Article

Educating the Contemporary Education Dialogue

14(2) 141–165
Hindu Child Citizen: © 2017 Education Dialogue Trust
SAGE Publications
Pedagogy of the sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0973184917716991
Gita Press http://ced.sagepub.com

Ritu Sinha1

Abstract
A large amount of literature in this regard was produced by new insti-
tutional spaces like religious printing presses, caste associations and
religious organizations that mushroomed significantly by early decades
of twentieth century. The proliferation of Hindu religious printing and
publishing in Hindi by presses like Gita Press of north India dissemi-
nated literature that targeted revival of religion in the region. Such
institutional spaces were educational in nature mostly to inculcate the
sense of belonging to golden past to construct nationalist identities
based on religious ones. Consequently they championed the cause of
education ‘to develop self reflexivity about their own tradition’ and
revival of the cultural past. The discourses generated by them brought
modern concepts like childhood, citizenship and nation-state in the
realm of religion. These religious publishing as new constituents of
revivalist Hindu religion developed nationalist religious pedagogy to
craft disciplined Hindu citizens with overwhelming devotion for the
country and its dominant religion.

Keywords
Education, pedagogy, Hindu nationalism, childhood, discipline, religion
and nation

1
Assistant Professor of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi, India.

Corresponding author:
Ritu Sinha, 133 Pocket B, DDA Flats Sukhdev Vihar, New Delhi-25, India.
E-mail: ritusinha2000@gmail.com
142 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

Introduction: Educating the Hindu Child citizen:

Pedagogy of the Gita Press1
The ‘cultural invasion’ of colonialism through education created rip-
ples of widespread religious and cultural revivalism both in the domain
of formal structures of education as well as informal socialisation.2 In
North India, education in this period received its major thrust from
religion, with definite nationalist revivalist overtones of varying kinds
emerging in different religions.3 The Hindu religious revivalist move-
ment in North India utilised education to reinstate the upper caste tra-
ditional hierarchies and provided religious grounding to India’s
freedom struggle. The rise of institutional spaces in the form of pub-
lishing houses, schools, ‘pathshalas’, caste associations and organisa-
tions championed the cause of education ‘to develop self-reflexivity
about their own tradition’, for the revival of a cultural past.4 A number
of religious organisations played a crucial role in popularising such
nationalist and religious sentiments along these lines and created new
symbols and myths for unifying Hindus in North India. Education was
central to this religious and political re-imagination.5 These organisa-
tions were mostly voluntary, spoke through pedagogues and acted as
important agencies of socialisation for the citizens of the nation in the
making.6 They also became sites for cultural production of religious
and nationalist prescriptions and codes. They played a significant role
in increasing literacy and in formulating a counter to colonial educa-
tion. The need to decolonisation education underwrote the aspirations
of many such organisations. The interplay of nation and self that intro-
duced prescriptions, codifications and idioms ‘wherein the potentially
disparate nationalist ensembles of practices (“what is to be done”) and
of knowledge (“what is to be known”) began to converge around the
nationalist’s body-at-work’, and around the quest for the origin of the
nation for asserting sameness and difference (Wakankar, 1995).
Education became a crucial domain for such assertions where caste,
religion and language emerged as defining categories for new idioms
and prescriptions. By the early decades of the twentieth century there-
fore, new forms of pedagogy were being developed and used for dis-
seminating what was conceived as the richness of ‘Indian heritage’ to
expand complex ‘indigenous knowledge system’.
The article explores one such revivalist organisation, the Gita Press,
a leading North Indian Hindu religious publishing house as an impor-
tant socialising agency which had the express intention of becoming a
Sinha 143

pedagogue for the emerging nation. Gita Press treated nation as a class of
Hindu pupils and utilised well-defined pedagogical strategies to estab-
lish itself as a nationalist religious pedagogue. The article attempts to
locate the religious press as a significant part of the competing groups
struggling to establish Hindu supremacy that successfully contributed to
an epistemology of the desired nation. The article recognises religious
publications as a crucial site of knowledge production which is meant to
socialise and educate the masses in the desired hegemonic ideology of
Hindu nation and culture. They also ‘educated’ teachers about their duty
to the nation. Through its publications, the Gita Press provided access to
cultural capital in its ‘objectified state’ by creating a pool of materials
which included pictures, densely illustrated publications for children and
adults, calendars, posters, etc. (Bourdieu, 1986). The article thus high-
lights the role of religious press like Gita Press as ideal pedagogues in
colonial times and in independent India, in shaping the ideal Hindu citi-
zens of Bharatvarsha, by its prime focus on inventing the ideal Hindu
child as future citizens of the nation.
The linearity of linkages with the present times cannot be missed.
Socio-religious movements contributed in delineating religious com-
munity identity. The educational motives of revivalist Hindu religious
organisations of the early twentieth century clearly feeds into the Hindu
right wing assertions of independent India. The attempt to Hinduise the
content of National Council for Education Research and Training
(NCERT) text books, invoking Vedic religion, or attempt to make
Sanskrit as compulsory language reflects the consistent struggle of the
Hindu right wing to evolve formal and informal pedagogical tech-
niques for consolidation of militant nationalist politics in contempo-
rary times. At the same time, it also reflects the ongoing struggle with
the Indian state to represent the Hindu citizens as the legitimate chil-
dren of the state to establish an upper caste Hindu moral world as dis-
tinct from the Muslims. In contemporary times, the new vocabulary of
community, identity and nationalism manifest themselves in educa-
tional literature and reinstate the earlier debates in newer ways.
Research in social sciences have explored this phenomenon through
various perspectives. This article extends the research by identifying
institutional spaces like religious publishing house as crucial agents of
informal education and throws light on the relationship between past
and present political social formations, education and religious-cul-
tural identities and attempts to explore the pedagogical politics of such
agencies of socialisation.
144 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

