 "Ram temple effect: Gita Press overwhelmed with 'Ramcharitmanas' demand")
Gita Press, the Gorakhpur-based largest publisher of Hindu religious texts, is virtually burning the midnight oil. The 100-year-old company is deluged with demand for Ramcharitmanas, the venerated epic dedicated to Lord Ram authored by medieval poet Goswami Tulsidas, following the Ram Mandir inauguration.
After the construction of the Ram temple started in August 2020, the demand for the holy tome began to rise. It skyrocketed when the date of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ (consecration) was announced. The consecration ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.
Gita Press prints 1,800 books in several genres in 15 Indian languages apart from English. Annually, it prints nearly 22.5 million religious and spiritual books.
“Currently, we print roughly a lakh copies of Ramcharitmanas a month, yet we are unable to meet the rising market demand for the text,” Gita Press manager Lalmani Tewari told Business Standard.
“There is a renewed interest among the people, especially youth, for religious and ancient texts. Our uploaded content has clocked more than 1.7 million searches, about 225,000 reads and 68,000 downloads. Yet, Gita Press is facing an uphill task to meet the demand from booksellers,” he added.
Interestingly, the publishing house has uploaded nearly 500 books, including Ramcharitmanas, on its website for download and free reading, yet it is hard-pressed to cope with the high demand.
The uptick in demand is translating into good revenues. Gita Press, which saw a workers’ strike in 2015, is looking at revenues of Rs 130 crore this financial year, a 25 per cent increase over last year’s top line of Rs 108 crore.
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“Since 2015, we have installed new printing machines costing Rs 30 crore at our Gorakhpur plant,” Tewari said, strongly refuting reports that the publisher ever faced any financial troubles and was close to shutting down in 2015 following the strike.
“There was some confusion among a section of workers that their dearness allowances were below the mandated labour department norms. The issue was amicably resolved to the satisfaction of the workers,” the official added.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was then the Gorakhpur Member of Parliament (MP), had reportedly intervened to resolve the labour issue.
Gita Press has urged the state government for the allotment of 20 acres of land in Gorakhpur for its expansion and is seeking to carry forward 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 is due to arrive from Japan for installation in Gorakhpur.
“We have commissioned some fresh construction at our plant for the installation of the new machines. The existing infrastructure is deemed adequate to meet the current level of demand and supply matrix,” the official said.
Gita Press has cumulatively published nearly 950 million books and is targetting to print 2 billion books by 2047. Last month, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Gita Press’ precincts and appreciated the handmade paintings of Hindu gods on display there.
Gita Press offers a 24 per cent discount to vendors when they buy books in bulk for retail sales. The company, which has a headcount of nearly 600, operates branch offices in different states to serve about 2,500 local vendors. It is a unit of Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (presently governed by the West Bengal Societies Act, 1960).
Starting 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.