The decision by a jury headed by Narendra Modi to confer the prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 upon the Gorakhpur-based Gita Press has run into rough weather. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a member of the jury that also comprised the prime minister, the Chief Justice of India, the leader of the Opposition or the leader of the largest Opposition party —Mr Chowdhury, in this instance — has alleged that he was kept in the dark about the decision. This, Mr Chowdhury believes, is an example of Mr Modi’s unilateral — whimsical? — decision-making. But the concern, in this case, does not lie with procedural integrity alone. It also involves the choice of the recipient of the award, for Gita Press’s ties with Gandhi were not always smooth. It is true that the publisher continues to adhere to some of Gandhi’s quixotic directives: it refuses to carry advertisements or even reviews of books. But that does not quite mean that the institution — Gita Press is a century old and is a prolific publisher of literature pertaining to sanatan dharma — and Gandhi were journeymen. Gandhi’s translation of the Gita was refused by it because the former would not accept it as a historical text. Gandhi’s reform movements in favour of inter-caste dining as well as temple-entry rights for Dalits were frowned upon by the founder-editor. The Poona Pact, too, was an area of contention. Most strikingly, the publishing house was accused of a grey silence in the wake of the Mahatma’s assassination. Mr Modi’s admirers gloat over his unconventional choices. The decision to reward a publishing house, known for its fraught relationship with Gandhi, with a prize named after the Mahatma must rank as another of Mr Modi’s irregular — bizarre — decisions.

Yet another relevant question must not be ignored. The principal objective of the Gita Press is reported to be the propagation of sanatan dharma. It must be noted that sanatan dharma’s philosophical premise — it has been robustly criticised for being exclusive — did not always conform with the Gandhian vision. Gandhi, his conservatism on some fronts notwithstanding, was also an advocate of progressive ideas. Is the Gita Press’s honour then an attempt on the part of the powers that be to conflate Indic tradition and knowledge with sanatan dharma? That would be a myopic reading of India’s diverse knowledge traditions and as specious as the argument of the Gita Press upholding the Gandhian vision.