Gita Press: A Religio-nationalist Institutional Space

Gita Press arose as a cultural and religious movement in North India in
the communal setting of 1920s. This institutional space created by a
group of Marwaris7 in 1923 was meant purely for philanthropic, reli-
gious and revivalist needs. Founded by Jayadayal Godyanka to spread
legible Hindi versions of Bhagavadgita and later joined by his ardent
follower Hanuman Prasad Poddar who started the flagship journal
Kalyan, Gita Press soon acquired the legitimacy of being the most
authentic institution for Hindu religious publications. Godyandka raised
the apprehension of Hindu community in danger and sought to unite his
community (the Marwaris) in particular, and Hindus in general. He set
out to spread the message of unity and revival of Hindu religion and
culture through modern technology of printing. Unlike other presses,
the Gita Press promulgated discourses pertinent to revival of Hindu reli-
gion and Hindu social order by inviting views from political leaders,
saints, educationists, spiritual leaders and from other important seg-
ments of society and published them alongside their own views.
Godyandka’s prime concern of moral decay and impiety was also asso-
ciated with the decline of religious instruction in government schools
and gradually in the public sphere with the spread of western education
and lifestyle.8 This served as the reason for Godyandka and Poddar’s
discomfort with colonial modernity. It was their moral responsibility to
revive Hindu religious traditions, and education was to play a major
role in this revival.9 The popularisation of sacred scriptures served the
purpose of a national religious training. It also became crucial in estab-
lishing the educational history of India and its knowledge system
(Chatterjee, 1989b). Nonetheless, in the garb of spreading the teachings
of Bhagavadgita, Gita Press operated with clear political vision of
‘Hindu rashtra’—a religion-dominated nation encompassing Hindu
Sanatan ways of living.
Beginning from 1927, the religious journal Kalyan created a glorified
mythic Vedic past based on mythologies, puranas and dharmashastras
and made its audience traverse this historical path through different
mythologies and heroic characters. It glorified Hindus as the real inhabit-
ants of the nation who were victims of various invasions. This glorious
Hindu tradition, reproduced in its pages, through tales, narratives of the
ancient past, sacrifices during the Mughal period and freedom move-
ment, socialised the middle-class Hindus into the Press’ own religious
weltanschauung. This not-for-profit Marwari initiative, located in
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, attempted to establish an alternative to colonial
Sinha 145

modernity. Muslims were reduced to be being invaders, perpetrators of

violence and a threat to Hindu community and honour. Since the com-
munity’s honour is often marked through control on women, the Gita
Press spent considerable resource to paint Muslim men as a perpetual
threat to the honour of Hindu women. This political, religious and cul-
tural socialisation gradually carried out by the writings of both Hanuman
Prasad Poddar and Jayadayal Godyanka articulated the political neces-
sity of uniting Hindus along the emotional imaginary constructs of
Bharatmata and Gaumata.
The Press aimed to reform Hindus into disciplined citizens conscious
of their rights and identity. The growing anxiety about the politics of
‘Hindu rashtra’ in the first quarter of the twentieth century10 and later
after independence in 1980s led to the idea of ‘suitable’ citizen for the
imagined nation. Their idea of decolonising education relied on invoking
the mythical Hindu male image, an ideology similar to the militant Hindu
organisations involved in the large-scale ‘Shuddhi and Sangathan move-
ments’ of United Provinces in the early 1920s (Gupta, 1998).
Ideologically, it was close to movements which asserted the rights of
Hindus by posing Muslims as a bigger threat to nation formation.
However, after independence it propagated conditional tolerance for the
Muslims, which was contingent on their acceptance of ‘varna-ashram’
system and Hindu rules and regulations. This religious institution there-
fore formed the foundation for the extremist Hindu consciousness and
set the course for Hindu nationalist politics.

The Pedagogues of the Gita Press

The necessity for the post-enlightenment rationality reconfigured Hindu
religion challenging the notions of tradition and modernity. It was inter-
twined with the search for self-identity and therefore revolved around
developing indigenous knowledge system and language. In this process,
Hindu ascetics as educators or pedagogues emerged as exponents of
Hinduism. The world negating sainthood was replaced by worldly saints
willing to adopt suitable ways and remedial prescriptions for the general
masses (Wakankar, 1995). It can be argued that cultural invasion was
strongly resisted by the rise of ascetic nationalists who evolved as new
educators for the masses (Chakraborty, 2011). The mode and methods of
pedagogical interactions became decisive in this exercise. Following
Aurobindo, Vivekananda and many others, Godyandka and Poddar in
146 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

their mission to enlighten the masses about Hindu religion and culture
evolved as religious instructors to train Indians/Hindus in practices of
Hindu dharma in everyday life.11 Godyandka established Gita Press to
churn out required material for the project since he realised the wide
reach and influence of pedagogical interactions mediated through printed
material and aimed at creating a world of ‘authentic knowledge’ about
Hindu Dharma. Poddar assisted him and carried forward his vision with
much rigour and style through the journal Kalyan. Both Godyandka and
Poddar, as ‘religious pedagogues’, started voluntary religious organisa-
tion to popularise their idea of religion and established a relationship
with the masses to serve the nation.12 They acted as agents of change
with well-articulated messages conveyed through dissemination of con-
sciously designed content in the emerging public sphere.
The impact of colonial system of education on the traditional stu-
dent–teacher relationship was strongly resisted by Gita Press. Therefore,
a significant emphasis was made on student–teacher relationship by
outlining the ideals of both the teacher and the taught. They strived to
revive the traditional role of the guru which was deemed lost in the
colonial educational structure. The ideal teacher or ‘guru’ was a charis-
matic individual providing new meanings to the existing knowledge
system. They reinstated the moral power and authority of a teacher over
the student by reifying the position of teachers on the lines of traditional
Hindu ‘Guru’, possessing priestly qualities and unquestioned auton-
omy. While idealising Godyanka and Poddar as Gurus with complete
autonomy, the Press personified itself as a gurukul exercising authority
over sources of religious knowledge and demanded reverence from
pupils/readers by being prescriptive and commanding in its tone and
contents. In its celebrated special issue on education, the ‘Shikshank’,
the pedagogues of the Press brought together the ideals of ‘guru-shishya
parampara’. One of the contributors in Shiksha Ank argues that ‘shik-
sha-tantra guru pradhan hona chahiye’ (the education system should be
teacher oriented). This became the rallying point in the publications of
the Press. It signified the assertion of traditional Hindu culture that pro-
vided legitimate power to teachers and freedom to pupils to submit their
lives at the feet of the Guru, who was the moral navigator of non-literate
minds. This argument challenged the colonial education system that
empowered administration and disempowered instructors by ruling out
the possibility of exercising their choice and freedom to decide the con-
tent of teaching (Kumar, 2005).
Through a carefully selected pool of articles, the Press publicised the
ideals based on the principles of ancient Hindu beliefs where a guru
Sinha 147

