PHD in the origin and development of the printing industry

When Dr Vipul Shankar Pandya says printing is in his blood, it is not a hyperbole. In fact, the owner of Varanasi’s Ratna Offsets, now with a branch in Ahmedabad, is the keeper to a 120-year-old printing legacy, a witness to the making of modern India in the company of Annie Besant and Madan Mohan Malaviya.

When he shifted base to Ahmedabad in 2011 to start a brand new print set-up, the fraternity used to refer to him as the owner of Varanasi’s Ratna Offsets. There is, however, more to the man than meets the eye.

An enthusiast for teaching and learning, Dr Pandya has a doctorate in print history, and he is well versed in several languages, including Bengali, Hindi, English, Sanskrit and Gujarati.

Dr Pandya started his printing career in Varanasi by setting up a letterpress composition firm and moved into commercial printing by 1984.

In 1992, his desire to go back to studying translated into a Masters degree in history. Then he went on to do a PhD on the Origin and Development of the Printing Industry, later published by the Rashtrabhasha Parishad of the Bihar government.

Connecting to the past
It all started in 1894, when, soon after her arrival to India as a member of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant met Dr Pandya’s great-grandfather, Shankar Nath Pandya, and dispatched him to England to procure a printing press. The firm Dr Pandya’s great-grandfather established in Varanasi with Besant and Madan Mohan Malaviya, was called Freeman & Co. In the beginning, the press mainly supported the printing needs of the Theosophical Society, the Banaras Hindu University, and the Indian National Congress.

The Pandya family has been running the company ever since, though the establishment has undergone several changes, including a change of name to Ratna Offsets and its status to a public limited company.

The press Shankar Nath Pandya commissioned was a Dawson Payne Elliott sheetfed rotary letterpress machine, which was perhaps the first letterpress in North India that could print 8-page and 16-page forms.

Dr Pandya’s great grandfather, Shankar Nath Pandya, commissioned a Dawson Payne Elliott sheetfed rotary letterpress machine, which was perhaps the first letterpress in North India that could print 8-page and 16-page forms.

Dr Pandya says the press also worked in close association with the leaders like Gandhi and Nehru. Thus, it is but natural that altruism should be a part of his outlook as well.

Dr Pandya, who now resides in Ahmedabad, is a part of Junior Chamber, a club that conducts training and seminars for the youth.

He also conducts sessions on personality development at IIM, Ahmedabad, and organises music festivals through Navrang, a society he has founded.

This is not all. Dr Pandya is also a published writer with several books and journal articles to his credit, besides a plethora of awards, including the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award in printing.