Gandhi Peace Prize A Matter Of Great Honor, Says Gita Press; Refusal to accept cash prize

GORAKHPUR: Geeta Press on Monday said it is a great honor to be conferred with the Gandhi Peace Prize, but the publisher will not accept the cash portion of the award in keeping with its tradition of not accepting any kind of donation. After the announcement of the award, a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Press was held here late on Sunday night and it was decided not to accept the cash amount of Rs one crore.

The publisher thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Ministry of Culture for bestowing this prestigious award. “It is a great honor for us. It is our principle not to accept donations of any kind, hence the Board of Trustees has decided not to accept the award in any monetary form. However, we will certainly accept the award for the honor do.” About it,” Gita Press manager Lalmani Tripathi told reporters on Monday.

Tripathi said that the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Keshav Ram Agarwal, General Secretary Vishnu Prasad Chandgotia and Trustee Devi Dayal look after the management of the Press. On receiving the news of the 2021 award, there was a wave of happiness in Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where the press is located.

Gita Press is the world’s largest publisher of Hindu religious texts and was founded in 1923 by Jaya Dayal Goenka and Ghanshyam Das Jalan to promote the principles of Sanatana Dharma. The press has so far published more than 93 crore books and all the publication work of the press is done in Gorakhpur. Tripathi said that they publish 1,800 types of books in 15 languages.

“In the financial year 2022-23 we have provided 2 crore 40 lakh books to our readers and the monetary value of the books in spite of its low price is Rs 111 crore. The demand for books is very high and despite all the efforts we are not able to meet the demand of books. Haven’t been able to,” Tripathi said.

The Culture Ministry on Sunday announced that the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 will be awarded to Geeta Press, Gorakhpur for its “outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political change through non-violent and other Gandhian methods”.

The jury, headed by the Prime Minister, unanimously decided to select Gita Press as the recipient of the award, the ministry said in a statement. “The Gandhi Peace Prize 2021 recognizes the significant and unique contribution of Gita Press towards contributing to the collective upliftment of humanity, which epitomizes Gandhian life in true sense,” the statement said.

Prime Minister Modi has congratulated Geeta Press for winning the award and appreciated their contribution in this field. The Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award instituted by the government in 1995 as a tribute to the ideals propounded by Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary.

The award is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or gender. The award carries an amount of Rs one crore, a citation, a plaque and an exquisite traditional handicraft/handloom item, the ministry said. Recent awardees include Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, Oman (2019), and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (2020), Bangladesh.