shows the path of moksha and is equivalent to the lord Almighty himself.
Several articles in Shikshank conveyed to its audience that the teacher
was the repository of the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh;
that only the guru is the ultimate Brahman and the repository of all rele-
vant knowledge to whom a student offers his worship. A true teacher
clears the misconceptions and helps students to realise the true meaning
of the Shastras and sheds light on binaries of right and wrongs, sin and
piety and dutiful and non-dutiful. Therefore, the welfare of a person
depends on the choice of his guru, since the teacher treads the path of
morality himself to inspire his disciples and enlightens them with knowl-
edge to save them from the darkness of ignorance.
This faith assigned great responsibilities on the pedagogues in terms
of disseminating knowledge on the basis of the ability of the students,
fulfilling the needs of religion and caring for the welfare of the mother-
land. Both Poddar and Godyandka’s acumen of tapping the Hindu con-
sciousness proved useful in purging alien masters and alien knowledge.
The moral authority was attained by practicing the life of a spiritual
worldly saint (by renouncing material life) and with the possession of
esoteric knowledge of Hindu tradition and culture. Godyandka as well
as Poddar followed the lifestyle of a pedagogue that constituted of strict
discipline, simple living being a renouncer. The image of a noble, help-
ful personality, well versed in Gita, Upanishads, Vedanta and other reli-
gious and spiritual matters connected the readers and followers with the
authentic gurus. It was believed that only by leading the saintly sacro-
sanct exemplary life, the absolute power over the masses or the pupils
could be exercised. Sacredness conveyed a sense of sacrifice for the
nation and community, thus providing a status of martyr to the religious
pedagogue. ‘True’ learning became the function of a strictly disciplined
body and mind. The authority of the teacher resided in his ability to
usher his pupils on the path of religion, morality, patriotism and truth-
fulness towards the family, community and nation. The Press rejected
any change in caste-based occupational structure, giving no scope to
others than to twice-borns to be an instructor or guru and strictly exag-
gerated the relevance of varnashramdharma as the basis of education.
These indigenous instructors trained in Hindu religion and cultures
stood in sharp contrast to their English counterparts and were subjected
to strict moral training. The instructors training had great value since he
remained the main source of reproducing the desired structures to
enforce suitable identity and culture. It was fused with the traditional
cultural attributes of Indian/Hindu culture where teacher like parents
had primacy and remained outside the realm of enquiry (Kakkar, 1981).
148 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

The teacher–student relationship outlined above was hierarchical and

highly unequal idealising Vedic notions of ashram. As Sarangapani
(2003, p. 112) points out, ‘his authority springs from being close to God
and salvation’ and he is religious spiritual guru and students as his dis-
ciples in the ashram. The desire for bhakti (devotion) or complete sur-
render towards guru surfaces in the pages of Kalyan but it remains
distinct from the tradition of Bhakti (devotion) gurus and maintains
continuity with the traditional institution of Vedic guru-shishya param-
para. The Press’ model teacher had the power to shape the young gen-
eration to fulfil the role of an ideal citizen. Kalyan under Poddar
acquired such a role to educate India future generations.

The Meanings of Education and Counter

Knowledge Production
Education as a site of ideological conflicts where various groups with
their own political, economic and educational inclination struggle to
define what is legitimate has long been recognised (Apple, 1993). The
Press, through its journal Kalyan, also sought to educate the nation, by
publishing from time special issues: ‘Baal Ank’ (special issue on chil-
dren) and ‘Shikshank’ (special issue on education) to present a discourse
on childhood, pedagogy and model of education, necessary in the inde-
pendent nation for progress and development of desired Hindu nation.13
Central to this pedagogy was much needed moral structure and ideal
character of future citizens of independent India. The Press’ pedagogical
model relied extensively on the ancient method of teaching based on
varna system and14 resorted to the traditional Brahminical order seeing
religion as basis of social change.15 Education was to serve the ideologi-
cal purpose of shaping of religious identities and legitimising existing
hierarchies. The linkages between education, culture and politics explic-
itly appeared in the publications of the Press where religion became the
tool for political, religious and cultural re-imagining.
In July 1936, Poddar outlined a critique of the colonial education and
expounded the meaning of education in Vartaman Shiksha, one year
before Gandhi presented his concept of Buniyadi Talim. Unlike Gandhi’s
new education for holistic development based on bold experiments or
Tagore’s visualisation of education for the progress of society (ability to
question religious norms and religious compulsions) and strengthening
of the nation by universal norms and not bound by traditional indigenous
Sinha 149

knowledge, Poddar relied heavily on scriptural religious training as the

essential component of education. It was universalisation and the
supremacy of Hindu religion as unified monolithic Hinduism that was
expected of education. Like Gandhi, Poddar believed that Macaulay’s
education enslaved Indians and deprived them from basic character-
building process. But if Gandhi’s basic education was based on self-suf-
ficient village systems for self-reliance and progressive indigenous
rationality to counter puritan Christian rationality, Poddar’s ideas on
education crystallised for the conservation of Aryan culture focusing not
on inclusive expansion of education but of selective few who had the
right for education from ancient time. He argued that ‘according to Aryan
culture, the purpose of education is all round development (physical,
mental, wealth-wise and moral) and attainment of salvation’ (Poddar,
1957, p. 5). Alleging that colonial education produced ‘babus’ of Indian
origin for British administration, Poddar, like Gandhi, focused on early
socialisation as the critical period for character building. For this, he
developed a religion-based education model that focused on early devel-
opment of the ideal Hindu citizens. Gandhi was visualising education to
renew its culture for self-sufficient, self-governing village communities,
whereas Poddar emphasised on Sanatan Hindu Dharma to be the guiding
principle of education. The revivalist politics of eighties where elemen-
tary education was seen as tool for mass political training by right wing
forces provided renewed relevance for Poddar’s vision of education
based on Hindu communality, language and religion.16
If the scholars and religious pedagogues like Dayananda Saraswati
and Vivekananda were discovering Vedas to interpret them in modern
scientific context, the Press relied much more on Puranic Hinduism and
made it central to its educational motive.17 The Press maintained distance
from Anglo Vedic College of Dayananda Saraswati but supported the
traditional Hindu modes of education of the conservative wing of Arya
Samaj and its alliance with Hindu Mahasabha. Poddar adopted Arya
Samaj’s philosophy for progress of Hindus based on three principles: to
unite Hindus as a community, to share a common religion and to speak a
common language. Similarly, Vivekananda’s view of Hinduism as
mother of all religions and also as superior to all religions due to its
inclusiveness and tolerance inspired the Press, but it differed greatly
from the educational motives of disseminating Advaita Vedanta.18 Its
religious education was not focused on deriving various interpretations
of eternal truths of Vedas or expositions of Vedantic philosophy, but was
fundamentally about a Brahminic Hindu religious life based on Puranic
religious traditions accessible to all.
150 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

