Veteran journalist Akshaya Mukul on 21st Nov 2016 won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016 for his book
“Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India.” Judges Samanth Subramanian, Mahesh Rao and Janice Pariat, chose Mukul’s book for its “eye-opening and captivating exploration into a parallel literary culture that can often feel at a great remove from English-speaking metropolitan India”.
Mukul also won the best non-fiction book prize at the Ramnath Goenka awards which he boycotted.
The Shakti Bhatt First Book prize was
set up in 2008 to encourage authors from the subcontinent.
The book talks about two Marwari businessmen turned spiritualists, Jaydayal Goyandka and Hanuman Prasad Poddar set up Gita Press and Kalyan magazine.
It explains how Gita Press has created an empire that spoke in militant Hindu nationalist voice.
Ideas articulated by Gita Press have played a formative role in furthering Hindu political consciousness.
