My late father's bookshelves still have a lot of books from the Gita Press, Gorakhpur. From the Gita to Viveka Choodamani to Tripura Rahasyam, there have been very few works of our forefathers, that have been untouched by the Gita Press (GP, for short).
I personally try to use some of them, and find that the quality of their proof-reading is the best, especially on Sanskrit Manuscripts, though the quality of the paper they use can be better. The books are dirt-cheap, which probably explains the quality of the paper used. And also alludes to the greater objective of the press - to reach out to the masses, down to the last poor farmer, to make their books affordable.
And succeed, they did. Printing over 50 crore books over almost a century, selling upto 50,000 books a day - a feat which possibly no other publisher across the world may have achieved. With the help of 100 employees and about 300 contractors, backed by a nation-wide bookseller network, they were going along, until labour troubles overpowered the mighty organization. It is most likely that better working conditions and better pay may have been at the centre of the disputes. It is quite possible that of late, GP may have struggled to keep afloat.
Granted that in these changing times, GP does not have a web presence, and desperately needs a revenue model that would sustain the organization's great work, while taking care of the sticky points of the workers and the dealers. It certainly needs a judicious mix of web presence to cater to the growing mobile user population and simultaneously keeping the print job chugging along, to cater to the vast rural population who still buy their books in droves.
Given that GP is not exactly desperate for quarter-on-quarter Earnings-Per-Share growth, all they need is a judicious mix of Net presence and the Print media, and a revenue model that will sustain both. Difficult, but certainly not impossible. It is , therefore, obvious that sponsors will be required to keep this enterprise going, to supplement the modest revenues expected.
Which turns us to my most sticky point - where are the guardians of our culture and traditions? Why are they not stepping in to rescue what is considered as a marquee institution that does yoeman's service of keeping our culture, and tradition alive?
I do not expect the Govt ( central or state) to step in. The government may be inclined to support institutions of other faiths in the name of secularism, but will be viewed as more rightwing than ever before, if they dare to come forward. It is convenient for them to ignore this strife, since no one is going to agitate or do collective bargaining. For Arnob Goswami, this news does not even qualify as something that even merits a 30 second mention. As for the sickular Opposition, the less said, the better.
The Rastriya Sanskrit Sansthan? Well, they may not even be able to pay salaries of their own employees. Forget them.
But, I am deeply shocked and disappointed that the various ashrams, the "brand names" behind those ashrams are letting this icon die an orphan. With due respects to all of them, I find their apathy utterly abominable. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has the wherewithal to have a cosy Ashram built outside Mysore, but no money keep GP alive. Ditto to Asaram Bapu, Satguru et al. The Sai Baba Trusts in Shirdi and Puttaparti rake in 100s of crores every year, but have no space for GP. The Shankara Mutts, all five of them, wax eloquent about the importance of Sanskrit and the need to keep the scriptures alive and thriving, have 1000s of crores each of corpus funds donated over the centuries, but no heart to spend on GP. Many more such ashrams, mutts and religious institutions, are too busy exploiting their Brand Equity, while ignoring such icons as the GP.
And what about the super rich temples of India? Tirupathi, Vaishno Devi, Sabarimalai, Guruvayoor etc... whose donations cross upwards of a thousand crores every year..... don't they have the heart to give a helping hand to our culture and tradition by keeping GP alive? After all, how much is it going to cost to maintain a certain percentage of 100+300 people ( assuming lesser number will be required, in view of a complementary Net presence)??
As they say, where there is a will, there is a way. Sadly, "Pay lip service to preserving our culture and tradition, and continue your commercial exploitation of our culture and tradition", seems to be the motto. Shame!
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