This religious education was not comparative but distinctive of a par-

ticular religion (Hinduism) to give an understanding of God and worship
built within it, to familiarise with its literature and the historical and
political reasons to accept and practice it as a moral duty towards family,
community and nation. The vision was to popularise a particular version
of Hinduism and to ascertain its legitimacy by certain cultural practices
as dominant while marginalising others. For homogenisation of religious
traditions such education rigidly focused on issues like patriotism,
nation-building and the pride for glorious cultural heritage of ancient
India. Therefore, the sole aim remained to imbibe pride, self-reliance and
confidence as basic responsibility of a true citizen. Like reformists and
nationalists, for the Press, education was to embellish the ‘inner realm’
to the extent that it supersedes the ‘outer/public realm’ and sets new rules
for it (Chatterjee, 1989a). Hence it was meant to regulate both public and
private spheres of life of an individual.
Education was also to bridge ‘the estrangement of the school from the
local community’ (Kumar, 2005, p. 50). The idea of school was linked
with community needs and was considered as an ideal lab to churn out
ideal citizens to protect community honour. School for them was the
idealised space where moral and cultural education formed the extension
of household training along with other necessary training to cope with
economic changes within the wider society. The training in history,
geography and other subjects by utilising the community symbols and
language merged the boundaries of home and school. Continuity and
development of ancient ideal of education deriving from Puranas and
Dharmshastras formed the sense of belonging to the community and its
cultural heritage.
Poddar’s keen inclination towards children as future citizens made
elementary education as the starting point for his political foresight. He
weaved formal structured primary education with home transmission of
informal education in his educational model. Vaishnava ideals like cow,
agriculture, images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, characters from
Hindu mythological texts like Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Ganges,
and other such artifacts of Hinduism formed the basic reference point in
the publications on children written by Poddar.19
For him, a home bounded by emotions and sentiments constituted the
fundamental training ground for a child to learn the lessons of morality
and discipline. But it was also necessary to learn the school curriculum
where colonial pedagogy continued to resonate with prescriptive text-
books and examination system. The Marwaris realised the relevance of
school-based education for the growth of indigenous economy on the
Sinha 151

lines of western capitalism and expressed keen interest to reform it.

Unlike organisations like Arya Samaj, Gita Press never entered into the
complications of setting up primary educational institutions with notable
exceptions like ‘Shri Gita Ramayan Prachar Sangh’, ‘Sadhak Sangh’,
‘Sri Gita Ramayan Pareeksha Samiti’ and a Gurukul at Churu. These
wings of the Press were directly involved in promulgating Hindu mythol-
ogy based education whereas Poddar’s support to the educational insti-
tutes established by organisations like RSS served its practical aim of
producing militant Hindus for the formation and safety of future nation
(Kumar, 1990).20 Its relentless support to such educational establish-
ments expressed its inbuilt desire to produce citizens with sound reli-
gious training.
Printing textbooks for elementary education and curriculum reforms
was a serious intervention in school education by the Press.21 Gita Press
designed textbooks in Hindi with flawed history and homogenising sym-
bols for Hindu community and recommended it to schools and for pri-
vate reading.22 The idea of patriotism underlined the endeavour for Hindi
based upon ideological constructions of ‘Hindi, Hindu Hindustan’ and
the pedagogic practice setting an ideal for ‘good citizen’.23 The Press
diligently published ‘Hindi Bal Pothis’ as textbooks in independent India
to consolidate the efforts made by Hindi laureates like Ramchandra
Shukla who worked conscientiously to establish Hindi as the language of
Hindus and produced textbooks in Hindi language using Hindu religious
symbols and ethics to invoke the Hindu past.24 Similarly, Hindi Bal Pothi
for grade four carried lessons on Shravan Kumar. Shravan Kumar as the
son of blind Vaishya Brahman Muni, the text introduced caste-centric
character of ideal son and familiarity with term Vaishya implicitly con-
veyed the existence of caste system. The chapter on ‘Ganeshji’ (Hindu
God Ganesh) with a picture of Ganesh describes Ganesh as an important
Hindu deity and Son of God Shiva and goddess Parvati. ‘Gaj-raksha’
(elephant protection), ‘Hanumanji’ (a Hindu God), ‘Tulsi’ (Holy plant of
Hindus), ‘Meri Gayya Meri Gayya’ (My Cow My Cow) are other chap-
ters enumerate on relevant religious symbols. The chapter on ‘Din aur
mahino ke naam’ (names of days and months) begins with description of
the day where sun is referred as god that rises in east and the day begins
with worshipping sun god, going to temple and other rituals of the entire
day including farming, feeding the cows, mothers worshipping the
sacred basil plant (Tulsi) expressing Hindu way of life.
Such icons and description recur in all the Hindi Bal Pothis construct-
ing the past of ritual-laden Hindu culture and morality. These symbols
repeatedly appeared in various publications for children with detailed
152 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

illustrations. Such techniques carved out a significant role of the publish-

ing house as an educational and socialising agency. As Krishna Kumar
explains, ‘for the preservation of memory and passing on to the young’
which was done through telling tales repeatedly of the past so that mem-
ories of the past always cut across the present. These tales told by adults
(the pedagogues of the press) aimed to form ‘memory posters’ ‘where
collective memory was being shaped in the course of adult transmission
of knowledge both in the informal (like, home) as well as formal settings
(like educational institutes)’ (Kumar, 2002, pp. 70–86). Gita Press used
this dual strategy as a policy to shape the formal as well as the informal
pedagogic spaces. While the informal was taken care by educating
‘wives’ and the ‘mothers’, the formal was taken care by developing
political consciousness attaching a certain purpose to education.
If text-based education was a necessity for the Press, then oral trans-
mission of religious knowledge also formed the core of its informal ped-
agogical experiments. It developed rituals to be practised by both adults
and children where literacy was not the basic qualification. To reach out
to large and varied mass of Hindu pupils where literacy was not the only
source of imagined nation, the pedagogical exercise of ‘Nam Jap’ (incan-
tation) was the most simplified way to practice religion.25 From incanta-
tion, recitation, group devotional singing, organising festivals on
auspicious days of Hindu calendar, delivering sermons and observing
group vratas (fasts) were some of the exercises that were practised over
and above reading and writing.
But in was in the informal spaces discussed above that Gita Press was
able to make a significant shift in terms of gendering education and
socialisation. The regulative practices for women derived from the
mythological religious texts also wedded them to an ideal typical image
of men. The image around which revolved the restricted domestic world
of women in turn also became prescriptive for men and the training as a
child to embody such image turned into a mandatory prerequisite for
becoming member of Hindu community and the nation. Women became
the ‘true force’ to delineate the dominant counter hegemonic ideology of
the pedagogues of the Press in everyday life. The education and training
of girl child became fundamentally necessary for carving out an ideal
male child. The Hindu male child remained the focus since the patriar-
chal social structure needed to ensure its most legitimate progeny.
Therefore, the Press not only modelled childhood but also fixed the reli-
gious parameters for adult male too. The adult male safeguarded Hindu
family and nation. In the post-colonial Indian reality, the focus on male
Sinha 153

child ensured the legacy of elders of the community. A Hindu male child
citizen was therefore seen as vital for nursing the dream of the Press and
making education a crucial political site.

