Gandhi Peace Prize will be given to Gita Press located in Gorakhpur. The world famous Geeta Press will get this award for its outstanding contribution in the social and economic field. The Union Ministry of Culture has announced this on Sunday. This decision has been taken under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Gandhi Peace Prize is given as a tribute to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. One crore rupees and a citation are given under this award, but Geeta Press Trust has refused to take the amount received under the award. Because Geeta Press Trust does not take cooperation amount from anyone.
Dr. Lalmani Tiwari, manager of Geeta Press Gorakhpur, said that the aim of establishing Geeta Press is to make religious books accessible to the masses. Respecting the sentiments of its establishment, Geeta Press has been continuously providing books to the people at less than the cost price. . He told that Geeta Press Trust has refused to accept the amount received under Gandhi Peace Prize because Geeta Press does not take any cooperation amount from anyone.
The government started giving Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995, this award was given to Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman in 2019 and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh in 2020. Apart from former South African President Nelson Mandela, many institutions including ISRO, Ramakrishna Mission, Vivekananda Kendra, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh have also received this award.
In the last 100 years, Geeta Press has published more than 93 crore books in 15 languages. This organization has been coming forward to help the society in many calamities including natural calamities such as child epidemic. Geeta Press publishes classical texts like Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta, Shriramcharitmanas, Mahabharata, Valmiki Ramayana, Purana. Apart from this Geetapress also publishes the monthly magazine Kalyan. So far 17 crore copies of Kalyan published in Geeta Press have been published.
In 1921, Govind Bhavan Trust was established in Kolkata by Seth Jaidayal Goenka. He started the publication of Gita through this trust. For the purest Gita, the press had to make amendments several times. Meanwhile, the owner of the printing press told Jaidayal Goenka that if you want to publish such a pure Gita, then get your own press installed. After which Jaydayal Goenka told this thing to Mahavir Prasad Poddar and Ghanshyam Das Jalan. After which the publication of Gita started in 1923 inside a rented room in the Urdu market of Gorakhpur. Today the Gita Press of Gorakhpur has taken a huge form. Geeta Press is spread over 2 lakh square meters. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India inaugurated the Leela Chitra Mandir on 29 April 1955 at the main gate of Geeta Press Bhavan.
Report – Kumar Pradeep, Gorakhpur
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