Print History: Ganga Press - Print comes to Pokhara

In 1850, the Prime Minister of Nepal and its de facto ruler, Bir Narsingh Kunwar, popularly known as Jung Bahadur (1817–1877), visited Europe. He spent a few months in London and returned via Paris and Bombay. During his visit, he met the most important personages in every city. In London, he met Queen Victoria and members of the British Government in the hope of establishing direct diplomatic ties between Nepal and the United Kingdom, rather than deal with the East India Company. Even more importantly, Jung Bahadur was fascinated by modern technology and lost no opportunity to visit factories, workshops and industrial exhibitions. Travelling without any budgetary constraints, he could spend vast sums of money on anything which caught his fancy. One of his acquisitions was a printing press. 

The printing press was set into operation after Jung Bahadur’s return to Kathmandu in 1851. This was one of the earliest instances in the Indian sub-continent of a princely kingdom establishing a printing press. Commonly known as the Giddhe Chhapkhana, it was located within the royal household. From the word giddhe, which refers to either an eagle or a vulture, one can surmise that the printing press was a Colombian printing press. It had, as its distinguishing feature, a bald eagle on its top lever which not only served as a counterweight but also as an ornament. Presumably, a font of Nagari type was also acquired, either at London or Calcutta, to print Nepali text. Some of the earliest imprints from this press were Nepali legal codes known as Muluki Ain. Though the first version of the legal code was compiled by 1854, it does not seem to have been printed until 1870 (Samvat 1927). This imprint, which runs to over 1200 pages, was printed at the Nepal Manoranjan Yantralaya. In the following decades, a few presses were established in Kathmandu, but they were under the direct control of court officials. 

Muluki Ain, printed in VS 1927 (1870) at Nepal Manoranjan Yantralaya, Kathmandu

However, this was not the earliest instance of printing in Nepal. The printing of texts using woodblocks, otherwise known as xylography, was well established in Nepal, especially in its Tibetan Buddhist culture. In Kathmandu, the ancient Buddhist pilgrimage site of Bouddha was a major printing centre. Since this technique did not require a printing machine, printing could be done wherever the carved woodblocks were available. Since most of these imprints are undated, it is difficult to precisely date the antiquity of this form of printing in Nepal. 

In spite of this head start, Nepal did not make any significant strides in printing. A few commercial presses were in operation in Kathmandu in the early decades of the twentieth century. The rulers of the Rana dynasty, like many other dynasts in the region, looked upon print with suspicion and exercised firm control on it. This led to the development of an alternative Nepali print centre in Banaras, the city where many Nepali exiles lived. The earliest Nepali printing in Banaras can be traced to the 1880s. Publication houses such as Gorkha Yantralaya, Nepali Pustakalaya and The Prabhakari Company produced a wide range of print products—religious texts, poetry, stories, erotica, calendars, magazines—that were exported to Nepal. The Nepali government kept a close watch on expatriate Nepali writers and publishers and suppressed any publications which offended them. Such was the stranglehold on print of the Rana dynasty that even Pokhara, the second-largest city in Nepal, did not have a printing press nearly a century after the Giddhe Chhapkhana was established. 

Columbian Press, an early model

A Revolution Brews
From the start of the twentieth century, the rulers of Nepal had ruthlessly suppressed any attempts to criticise or challenge their government. Writers and rebels went into self-imposed exile in India, presses were shut down and protestors executed. By the 1930s, the battlelines had been drawn for a three-cornered power struggle between the ruling Rana dynasty, the titular Shah dynasty and nationalist forces which first gathered around the Praja Parishad, and later, the Nepali Congress. Events unfolded rapidly in 1950; King Tribhuvan exiled himself to India; his infant grandson Gyanendra was appointed king by Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher Rana; and, the Nepali Congress resolved to take up arms against the Rana. 

Though much of the action happened in Kathmandu, Pokhara also witnessed significant protests and upheavals. One of the young men from Pokhara who found themselves deeply involved in the Nepali Congress movement was Ram Bahadur Badgami (1930–2022). Badgami was deputed to Banaras, the nerve centre of the opposition forces. His presence would, it was hoped, open up a direct line of communication between the leaders in Banaras and the activists in Pokhara. At Banaras, Badgami was involved in producing pamphlets and posters and dispatching them to various parts of Nepal. He may well have worked on a printing press himself and familiarised himself with the rudiments of printing. Badgami was also part of the team which planned the armed uprising in late 1950. 

