Why read Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India?

Book cover of Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India

Book description

'A rare treasure trove.' - Arundhati Roy

'[An] important and timely contribution to the study of religious-cultural populism.' - Pankaj Mishra

'A powerful and original work of historical scholarship.' - Ramachandra Guha'

'Mukul rolls out a remarkably detailed map of print Hinduism.' - Shahid Amin

In the early 1920s, Jaydayal…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Charu Gupta

Author

This book enriched my understanding of how Hindu nationalism framed India’s imagination, not just through politics but also through publishing. Mukul’s minute excavation of Gita Press’s empire enthralled me—how two Marwari businessmen set up a publication house to strengthen militant Hindu nationalism.

What particularly stunned me was the reach of this vernacular press and its publications and how many nationalists legitimized its project—their bylines sandwiched between caste orthodoxy and cow protection pamphlets.

The book powerfully showed to me how a ‘spiritual’ enterprise quietly standardized the grammar of Hindutva, making devotion quantifiable, nationalism religious, and majoritarianism sacred.

From Charu's list on The best books on the construction of Hindu nationalism and print-public discourse in colonial India.