On June 18, 2023, the jury under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi gave the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2021 to Geeta Press, Gorakhpur. The award was given to Geeta Press, Gorakhpur for its outstanding contribution in bringing about change in the social, economic and political spheres through non-violence and other Gandhian ideals. Prime Minister Modi appreciated the contribution of Geeta Press in promoting Gandhian ideals of peace and social harmony. He said that conferring the Gandhi Peace Prize on Geeta Press on completion of 100 years of its establishment is a recognition of the work done by the institution in community service.
Information about Geetapress organization
Geetapress is the world's largest organization publishing Hindu religious books. Geetapress was established in the year 1923. Its founder was the great Gita-pervader Shri Jaydayal Goyandka. So far more than 45.45 crore copies have been published by Geeta Press. Of these, there are 8.10 crore copies of Bhagavad Gita and 7.5 crore copies of Ramcharit Manas. 10.30 crore copies of women's and children's literature published in Geeta Press have been sold. Geetapress mainly publishes literature in Hindi and Sanskrit languages, but considering the inconvenience of non-Hindi speaking people, now books are being published in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Oriya.
Gandhi Peace Prize
Gita Press was started in the year 1923 and is one of the largest publishers in the world, which has published 417 million books in 14 languages, including 162.1 million copies of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. The Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award instituted by the government in 1995 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi to honor the ideals propounded by Gandhi.