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In early 1937 he served as the founding editor of the Kalyan He dreamed early in the morning that Gandhi would not live long. He shared his dream with Gandhi, who said: “Even if I live to be a hundred years old, it will seem too short to my friends. Then what does it matter today or tomorrow?” He considered the dream to be a “sign of love.”
About a decade later, that editor and publisher became the founder of the magazine Geeta Press, among the thousands arrested on suspicion of involvement in the plot to assassinate Gandhi. Ghanshyam Das Birla, an influential industrialist, refused to get them out of trouble. For Birla, the two were not spreading Dharma Sanatan but demon (evil) Dharma.
Between these opposite points lies the story of Gandhi and Gita Press. News Gandhi Peace Prize It will surprise both of them. Gandhi may appear confused, shocked that an award has been named after him; On the part of Gita Press, they may have been embarrassed too. In Gandhi’s life, the Gita press often deviated from its mottos of bhakti (devotion), jayan (knowledge), and vairagya (renunciation). Gandhi’s personality bore the brunt of their fight because he was the only one who proclaimed the Sanatan Dharma, yet he kept his doors and windows open to progressive ideas. The continued development of Gandhi was the fly in the ointment.
Their relationship started auspiciously with Bhakti. In 1926 when Geeta Press was launched KalyanIts editor, Hanuman Prasad Poddar, went to Gandhi with Jamalalal Bajaj. Gandhi had advice for the novice: Never take advertisements or carry book reviews. The ads made long, often false claims that, once they started popping up, it would be impossible to cut down on revenue. For book reviews, Gandhi said that authors expect them to be laudatory and an honest assessment might offend, so it’s best not to get them at all. As of now, Kalyan is not pregnant with either of them. In fact, Gita Press rejected the ₹1 crore monetary component of the Gandhi Award.
However, this respect did not mean that Gita Press was a fellow traveler with Gandhi. On gyan, for example. The press rejected Gandhi’s translation of the Gita – Anashakti Yoga. Gandhi will not accept the Gita as a historical text nor will Gita Press accept this. Sometimes Gandhi’s articles appear in Kalyan, a few Navjivan, Harijan and others commissioned by Jamnalal Bajaj, Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal have been extracted. In 1935, Gandhi wrote to Poddar from Warda, “What you do…is a great service to God. I feel myself a part of what you do because you consider me yours and I consider you mine.” However, three years earlier, in 1932, Poddar had stirred an outburst towards Gandhi from his pages.
“These days, there is a great rampage by Dalits in the country which is intensified by your fast. In various places, people eat with Dalits and are allowed to enter the temples. Even those who prefer to eat with Dalits agree (although I do not consider eating with Dalits) with them a sign of equality) that they cannot be considered pure until they have a pure bath, or put on new clothes, or give up alcohol and meat, or at least stop feeding on dead cattle. Only then does joint eating make sense. But your joint movement to eat and enter the temple does not She even checks if they meet these criteria.What happens is they just eat together, let them inside the temples, let them take part in the rituals.No one talks about uplifting the Dalits but just repeats their untouchable status.Is this lack of discipline Self or reform?
Poddar also showed the mirror to Gandhi, reminding him of his article in Navjeevan where he said that eating between meals would not remove untouchability. Gandhi stood before every word Poddar cited. “To understand what I am saying one needs to understand my behavior because I try to avoid saying anything that contradicts my behavior and doing anything that contradicts what I say. I acknowledge my weaknesses when my behavior conflicts with the opinions I express.” No amount of aggression from Poddar could make Gandhi rethink his new position that caste Hindus were untouchables treated in an irreligious and brutal manner for which they had to atone. It was not until Gandhi first met Poddar in 1915 as a young Mahasabhiite Hindu at the Alfred Theater in Calcutta.
Poddar, now writing to his friend, said Gandhi was a Western monk dressed in Indian clothes, who disagreed with his many ideas, some of which he found unacceptable. Gandhi became the biggest stumbling block to the traditional Hindu system, and a challenge to it. In 1946 when news came that Prabhakar, a Dalit, presided over the marriage as a priest and Gandhi blessed the couple, Poddar lost all remaining respect. Critics of Hinduism feel empowered to find Gandhi’s behavior supportive of their belief. The biggest problem is that Gandhi considers himself a Hindu Sanatani and despite his belief in marriage rituals, he engages and encourages such unorthodox acts,” he wrote in Kalyan. By the late 1940s, Gandhi had become very unpopular with the Gita Press.
In 1949, the head of the RSS MS Golwalkar was touring the United Provinces after his release from prison for his alleged role in the murder of Gandhi. Now free, Poddar presided over a ceremony to welcome Golwalkar to the Town Hall in Banaras. Outside the venue, distraught Socialists and Communists protested under the slogan “Go to Golwalkar(Golwalkar Refer) andBabu Ka Hatiara Sangh(The Babu RSS Killers). The Post-Gandhi Assassination, Available Here. Kalyan He was silent on it for several months, but he resumed carrying his old articles. He was a Gandhi in name only and as ironic as the peace award Geeta Press received in his name.
The writer is the author of “Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India”
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