People’s Publishing House (India)

People's Publishing House (PPH) is an Indian publisher. It is headquartered in New Delhi. PPH publishes books on topics including politics, history, art and culture, novels, children's literature, autobiographies and others, but primarily caters to Marxist and progressive literature. PPH was officially established in 1942, when the British Indian government legalised the Communist Party of India. PPH was incorporated as a trust in 1947. The current publishers of PPH are Sudhakar Survaram Reddy, Bhalchandra Khanderao Kango, Narayana Kankanala and Atul Kumar Anjan

Presently, apart from its headquarters at Rani Jhansi Road, in New Delhi, PPH has three other branches in Delhi, that is in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Connaught Place Showroom, and at CPI Headquarters at Ajoy Bhawan. Outside Delhi, PPH has branch offices in Lucknow and Ranchi as well. There is a People's Book House, operating in Patna also. In Maharashtra, PPH was rechristened as "Lok Vangmay Griha (House of People's Literature in Marathi)", which is located at Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan, Leningrad Chowk, Mumbai. Apart from its own Printing Press at Prabhadevi Mumbai, It also operates a book shop "People's Book House" at Horniman Circle of Mumbai city. In Rajasthan, there exists "Rajasthan People's Publishing House (RPPH)", which is a separate entity closely linked with Communist Party of India. Narendra Acharya who is on the board of directors of RPPH is State Secretary of Communist Party of India's, Rajasthan State Council. RPPH was established in 1978, and is located at Chameliwala Market in state capital Jaipur.

They also publish works by foreign Marxist authors from time to time, with special copyright arrangements with the original publishing houses. In 1980's, PPH and RPPH had jointly published Soviet Books in Hindi, with Raduga Publishers Moscow. These books were printed in Soviet Union, but carried the names and logo of these three publishing houses.

PPH was a major importer and distributor of Soviet books in India between 1943 and 1995.

History

Although the Communist Party of India (CPI) was established as a political party in October 1920, it was constantly suppressed by the British Indian government and had to work as an underground movement. In June 1941, Adolf Hitler attacked the USSR and CPI changed its strategy in viewing World War II not as an "imperialistic war" but as a "people's war against fascism". It also decided to support the Allied powers so as to defeat Nazi Germany. In July 1942, the British rulers of India legalised the Communist Party of India in return for its support to the British war effort. With this, CPI was also permitted to import books from the USSR and to publish its own party literature. Thus, People's Publishing House (PPH) was started as a publishing and book distributing arm of the Communist Party of India in 1942. It was officially incorporated as a private limited company on 12 March 1947.

Although, officially, PPH was established in 1942, after the CPI was legalised, but the underground "Communist Party of India" had already published booklets under the name "People's Publishing House" since 1921. In 1921 it published a 43 pages booklet titled "Thesis on the organization and Structure of the communist Parties". This booklet was also published in the same year in Hindi language as well. In 1935, PPH published "Frank Verulam's" 46 pages booklet titled "Imperialism and the People". In 1939, PPH published Dona Torr’s 31 pages booklet "From Imperialist War to People's War".

In 1942, CPI rented a three-storey house "Raj Bhuvan" on the Sandhurst Road (now Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Marg) of Bombay. CPI's Party Headquarters (popularly known as PHQ) was established in this building. Several senior leaders of CPI and other workers used to live and work in this PHQ along with their families. People's Publishing House (PPH) and Hand Composing section of New Age Printing Press was also housed in this Raj Bhuvan building. Hand Composing department of New Age Printing Press was located on the ground floor of Raj Bhuvan. Nearby on the "Khetwadi Road" another half portion of a building known as "RK Building" and top storey of one house was also rented by CPI. An English Linotype machine was established on the Khetwadi Road building, and New Age Printing Press was also housed there. PPH's retail office was established on the third floor of this building. On the First Floor of "RK Building", Photographer Sunil Janah used to have a Darkroom.

PC Joshi, the then General Secretary of CPI had started publication of its English Mouthpiece "People's War" and its Hindi edition "Lok Yuddh (लोक युद्ध)" on 2 October 1942, that was published from CPI Headquarters at "Raj Bhuvan" and printed from "New Age Printing Press" on "Khetwadi Road". After the end of Second World War, B.T. Ranadive had decided to change the name of "People's War" to "People's Age". In its formative years PPH only published Marxist Classics, Literature belonging to Second World War, and one or two story books by Soviet Writers. The first book probably came out of the press in November 1942, and it was Gangadhar Adhikari’s "From Peace Front to People's War". The First Edition that was published in November 1942 was in "Booklet Form". The Second Edition published in June 1944 was an enlarged one. Adhikari was the former General Secretary of CPI, who served on this position between 1933 and 1935. In 1942, PPH also published a 46 pages booklet by "Sharaf Athar Ali" titled "Against Hitler – The Voice of Free Germany". Mikhail Sholokhov’s story "Hate","Elena Kononenko's" story "Tanya" and Nikolai Tikhonov’s "Tales of Leningrad" were published by PPH in 1943, as separate booklets. Tanya was also translated into Gujrati and Urdu. Its Urdu translation was done by Ali Sardar Jafri. In 1943, PPH also reprinted "The Army of the Soviet Union" by "Prof. I Minz". This book was originally published a year before in 1942 from Moscow.

In April 1943, PPH published a pamphlet titled “Kisans on the March - For Food and Freedom” edited by the eminent communist leader E. M. S. Namboodiripad who later became the first chief minister of Kerala.

From 1943 onwards, PPH started to distribute Soviet Books into India. "National Book Agency (NBA)" which was based in Calcutta had started distributing Soviet Books in the year 1945. NBA was established by noted Marxist leader Muzaffar Ahmad along with his colleagues "Rebati Burman" and "Suren Kar" in 1939. NBA is still functioning in the present day from its historic premises "12 A, Bankim Chatterjee Street, Calcutta". Both PPH and NBA were the only distributor of Soviet Books in British India.

In 1944, PPH published Otto Kunsinen’s "Finland Unmasked", which was a 35 pages booklet and available for 6 Annas; Friedrich Engels

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