It was founded by Ranjitram Mehta with the aim of creating literature appealing to all classes of society and cultivating a literary sense among the people.

Many prominent people including Mahatma Gandhi and Kanaiyalal Munshi have presided over the organisation.

The prizes given every two years are:[7] Gujarati Sahitya Parishad was fined by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in February 2022 for cutting trees illegally.

Parishad also deleted this episode of illegally cutting trees from its annual report, which is again a breach by a public institution.

Parishad received a lot of negative publicity in newspapers for this illegal and unethical conduct.