Photo: Twitter/@GitaPress
Gita Press, the Gorakhpur-based largest publisher of Hindu religious texts, is virtually burning the midnight oil. The 100-year-old company is flooded with demand for Ramcharitmanas, the revered epic dedicated to Lord Ram, written by medieval poet Goswami Tulsidas, after the inauguration of Ram Mandir.
After construction of the Ram temple began in August 2020, demand for the sacred tome began to rise. Things skyrocketed when the date of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ (initiation) was announced. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.
Gita Press prints 1,800 books across genres in 15 Indian languages, apart from English. Nearly 22.5 million religious and spiritual books are printed every year.
“Currently, we print around one million copies of Ramcharitmanas per month, but still we are unable to meet the rising market demand for the text,” Gita Press manager Lalmani Tewari said. Business standard.
“There is a renewed interest among people, especially among young people, in religious and ancient texts. Our uploaded content has generated over 1.7 million searches, approximately 225,000 reads and 68,000 downloads. Still, Gita Press faces an uphill task to meet the demand of booksellers,” he added.
Interestingly, the publishing house has uploaded nearly 500 books, including Ramcharitmanas, on its website for download and free reading, but still it is struggling to meet the high demand.
The increasing demand translates into good income. Gita Press, which saw a workers’ strike in 2015, expects a turnover of Rs 130 crore this financial year, up 25 per cent from last year’s turnover of Rs 108 crore.
“Since 2015, we have installed new printing machines costing Rs 30 crore at our factory in Gorakhpur,” Tewari said, strongly refuting reports that the publisher had once faced financial problems and was on the verge of closure in 2015 after the strike.
“There was some confusion among a section of employees that their premiums were below the mandatory norms of the labor department. The issue was resolved amicably to the satisfaction of the workers,” the official added.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, then MP from Gorakhpur, had reportedly intervened to resolve the labor issue.
Gita Press has urged the state government to allot 50 acres of land in Gorakhpur for its expansion and seeks to continue its operations for another 100 years. To meet the growing demand, it is installing new machines costing Rs 9 crore. While two machines have already arrived, another one will arrive from Japan for installation in Gorakhpur.
“We have commissioned new construction in our factory for the installation of the new machines. The existing infrastructure is considered adequate to meet the current level of the demand and supply matrix,” the official said.
Gita Press has published a total of nearly 950 million books and aims to print two billion books by 2047. Last month, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the premises of Gita Press and appreciated the handmade paintings of Hindu deities on display there.
Gita Press offers sellers a 24 percent discount when they buy books in bulk for retail. The company, which has nearly 600 employees, has offices in several states to serve approximately 2,500 local merchants. It is a unit of Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (currently governed by the West Bengal Societies Act, 1960).
Beginning with publications in Hindi and Sanskrit in 1923, Gita Press now publishes books in English and Indian vernacular languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Telugu, Oriya, Bangla, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi, among others.
First print: March 01, 2024 | 8:44 PM IST