Navjivan Trust — one of the premiere Gadhian institutions in Ahmedabad will published pictorial biography of Mahatma Gandhi on his upcoming birth anniversary on October 2 this year in lines with Amar Chitra Katha.
Founded by Mahatma Gandhi himself in 1929, Navjivan Trust is a publishing house which has published over 800 books in over 15 different languages. The trust is also in the process to bring out audio-video version (animation) on Mahatma Gandhi.
“We have roped in around 15 artists and an agency for around 150 page 11 XII inches book to tell Bapu’s story in pictorial form. The book will have on and average nine graphical picture frames per page. It would cover everything right from Mahatma Gandhi’s childhood to his struggle for India’s freedom,” said Vivek Desai, managing trustee of Navjivan Trust.
The purpose of Bapu’s complete life story in graphic form or comics illustration is to reach out maximum number of young people, so that they know more about the ‘father of nation’, said Desai adding, “The pictorial biography of Mahatma Gandhi would lead them to further read Mahatma Gandhi’s work. The pictorial biography is meant for those who are looking light easy to understand reading.”
Apurva Ashar, digital and print publication consultant of the trust said that unlike in other comics where dialogues are written by others, Mahatma’s Chitra Katha would carry his own words which would be more authentic. Initially the graphic illustration biography will be in three languages — Gujarati, Hindi and English, but later on it would be in various other Indian languages too, he added.
The trust is also exploring options of online selling of books including the upcoming pictorial biography of Mahatma through internet marketing sites such as Amazon and Flipkart. The trust has already launched 170 e-books and in last two years it has sold 10,500 copies. The management of the trust is working on preparing a kindle like tablet with 200 books pre-loaded on it.
Hind Swaraj to be published in 10 formats
Navajivan Trust will launch the latest 10 editions of Hind Swaraj, the most popular and widely read book penned by Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday. Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule is a book written by Mahatma in 1909 in his mother tongue — Gujarati, while travelling from london to South Africa on-board SS Kildonan Castle (ship) between November 13 and November 22 that year. The new edition of the book will be available in three languages — Gujarati, Hindi and English, with 10 different formats including e-books.