The Hindu Male Child Citizen: A Desired Student

The nationalist construction of ‘struggling nation as a child’ was funda-
mental for the Press and its pedagogical task involved a direct action of
creating alternative education for the Hindu male child (Kumar, 2005).
The notion of the child as a Hindu adult in the making (the development
of child is development of nation), served as the ideal way to save the
nation from the Muslim ‘other’ as well as from the clutches of colonial
masters (Radhurajivirendra, 1953, p. 205). The issue of child develop-
ment for the Press surfaced as self-reflexive exercise in the discourses
around nation making and of national development post-independence.26
The concerns of Hindus being weak because of lack of moral strength
and power of self-determination dominated the entire training pro-
gramme for male child (Maharaj, 1953). Thus the training of the Hindu
child as ideal for future nation revolved around concerns of morality,
caste and religious identities, familial and kinship relations, patriotism
and discipline.
Balak Ank expresses concern over the lack of appropriate children
literature in India and presents the Russian and Chinese children litera-
tures as models. It argues that despite propaganda, the Russian and
Chinese children’s literature ensures growth, safety and entertainment of
the children through a healthy portrayal of children singing national
songs, respecting parents and learning their cultural values.27 Gita Press
strived to create such a literature for children with similar goals. On the
other hand, following the footsteps of Indian Press of Allahabad that had
influenced both the literary as well as educational sphere as a publishing
house, Gita Press aspired to intervene in the world of literates through
religious literature with definite educational motives.28 By developing
itself as an authority on religion it tried to capture the market by bringing
out a wide range of moral and religious material as children’s literature
that were encoded with theological concepts of Karma, Sanskara,
Dharma, God and Bhakti, textual history of gods, rituals, beliefs and
practices and relevance of texts like Bagavadagita, Mahabharata,
Ramayana and Puranic literature.29
154 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

Reproducing the Hindu Male Child: Environment,

Discipline and Duties
The process of socialisation of Hindu male child in Sanatani Hindu phi-
losophy demanded for patient and continuous action. The pedagogues of
the Press with great care began the process by focusing on every step of
child’s growth beginning from the stage of reproduction itself. The
famous ‘Nari Ank’ and ‘Balak Ank’ carried an elaborate article on accu-
rate method of reproduction and instructions for surety of conceiving a
male child. An exhaustive description of set of rules to be followed at the
time of pregnancy to ensure healthy childbirth were given in its pages.
Such health concerns revolved around gynaecological stages with direct
prescriptions on hygiene. The instructions prescribed for the pregnant
ladies ranged from the correct intake of food, reading, listening, thought
process, right behaviour and gestures, sitting and sleeping postures,
proper social interaction, cleanliness and health; all of which were to be
followed for a male progeny. These restrictions/instructions for women
were only the first steps for the yet to be born child. The unborn child,
the potential future citizen and member of the community receive first
set of lessons and are seen as incarnation of mythical religious figures
like, Rama, Krishna, Arjun and others. The image of the new state (of
being religious and functioning on the principle of ‘Rama Rajya’) moti-
vated citizens to associate themselves with such idyllic characters of sto-
ries from ancient India.
After birth, the focus shifted to the child’s moral development for
fulfilling the cultural needs of religion and language. Constructing a
legitimate Hindu past by women/mothers enabled this process. The Press
produced literature on ideal Hindu mother and child which visualised a
certain childhood nurtured by Hindu mothers. Children here are continu-
ously referred by names of various Hindu mythological characters.
Mothers trained in religion explain the natural surroundings through
Hindu symbols as careful cultural repositories. Innumerable anecdotes
of brave kings, patriots and warriors from Puranas and other Sanskritic
literature created a pool of entertaining, educational and moral reading
material for mothers as well as children. The ideal type of a male child
was presented for mothers for adequate training of their sons by deriving
characters from ‘Bal Krishna’ (child Krishna) and ‘Bal Rama’ (child
Rama). Frequent pictures of ‘lav-kush’, sons of Rama and Sita, child-
hood of Pandavas and descriptions like, ‘shri Krishna ki bal leela’ (ways
of child Krishna in the world) were introduced in the text. Various other
Sinha 155

episodes of life of Krishna—‘makhan-batan leela’ (distribution of

cheese by Krishna), ‘anandnritya’ (dance of Krishna in happiness),
‘sakha ki sewa’ (the care of friends), ‘phal bhakshan leela’ (act of eating
fruit), ‘govardhan dharan’ (act of lifting the mountain ‘Govardhan’)—
were also included in the text. Mother’s appreciation for all these activi-
ties gave a sense of entertainment and also moral lessons to children to
be generous, helping, brave, fun-loving and fair so that they acquire love
and attention of parents. A whole range of illustrations and colourful
printed images appeared to draw special attention on the ideals of a
Hindu child supported by contributions from various personalities rang-
ing from religious and political leaders, teachers, social thinkers, educa-
tionists and others. These were for parents especially mothers to train
their child in such ideals. As part of direct training of both mother and
child, the Press published pictures, posters, calendars and stories of
heroes like Chatrapati Shivaji, Rana Pratap, from Mahabharata,
Ramayana and Gita to create an authentic Hindu past.
‘Balak ke Acharan’ (the conduct of a male child), a popular publica-
tion of the Press, on its cover page illustrates a primary school (Prathamik
Pathshaala) with a backdrop of his familial roles before reaching school.
He is shown as an ideal son who respects the wisdoms of his mother,
expresses care towards father, participates in daily chores (like watering
the plants) and does his lessons. In school, he bows in front of headmas-
ter carrying copy of Gita, greets his teacher, obediently attends the
classes and is friendly with his fellow classmates. The illustration depicts
precisely the imagination of an ideal Hindu male child. A child is seen as
a cultural receiver and the most suitable pupil for religious training.
Features like ‘Guru bhakt’ (devoted to teacher), ‘Pitra bhakt’ (devoted to
father) depicted through stories of Somsharma, Sukarma, Pipplad and
Shravan Kumar, served to establish a perfect model of childhood.
The necessity of constructing an ideal type of male child demon-
strates the longing to guarantee socially distinct Hindu masculinity in
contrast to what colonial education intended to. ‘Aacharya devo bhav ke
aadarsh’ (ideals of revering teacher as god), one of the foremost ideals
resurrected on the life stories of Krishna-Sudama, Eklavya, Upamanyu
and Aaruni and ‘Gurukul me shiksha ke sanskaar’ (the culture of educa-
tion in a Gurukul), were repeatedly utilised to create Gurukul system
structured around student–teacher relationship as epitome of institu-
tionalised education. It empowered the teacher and students as ‘Guru
bhakt balak’ through illustrated stories of obedient children. Concept of
devotion towards God nevertheless remained an essential quality of
156 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

