Hanuman Prasad Poddar (18 September 1892–22 March 1971)[1] was an Indian independence activist, littérateur, magazine editor and philanthropist. He was the founding editor of the spiritual magazine, Kalyan which was published by Gita Press setup by Ghanshyam Jalan and Jay Dayal ji Goeyendka. His work in fostering pride among the people regarding India's history and philosophic tradition earned him praise from M.K. Gandhi. He was affectionally called "Bhai Ji" or "Lovingly Brother". The Government of India issued a postage stamp in his memory in 1992.[2]
Hanuman Prasad Poddar was born in Ratangarh in Rajasthan, India. He spent a considerable time in Ratangarh in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan into a Marwadi Agrawal trading family. Born into a prosperous traditional marwari family, he received a traditional education and imbibed the culture of an inclusive Hindu society in contemporary India. He was urged by his father to learn English as a skill for making a successful business in Calcutta.
Poddar was married to a girl from the same cultural background in his late teenage years. Around the same time, he began an internship in his father's business. He had the opportunity to travel over most of northern India by rail and bullock cart to advance his family's trading business. Once he had gained requisite experience and showed some ability, his father put him in charge of the Kolkata office, as had been the plan for him from an early age.
Poddar, who was now in his twenties, successfully continued the flourishing business.Kolkata in those days was a major city of the British Raj for both administrative and legislative purposes. At this time, four factors came together to produce a major impact on Poddar's mind and personality. These were: his exposure to wider India; exposure to cosmopolitan Kolkata, which in those days drew people from all over India; exposure to the British, whose authority and arrogance was nowhere as evident as in that metropolis; and the pride and knowledge of Indian culture which had come to him from his Hindu background. These four factors united to bring about within him an awareness of the pitiful state of India, and the need to instill pride in Indians of their culture and value system.
During these years, his wife remained with his parents in Ratangarh, while Poddar lived in Kolkata in a community hostel with other young Marwadi men who were also working in trade. This arrangement was standard and typical of the Kolkata Marwadi ethos of that day. It was in this milieu that Poddar came into contact with some young Bengali revolutionaries. In those days, Bengal was the cradle of armed struggle against British rule, and Kolkata still a major city for the Raj. The hostel in which Poddar lived began to be used as a safe house by certain revolutionary youth. When the police raided the hostel, he and every other young man living there was tarred with the same brush as the revolutionaries. Although he was not officially convicted of any violent act, the British authorities jailed him for several months, pending trial, merely for having been in contact with the nationalist revolutionaries. This term in jail proved to be a turning point in Poddar's life. Although his family's business was flourishing, Poddar lost interest in pursuing trade. Instead, his inclination turned towards nationalism.
In 1918 he shifted to Bombay now Mumbai to initially work in share brokerage business with his cousin Srinivas Das Poddar owner of the Tarachand Ghanshyamdas firm a leading trading firm of India at the time however over the period of time he developed very close relationship with Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malviya and other leaders involved in the independent movement.
After being released from jail he started publishing and editing ‘Kalyaan’ to instill a sense of pride and nationalism in every Indian, drawing from the heroic lives of Hindu heroes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
He dedicated his life to make available great epics like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Upanishads translated in Hindi to the common people at affordable prices.
He started publishing and editing ‘Kalyaan’ monthly Magazine from 1927 in Hindi with a view to "the betterment of life and the well-being of all". 'Kalyan' has published special issues on all Puranas, Upanishads and on many more subjects related to Hindu Dharma and culture.
Lovingly called Bhaijee, he was a multifaceted personality. As an editor of the religious magazine 'Kalyan', he is known for his untiring efforts to propagate and disseminate Hindu Dharma and its philosophy across the world.
He wrote many books on spiritual and value–oriented subjects in Hindi and English. In his translation of some Upanishads and Puranas, he has taken care of the communicability of the language to the common people without causing any compromise with their poetic and philosophical heights and depths. A popular anecdote shared by ones to near to him goes that whenever PoddarJi felt uneasy about any doubts related to Dharma, he would be guided by Ishwar's divine intervention itself.