DiscoverBangalore Special Feature

MPP is a slice of history and Bangalore’s old world charm tucked away just behind Tribhuvan theatre in Gandhi Nagar. Three generations have contributed to its success making it India’s oldest and renowned law book house. It’s a known haunt for budding lawyers, seasoned advocates, judges and researchers besides Karnataka’s well known legal luminaries.Every law school library stocks books from MPP and it does brisk business in pre law books too. But I missed the place in spite of clear directions by the elderly C.A.Gopinath (74). Maybe, lost in my wandering thoughts of how this area bustled in the pre Independent and Independent Karnataka era I did not raise my head to look for a first floor building.

“The business was started by my father Sri. C. Aswathnarayana Rao in 1925.The Makkla Pusthaka Press and Publishing House published a children’s Kannada journal, the first of its kind in Karnataka. The stories were based on child psychologist Arthur Mee’s children’s encyclopedia. We closed the publication in 1955. Then we started selling law books, another first of its kind then and now. Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya was a regular visitor here”, says Mr. Gopinath nostalgically.

Mr. Aswathnarayana Rao, as old timers recall was a staunch nationalist (he was prevailed upon to accept the Tamra patra-copper citation) and the first to be imprisoned from Bangalore in 1929 and also during the Quit India movement. A student of Dr. Annie Besant he lived with Jiddu at Adyar, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Rukmini Arundale, Gandhiji, Nehru, Mrinalini Sarabhai, M.S. Subbulakshmi to name a few. Gopinath tells me that the jail did not have his father’s imprisonment records and the same were obtained from the High court. He was a father figure for well known congress leaders of Karnataka like K.C.Reddy; Siddalingaiah etc. He started a newspaper “Navajeevana” selling it for one kasu (194 kasus to a rupee) in the 20’s that gave a stiff competition to P.R. Ramaiah’s Tayinadu.

As a child of ten, Mr. Gopinath’s interest was kindled in the book house and this helped in making MPP what it is today when he took over the reins sixteen years ago. A rare kind of business man on the verge of extinction, his five crore turnover business, is anchored on the time tested mode of personalized service. Even today Mr. Gopinath travels extensively for marketing and procuring books. “We import most of the law books from UK and USA. We have contacts with all the legal institutions in India. Any law book published anywhere in the world sits comfortably in the book racks here. Even publishers like Cambridge and Oxford do not stock legal books, it’s only against orders.” The passion in his voice and eyes is not to be missed. But he rues that reading habits are on the decline.

As I am taken around the new AC show room that was added to offset the constraint of space in the old premises, the foreign publication books from leading publishers like Butleworth, Sweet Maxwell, West etc sit elegantly with books on BARE Acts, IPC etc. Mr. Gopinath added that since Indian books are cheaper than in the West we get enquiries and sales too from many S.E Asian and African countries besides some westerners tourists.

A sepia picture of family members taken on Ayudha pooja in 1930 in the old building catches my attention. I am told that it was the Congress office (Old Mysore State) situated in Balepet till 1942, before it shifted to Arcot Srinivasachar Street- today’s BVK Iyengar Road. The books perched precariously on the racks that spill on to the floor, the unpretentious office space of the father and son and the generous three books gifted and the sepia reminder- its heritage indeed.

Like his father, Gopinath too suggests the best reference books when one is in a dilemma and also gives legal advice to friends. “Ratan Lal’s book on IPC, a standard book was suggested by my father to a budding advocate who was a leading judge who consulted this book to argue a case and won it” adds Gopinath with a chuckle.

Meanwhile let us celebrate what is still surviving amidst sassy glass, steel combos and svelte wannabes.

MPP House
MPP Law Agency
(Law books suppliers, publishers & Distributors)
#87, 1st Cross, Gandhinagar
Bangalore 560 009
Ph: 22260706/ 22265901
E mail: mpphouse@vsnl.com