Hindu male child and was introduced by the terms ‘Bhakt balak’ (child
devotee), ‘bhakt balikayaien’ (devotee girls) and ‘gyani bhakt balak’
(intelligent child devotee).
Part of Hindu masculinity was also the concepts of sacrifice for fam-
ily, community and nation that had its manifestations also in qualities
like, bravery and courage. The Press in several issues of Kalyan exten-
sively elaborated on this sentiment as an essential feature of a child.
‘Balidani Balak’ (sacrificing child) was the term much used in the lit-
erature of the Press describing the desired quality in a child. An exten-
sion to this quality was ‘Vilakshan Balak’ (extraordinary child) which
dwelt on the superior qualities in a child or a separate group of children
with exceptional quality of sensitivity and abilities to respond to his
duties more perfectly than others; recognising such characteristics to be
natural. The term Vir Balak conveyed the ideals of bravery and courage
displayed for the cause of family, kinship and community or nation. The
childhood sketch of social reformers like Gandhi, Subhash Bose, Tagore
and Aurobindo were also suitable reference points for their bravery and
commitment towards a country in crisis.
Discipline was significant part of male child training and was repeat-
edly identified as the basis of successful Hindu life. Gita Press seems to
have internalised Walhausen’s seventeenth century dictum that strict dis-
cipline was fundamental to any training. Disciplining gave a sense of con-
trol over the potential citizens for training them in most natural way to
translate the political motives of the Press.30 Special issues like ‘Dincharya
Ank’, ‘Sanskriti Ank’ made discipline into a requirement for becoming an
ideal Hindu. Emphasis on discipline from the primary level made Hindu
religious training viable, and it became an integral part of training and
formation of North Indian masculinity. The strict regimented routine life,
distributing the day for important duties towards oneself, elders, religion
and society was drafted and legitimated by mythological text and also by
theories of the west. The Press created fear of moral (based on religious
scriptures) punishments and material losses for lifetime in case of not
heeding to the advised routine. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ personalities were con-
tingent on the internalisation of prescribed routine based on rules and
regulations. Routine for everyday and for the entire life in the form of four
ashrams (four stages of life according to Sanatan Hindu Dharma) was
used as a strong tool to discipline the young Hindu minds.
The other important segment of literature on children produced by the
Press was its emphasis on health, cleanliness, sports and physical exer-
cise. Native sports and physical exercises (Vyayam aur khel) were linked
together and sports like, wrestling, racing, cycling, swimming, tug of
Sinha 157

war and kabbadi were encouraged for contributing to physical strength.

Reference to Plato’s suggestion that gymnastics be used in education
was endorsed by the editor of special issue on children. Scientific theo-
ries of ‘surplus energy theory of play’ by Schiller Spencer and Stanley
Hall are cited to endorse views on importance of playing outdoor games
and its relation with physique, mind and life (Srivastava, 1953). The
arguments were that playing relevant games in specific age not only
increases physical vigour but activates mind and gives birth to life-skills
including creativity and imagination. A child’s compulsory training to
cultivate healthy and hygienic habits was repeatedly emphasised to be
part of cultural training. Like militant Hindu organisations, the Press
attempted to evoke Hindu prowess and improvement of physique did
become crucial component of child’s training (Foucault, 1995). The
image of emasculated Hindu male was creatively transformed with
emphasis on distinctive moral personality along with healthy physical
structure, faith in religion and knowledge of native tradition and culture.
The moral consciousness superseded the physical strength but did have
a fine balance in the conception Hindu masculinity.
Hanuman Prasad Poddar in his many writings on children asserts that
certain values (as discussed below) should be consciously cultivated in
the child and hence should be part of the curriculum to be taught in
schools at the primary level. A Hindu child citizen first needed to be fed
with glory of the past. Bharatvarsha, where sage Valmiki sung Ramayana
and Veda Vyasa wrote Mahabharata, where ‘Rama’ and ‘Krishna’ took
incarnation, where Rana Pratap, Shivaji and other such great warriors
were born, where devout Tilak and Malviya took birth, a land of Savitri,
Anusuya, Tulsidas and Surdas as a country should be projected grand,
righteous and progressive. Every child must be made proud of his coun-
try (Srivastava, 1953). Second, he must be trained to abide by the Hindu
religion and protect it more than life: because where there is faith in
religion, there exists no pain, turbulence or any kind of unpleasantness;
there is only truth, forgiveness, sacrifice, charity, peace, love, well-being
and fame. Third, the training significantly required respect for ‘Hindu
Jati’ or Hindu community. The values of a community if proudly fol-
lowed brings honour, dignity to the ‘jati’; merit lies in practicing restraint
in respecting other communities.31 The purpose of such a training was to
construct Sanatani Hinduism as the everyday culture of Hindus, a much
broader platform that other Hindu organisations, like Hindu Mahasabha,
failed to provide for the unification of Hindus.
Every Hindu child must learn the ideals of sacrifice. He should not
possess habits like lying, conceit, jealousy, cruelty, blasphemy, stealing,
158 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

squandering, sarcasm, etc. He should seek permission for picking up

things, entering office premises, entering anyone’s house, removing
things and seek forgiveness immediately after abusive words, hurting,
committing faults and other such mistakes, since accepting mistakes
and remedying it is basic character of a man. An ascetic lifestyle, com-
passion, honesty, righteousness, cleanliness, thriftiness, purity at heart,
faith in God and religion, personal sense of responsibility and ability to
work hard, were identified as basic values of Hindu thought to be fol-
lowed for being successful and eminent in society. Wealth, power
(physical and material) and intellect, as instructed, were also to be gov-
erned by these characteristics. The child symbolised the native scrip-
tural value system designed for distinctiveness, pride and superiority
over others. The poems and short moral stories creatively used in the
publications reflected such ambitions.32 The training in Hindu ideals
endorsed a sense of belonging whereas lack of these qualities invited
degeneration. The future citizens of Bharatvarsha should cherish Hindu
supremacy and remain tolerant to those religions that subscribe to the
larger Hindu worldview.

Conclusion
Gita Press’ aspiration of a Hindu religious state remained unfulfilled in
independent India. But it continued its struggle to protect the interest of
Hindus by disseminating printed material which establishes Hindu reli-
gion as culture of India and Hindu past as epitome of Indian heritage. To
meet the new challenges from the state, Gita Press published special edi-
tion on education as a renewed struggle for religious revivalism. The
‘Shiksha Ank’ or special annual issue on education was critical of the
National Educational Policy developed during the Rajiv Gandhi govern-
ment in 1986. They proposed two targets: the industrial development of
India and the value system provided by ancient religious texts and saints
(Sharma, 1988, p. 361). The Press expressed serious reservation on the
idea of religion-based education and state’s incapability of endorsing
religion-based education or education of any one religion. They argued
that Upanishads, Bhagawadgita and other religious texts should not be
considered as religious scriptures but as foundations of Indian culture
and traditions. They proposed that if these texts cannot be prescribed in
school syllabus, their translations or other versions suitable for children
should be made available in schools. Apart from this, it also identified
Sinha 159

