Mukul. Perhaps the only saving grace about the book, beginning right with its title, is that it makes no pretence of its agenda though it must also be admitted that the research is quite impressive.

But why this publishing entity, Gita Press, ensconced almost at end of Uttar Pradesh and therefore wholly ignored by the “mainstream” Indian English media should form the subject of an entire book by a journalist of the same media is a question that’s also its own answer. Because, despite sustained efforts, Gita Press not only did not go away, but grew from strength to strength over a period of nearly a century. Consider the following statistics during this period:

• By early 2014, the Gita Press had sold close to 410 million copies of the Bhagavad Gita (in various languages and editions), 70 million copies of Tulasidas’ Ramacharitmanas and nearly 20 million copies of…