A compromise between the three parties was effected in early 1951 under the auspices of the Indian government. An interim government was formed with Mohan Shumsher as the prime minister but by the end of the year, he had been replaced by a leader of the Nepali Congress. Elections to the Nepali parliament were held and a new constitution came into force. Reminiscing about his participation in the historic revolution, Badgami recalls how it was instrumental in introducing him to printing: 

A revolution, which lasted seven years, ended the century-long autocratic Rana regime which had been an obstacle to the progress of the country and its people. Thousands of young people participated in that revolution and I was one of them. Some of us young men from Pokhara decide to organise the local unit of the Nepali Congress. Even though I had no formal education and was merely literate, I could understand the practical issues as I was the son of a businessman. I was raised by a single mother and was beyond the control of my family. As I didn't have a job, I was free to get involved in organizational activities. When I reached the centre [at Banaras], I sometimes had to go to the printing press to get propaganda material. During my frequent visits to the press, I had the opportunity to see how printing was done. After the revolution, I started living in the capital [Kathmandu]. While working for the party, I frequently had to go to the press. It enabled me to get more information about the operations of a printing press.  

The next few years, until 1960, were years of relative peace. It seemed to be the perfect time to start new enterprises and Ram Bahadur Badgami, now in his twenties, aimed to do just that. 

Print comes to Pokhara
Before the opening of Raxaul-Birganj route from the Indian plains to Kathmandu, the route from Sonauli to Pokhara via Butwal was the main highway into Nepal. The new route, later known as the Tribhuvan Highway, facilitated direct access to Kathmandu. With the development of a narrow gauge railway from Raxaul to Amlekhganj and a ropeway for transporting goods in the 1920s, the importance of Pokhara continued to diminish. Much of the population was illiterate; facilities for health and education were meagre; and its economy, largely dependent on agriculture, stagnated. With the coming of a new ruling dispensation, things began to gradually change. New schools with a modern curriculum were established; a few industries were set up; electric power supply, though erratic, was available. With the building of new roads, Pokhara was now more easily accessible from Kathmandu. 

The feuding parties: Prime minister Mohan Shumsher Rana, King Tribhuvan and BP Koirala of the Nepali Congress, Kathmandu, 1951

It was under these circumstances that Ram Bahadur Badgami set up a printing press in Pokhara. In an interview with Keshavraj Parajuli, Badgami recalls the events which led to the foundation of the press: 

Around the year [1953], I obtained a license for a touring cinema and went to Butwal to exhibit films. Tickets had to be printed to for every show of the cinema. At Butwal, Yagya Prasad Shrestha ran a printing house named Nirmal Press where I got the tickets printed. Since I regularly visited the printing press, I noticed that one of the printing machines was always idle. Out of curiosity, I asked the proprietor one day: "Sahuji, I never see that machine running. Is it because it is not working or is there some other reason?" He replied, “I used to run that machine when the scale of our operations was small; but once its capacity proved to be insufficient, I bought a larger printing machine on which all the work is now done. If there is a minor print job, I run the old machine.”

It occurred to me that no one had yet ventured to set up a printing house in Pokhara. And the likelihood of anybody doing so was very low for the next eight to ten years. If I could procure this small machine and set it up in Pokhara, it would be said that there is a printing press in Pokhara too. The pace of development in Pokhara was slow, but with time, all modern things, such as the touring cinema, would arrive in the city. If I could get a printer to come with me and train a couple of people for a month or two, the printing press could be set into motion. If necessary, I could ask my mother, my brother and his wife to work on the press. It may take a while but printing jobs could eventually be found in Pokhara. 

Having resolved to set up a press, I approached Shrestha, "If someone offers to buy this press, would you sell it to him?” He replied, "Why do I have to sell it? Its not as if I have to feed it when it is idle. A variety of print jobs come to the press, and if it is a small one, this press is also worked. There is no reason to sell it.” But I persisted, “There is no printing press in Pokhara yet. If you sell it to me, I would install it there. You will benefit from the transaction.” It was unlikely that the press would be profitable from the very start. I thought it would be a small step towards the development of Pokhara. Once he agreed to sell the press, I engaged porters to carry the printing press and other printing paraphernalia from Butwal to Pokhara. 

The press, which began operations in 1955/56, was named Ganga Press by Ram Bahadur Badgami. Its initial machinery consisted of a foot-operated treadle machine with a platen size of 10x15-inch, a paper cutting machine and a perforating machine. Besides other printing essentials, it also had fonts of English and Nepali type. Badgami had hired a printer named Lakshmiprasad Napit to operate the press. Napit ran the press for two years and trained others on how to run it. Business was slow for the first three years but the announcement of general elections to be held in February-March 1959 proved to be a godsend for the press. As a member of the Nepali Congress, Badgami got the contract to print all the electioneering material for its candidates in the nearby constituencies. After the formation of a new government by the Nepali Congress with BP Koirala as prime minister, the pace of change further increased. Just when it looked like democracy had taken root in Nepal, the government was dismissed by King Mahendra in December 1960. He also dissolved parliament and set up a new system of governance by panchayat in which political parties had no role to play. Since the Ganga Press was the only press in Pokhara, its activities were closely monitored. Though it received some monetary compensation, it was effectively under government control. 

Ram Bahadur Badgami (1930-2022)

In spite of the clamp down on publishing, new printing presses and newspapers were founded in Pokhara in the following years. The operations of the Ganga Press were taken over by other members of the Badgami family. Ram Bahadur Badgami continued to be active in public life until his death in 2022.