other problems: the continuity with the colonial worldview as the per-
petual reference point. The scientific knowledge based on western
modernity was seen as a problematic leading to disunity and a failed
project of national integration. The Gita Press also felt that educated
youth were distancing themselves from their own culture since educa-
tional institutions failed to promote Indian/Hindu values and culture.
They were also critical that Hindi was not being established as the
national language of teaching and that the state not utilising the state’s
resources for translating all the major books from different parts of the
world and of different languages in the national language Hindi. The
Press also opposed the idea of similar education for both boys and girls.
In response, the ‘Shiksha Ank’ published views of Shankracharya,
Tulsidas, Acharya Panini and Vedavyas and delved into discussions on
Vedic and ancient format of education prescribing ideals for educational
institutes, students and teachers. They expressed the Aryan view of edu-
cation as spiritualism and holistic development of mind, body and soul,
catering to material and philosophical needs. While pointing out prob-
lems within the present education system they also made suitable sug-
gestions for upgrading it, based on Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s proposal.
It must be noted therefore that despite being faced with a ‘secular’ gov-
ernment, the political agenda of creating a Hindu Rashtra through educa-
tion continues to this day.

Notes
 1. This article was presented in the Annual International Conference of
Comparative Education Society of India in the year 2012, at the University
of Jammu. I thank all those participants who commented on the article. For
linear historical works on the Gita Press, see Singh (2001, pp. 33–44) and
Gupt (2004). Also see Horstmann (1995, pp. 303–318), Samanta (2007) and
Mukul (2015).
  2. The colonial state acquired the role of pedagogue to ‘civilise’ Indians and to
save them from their morally inferior position by making colonial education
as a ‘principal source of domination that brought cultural and moral violence,
and facilitated cultural invasion’. See Pathak (2004, pp. 72–73).
  3. A sense of such a revivalism through different communitarian and religious
publications can be gleaned through the works of Blumhardt (1893), Singh
(1986), Kumar and Oesterheld (2007), Kumar (2005) and Minault (1998).
  4. The perception that foreign education failed to produce patriotic Indians with
qualities like self-reliance and independence coupled with the knowledge of
indigenous heritage led to massive rise of private indigenous experiments in
the field of education as a counter to colonial education.
160 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

  5. A number of religious titles were produced by various publication houses

like Ved Sansthan in Ajmer, Shyam Kashi Press of Mathura, etc. These
religious publication houses influenced a large section of Hindu population.
  6. All Hindu and caste associations published their own journal or newspaper.
There were a number of religious newspapers and periodicals: Bharat Mitra
(1878) from Calcutta which propagated Vedic religion; Hindi Vangvasi (1894)
on Sanatan Dharm; Gosevak (1904) from Kashi; Vaishnav Patrika (1882)
from Kashi; Maryada Paripati (1873) published excerpts from various texts
of Sanatan Dharm and was published from Agra; Dharm Pracharak (1884)
and Dharm Sudha Varshan (1889) from Kashi; Nigmagam Chandrika
(1904) published by Bharat Dharm Mandal; Sanatan Dharm Pataka from
Moradabad. The major publication house in Oudh region, Newal Kishore
Press also published religious texts of Hindus along with great works like
‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ and others.
 7. The Marwaris are a trading community from Rajasthan who migrated
to different parts of the world and in large numbers to Calcutta in the
colonial period and gradually became the leading mercantile class of both
independent and post-independent India. The founder of Gita Press Jaya
Dayal Godyanka, the life time editor of its journal Kalyan, Hanuman Prasad
Poddar, and many others who were involved in the establishing Gita Press
first in Calcutta and later in Gorakhpur, were all Marwaris. It is important
to note that the main audience of the journal was also this community and
the contributors to the journal Kalyan were mostly upper caste Hindus and
personalities from the same community.
  8. Sanjay Seth (2007) explains how in the earlier period Christian missionaries
aimed at secular education for conversions and discrediting Hinduism.
 9. This moral responsibility had its roots in the anxiety of the Marwari
community to cultivate a respectable image and an eagerness to become the
rightful torchbearers of creating an alternative to colonial economy.
10. By the first quarter of the twentieth century, there were innumerable social
and cultural changes witnessed by Indian society. These transformations
were experienced unevenly in different parts of the country. By 1920s,
religious differences sharpened and there was sharp decline in the syncretic
popular culture. The separate electorate granted to Muslims in 1909 brought
about the ‘concept of religion as a community’ to the fore.
11. Vivekananda, Shraddhananda, Dayananda Sarasvati and Aurobindo are
some of the prominent Hindu ascetics who established their ashrams as
voluntary organisations for spreading their ideas of Hinduism.
12. Godyandka began as a preacher of value-based trading. To his colleagues
in the trading business, he gradually acquired a saint-like image especially
since he used to organise satsangs on the relevance of Bhagavadgita.
Poddar, Radha Baba and others who became prominent members of the
Press continued the tradition of reaching out to people through satsangs
and discussing thoughts on Hindu religion at temples and pilgrimage sites.
Sinha 161

Poddar added activism to his teachings by attaining a position of Hindu

scholarly saint by his grit and repartee on Sanatan Hindu Dharma. With
his spiritual image of a proficient Hindu Marwari intellectual, he received
legitimacy from politicians and general public. With his unflinching faith
in Hindu Dharma, he believed in the Supreme as the sole force in moving
the universe and that all knowledge and wisdom is attained by dedicating
oneself in search of the Divine. With his spiritual and saintly image and
with philanthropic and selfless concerns for Hindu masses, he developed
a huge following which brought legitimacy to the Press. His name became
synonymous with Gita Press and with this charisma he attained the place of
a ‘guru’ or a teacher.
13. These annual issues were collection of original articles from monthly Kalyan
with some new additions. These additions were mostly new illustrations
and pictures based on the subject matter of the issue. The editors of Kalyan
mostly edited these special volumes.
14. Krishna Kumar (1987, p. 8) tells us that ‘when colonial economy was
established, instruction in basic skills in many parts of the country was
widespread and religious schools were also common where teaching as a
vocation was rooted in caste system’. Kumar op.cit., Occasional papers,
‘Origins of India’s textbook culture’, 1987, p.8
15. If Dharma Sabha established by Radhakanta Deb in 1830 challenged Raja
Rammohun Roy’s vision Hinduism in Bengal, it was Gita Press in North
India which popularised orthodox version of Hinduism.
16. Colonial education focused on school textbooks which subtly propagated
Christian teachings and developed loyalties to colonial administration. On
the contrary, Gita Press propagated Hindu religion-based education for
developing religious and national identities.
17. Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883), the founder of Arya Samaj,
represented initially a return to the past along orthodox lines, believed
in Vedas and remained anxious to be part of mainstream Hinduism. Both
liberal and conservative wings within the movement opened educational
institutions which were instrumental in the growth of the movement. Gita
Press was close to its conservative wing.
18. Vivekananda believed that only Advaita can achieve the higher stages of
spirituality and resolve problems of everyday life. Gita Press followed the
organisational set-up of spreading Hinduism like Vivekananda who relied
on publishing and also started a journal Prabuddha Bharat to express and
disseminate Ramakrishna’s and his own views. For more, see Brockington
(1981, pp. 151–173).
19. Gita Press has sold about 3crore, 25lakh copies of Bal-Pothi, part-1. They
circulated Hindu religious symbols like, cow, Tulsi (basil), Himalayas,
Ganga and names of characters from Hindu mythologies and used them
in children’s publications to teach them Hindi alphabets and language.
For example, in the Hindi ‘g’ stood for Ganesh or Gau while ‘l’ stood for
162 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

