Akshaya Mukul wins Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016

Senior journalist Akshaya Mukul on 21 November 2016 won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016 for his book Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India.

The judges, authors 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 had also won the best non-fiction book prize for Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India at the Ramnath Goenka awards. However, he boycotted the event.

The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize was set up in 2008 to encourage authors from the sub-continent.

About the book

• The book talks about Jaydayal Goyandka and Hanuman Prasad Poddar, two Marwari businessmen-turned-spiritualists, who set up the Gita Press and Kalyan magazine.

• The book goes on to explain how Gita Press created an empire that spoke in a militant Hindu nationalist voice; and how ideas articulated by Gita Press played a critical role in the formation of a Hindu political consciousness.