Laxman. These are shown through attractive coloured pictures in books

called ‘Hindi Bal Pothi-1’ for children beginning to enter the school. This
series is published in four to five parts for early schooling. Part 2 of the
series has ‘Ish vandana’ (prayer to God) as the opening page and other
chapters introduce Lord Vishnu. ‘Hamaradesh’ (our country) is another
chapter where religious places of Hindus and Muslims are described but are
introduced as brothers and sons of ‘Mother India’. Chapter 16 of the same
series carries a list of instructions to be followed by children to become
virtuous and successful. Series 3 and 4 have chapters titled ‘Surdas’, ‘Jai
Hanuman’, ‘Ganeshji’, ‘Gaja Raksha’, etc.
20. Kumar (1990) informs us that first the Shishu Mandir, an educational
initiative of RSS, was established in the presence of Golwalkar, Purushottam
Das Tandon and Hanuman Prasad Poddar in 1952 in Gorakhpur.
21. Kumar (2005) argues that textbook culture which included examination
and curriculum leading to mechanical reading and rote learning was started
by English administrators in the late nineteenth century to train Indians for
clerical jobs and to mold them in Victorian attitude, history and culture. It
evolved a certain style of pedagogy devoid of providing agency to both
Indian teachers and students.
22. In the first edition of such a textbook, Gita Press gave the purpose for its
publication as: it is a low-priced book which is simple and based on moral
values. It is intended for spreading goodwill in society. These books are
designed and written in the supervision of the experienced intellectuals of
modern education system therefore there can be no doubts in its usefulness.
It is our humble request that the educationists of different states of India
utilise these books in their own fields to publicise it and help us improve
it with their suitable suggestions. See Hindi Bal Pothi: Shishu Path-1, Gita
Press, Gorakhpur (Poddar, 1950).
23. The language chosen for publication was sanskritised Hindi: a ‘daughter of
Sanskrit and the elder sister of the other neo-Indo Aryan languages’. See Orsini,
F. (2002). The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the
Age of Nationalism, New Delhi, Oxford University Press p. 6.
24. Krishna Kumar (1990, p. 12) clearly explains the process: ‘The portion of
Hindi Sahitya for grade three has twenty four lessons, and the portion for
grade four has twenty three. In both sections, one-third of the lessons consist
of literary materials that symbolize a Hindu configuration. The configuration
consists of mythology and symbols derived from religious practices and
from history, projecting a specific religio-cultural identity. This identity is
imbedded in the manner in which the book recognizes its readership. In the
lesson “Twelve Months” for example, the author says: “In the Pitrapaksha
as Ashwin we Hindus remember our ancestors”. Vijayadahni reminds us, the
lesson says, that “our country was also victorious once”. The concept of
the “country” is obviously associated with pre-Mughal times. This reference
to a distant past as part of one’s search for a happier, pride-worthy period
Sinha 163

in the life of the “mother country” (matribhoomi) is a prominent motif

which appears in several different forms throughout the book. In the lesson
on the “Kumbh Fair of Prayag”, the motif takes the form of nostalgia and
longing. The lesson says that in older times the kumbh was an occasion for
assemblies of devout men for the pursuit of physical and spiritual health.
That has changed. Now we neither have true sages; nor do people have that
kind of desire to acquire knowledge. All that is now left to do is to bathe at
the Triveni for two or four days or a month, to have one’s meals, and to go
off home. Let us hope that when better days will again return to our country,
the real face of the Kumbh fair will come back too’.
25. Nam-jap as a concept was introduced by Hanuman Prasad Poddar in the
seventh issue of first year of Kalyan (1926), making a lucrative offer to
readers that 56 crore incantations in a suggested period can bring well-being
and save them from all impurities. It was sufficient to accomplish salvation
in one birth.
26. For more on self-reflexivity, see Nizhawan (2004), Bose (1995) and Kakkar
(1981).
27. For more details, see Chaturvedi (1953): ‘Bhartiya Bal-Sahitya’, Balak Ank,
pp. 388–392.
28. Indian Press’ Bal Sakha was published in 1917 to make children also part of
the Indian freedom struggle along with their parents. Urban educated North
Indian parents opted for it for cultural training of their children.
29. The publications on children included ‘Balakon ki Baatein’, ‘Balakon ki
Bol-chaal’, ‘Baal prashnottari’, ‘Balak ke Acharan’, ‘Aao Bachhon Tumhe
Batayein’, among others.
30. Charu Gupta discusses the urge of militant Hindu organisations to militarise
the Hindu community by enhancing physical strength and martial spirit for the
protection of the community. Gita Press followed the need of militant Hindus
but cultural and religious training dominated in its struggle to reinvent Hindus.
For the version of Hindu militant organisation, see Gupta (1998).
31. The word ‘jati’ can be understood with two overlapping meanings in the
literature from Gita Press. First, it stands for Hindu community in general
defined by geographical boundary (citizens of Bharatvarsha, the Hindus)
and secondly it is used in the sense of caste and language. The Press certainly
was impelled to create homogenous rules and symbols for the entire ‘Hindu
Jati’ but was openly concerned about caste-based distinctions.
32. Sri Ram Chandra Sastri Vidyalankar’s poem describes the Hindu child
citizen visualised by the Press: to serve one’s parents, teacher and nation is
the most crucial Dharma of any child. A child should have faith in religion,
God, truth and respect for time and fellow beings. He should be hardworking,
courageous and fearless, charming, knowledgeable, skilled, cultured and
should learn, art, science, philosophy and policy to understand the essence
of knowledge. One should get rid of fashion, music and dance and not be a
squanderer and should stay away from ‘taash, chaupar, shatranj’. He should
164 Contemporary Education Dialogue 14(2)

educate the masses, help the downtrodden and learn new ways to serve the
society. Cow, interests of the twice-born and nation should be protected.
See Shastri, R. (1988). “Balakon Ki Shiksha” in Radheshyam Khemka (ed.),
Shiksha Ank, Gorakhpur, Gita Press, p. 401

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