Journalism in Post-Independence India

Journalism in Post-Independence India

                  

Era of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

It is said that in the post-independence era, under the Prime minister-ship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the freedom of the press was respected after a long hiatus of toil and turmoil under the British clamps. As the first Prime minister of this country, Jawaharlal Nehru never shied away from criticism. He strongly believed in the freedom of the press. 

M. Chalapathy Rau writes in his article, “The press after Nehru”, in the Economic Weekly, “It was a part of his liberal outlook and a part of his upbringing in Liberal England…To Jawaharlal Nehru, who was accustomed to self-inquisition and self-criticism, criticism was the breath of life and had to be tolerated. No other public man of his standing tolerated criticism as much as he did. It was the democratic way of life, and life itself. To him, journalism was neither history nor literature in a hurry; it was a part of action, political action, social action.” (Rau, 1964)

Nehru once said: “To my mind the freedom of the press is not just a slogan from the larger point of view, but it is an essential attribute of the democratic process. I have no doubt that even if the Government dislikes the liberties taken by the press and considers them dangerous, it is wrong to interfere with the freedom of the press. I would rather have a completely free press with all the dangers involved in the wrong use of that freedom than a suppressed or a regulated press” (Padhy and Sahu, 2005:110).

However, there was one occasion that Nehru did have to take a stand on Press freedom as it was fanning communal riots within the country and dividing India. In the year 1951, On October 23^rd, he passed the new Act called “The Press Objectionable Matters Act”. The only reason was to prevent papers that indulged in propagating communal division through pictures and words. The act was similar to the legislation passed by the Britishers in the early 20^th century. 

Objectionable matters included any words, signs, or visible representations which were likely to incite or encourage any person to resort to violence or sabotage for the purpose of overthrowing or undermine the Government, or to interfere with supply and distribution of food or other essential commodities or services (Ravindran, 1997:25, Shodhganga). However, the fact that Nehru was a liberal man couldn’t be contested.

Era of Indira Gandhi

It is said that during the Chinese Aggression, when an Emergency was declared in 1961, Nehru’s stance on curbing the press was minimal as compared to the clamp placed during the tenure of the prime ministership of his daughter, Indira Gandhi.

The First Press Commission estimated that the total circulation of the 300 or so daily newspapers being published in India in 1953 was 2.53 million. This worked out to 5.40 copies per 1000 in the population against the backdrop of an all India literacy level of 16.40 per cent. From such a low base, India’s daily newspaper circulation climbed slowly to 3.15 million in 1957 and 5.11 million in 1962. It would take the press three decades after the attainment of Independence to cross the 10 million mark and, in a manner of speaking, join the ranks of the ‘Mass media’. It would take thirty-two years of Independence for the total circulation of Hindi daily newspapers finally to overtake the total circulation of English language newspapers in India. (Ray)

It is to be noted here that the freedom of the press was totally subjugated under the leadership of late Indira Gandhi. The Emergency in 1971, due to the war with Pakistan was the worst ever period in the history of the Press after Freedom. Under her leadership, she sought to bring in a rule that limits publication to around 15,000 in quantity.

“On December 4th the Defence and Internal Security of India Act was signed into law. This Act prohibited the printing or publishing of any newspaper, book or other document detrimental to the defence and security of India; it provided for the demand of security from any newspaper or publisher or the forfeiture of security already given; it empowered the Government to confiscate copies of any printed matter which might be inflammatory and to close down the presses; and it empowered the state and local Governments to impose censorship” (Karkhanis, 1981:130).

Era of Morarji Desai

The press was in tatters. When Indira Gandhi lost her power and Morarji Desai was voted to power, freedom of the press was restored back again. He repealed the Prevention of Publication of the Objectionable Matter Act of 1976 with the due procedural approval of both the houses in the Parliament on the behest of his Minister for Information and Broadcasting, L.K. Advani, who was also a journalist by profession and had been imprisoned during the emergency.

However, by 1979, Morarji Desai lost power and Indira Gandhi returned. This time again, the press faced hostility but not as severe as it was during the emergency. However, many State governments too ignored the Press. After Indira Gandhi was killed in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi rose to power on a wave of sympathy by the people. Freedom of Press was restored again. 

Era of Rajiv Gandhi

But Rajiv Gandhi too became wary of the press towards 1988 and the negativity garnered about his government due to press reportage. So, just like his mother, he too brought in a ‘Defamation bill’ that intended to curb the freedom of the Press but was not able to do so as the bill was not approved at its initial stage. Rajiv Gandhi who was liberal could not handle the negativity from the press after a few years. 

Later years...

However, the press was seemingly free albeit the influence and the economical pressures that came in the long run. Development Journalism and Journalists of repertoire were popular.

Newspapers continue to provide information, entertainment, edutainment and a good dose of Yellow journalism too. Unlike the yester years, newspapers today include news with a lot of features for students for fashion, for style, for environment, etc. The papers run into pages catering to varied topics of news of the state, of the country, world news, business and sports. Today most of these are also available in their Online formats. 

The 21^st century however has seen to extreme monetisation and corporatisation of the Press at large, News is compromised at the alter of Advertisement to garner the much- needed revenue to run a newspaper. Most corporates run a newspaper and a news channel along with a website. Technology has jumped leaps and bounds.

While newspapers, still continue to provide information and there are many that continue to remain true to the roots of journalism, there are others who do not mind putting a spin on the news to suit their corporate owners and the political parties that fund them. Many deserving plights of the people are not brought to the forum due to fear of a backlash from particular political parties. 

Although newspapers do provide news, it is mostly news that has been retrieved from News sources and news service portals or news agencies. There are very few journalists on their foot. The news room in many television channels has become a war zone, often on the basis of who said what to whom and why, rather than raising issues. A few issues do get raised but these are overridden with other debates. Many newspapers and news channels toe-the-line of the Government and the Corporate businesses who have major shares in their firm.  However, in return many journalists have turned to Social networking forums to provide news snippets that are not doctored or at the mercy of the State and other Corporates.

Journalism is the fourth pillar of Democracy and has contributed massively to the development of the country. It continues to do so due to the many untarnished journalists available in the country at large. However, there is a need to protect the integrity of the journalists. 

On its part, the Press should be encouraged to play a restraint on sensitive topics that divide the country or issues of security. But should be asked to focus on journalism the leads to development of all its citizens rather than the table top journalism and the page three stuff (focus on Parties and dressing) that most news forums are catering too.

ROLE OF PRESS IN INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE

ROLE OF PRESS IN INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE

Sis Michelle Notes, Unit 2, 2.4

Literature has always been a part of Indian History from ancient times. However, the very concept of newspapers was a western concept that was promulgated in India by the Britishers. While, most of the Britishers initially started the newspapers, the people of the Country, gradually took over with great gusto the pen- a tool mightier than the sword in the world of newspaper publishing. 

The newspapers indeed became a channel of information, education and awareness. They were the major contributors in the freedom struggle under the patronage of Stalwart leaders and Social reformists who were bold and courageous and took to the pen in various corners of India to garner people’s attention to their plight and to unite them to fight against tyranny, domination and atrocities. Some of these papers who stood apart and contributed to the freedom struggle are mentioned in this article.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, popular social reformist who was known for his intellectual skills and his strong opinion against social evils like Sati, brought out a newspaper himself. Roy wrote many articles opposing Sati and other social evils that had ingrained themselves in Hindu culture. He wrote against the orthodox ideas that perpetrated these social evils in religion. He was not in favour of the Serampore missionaries who were promoting Christianity either. His paper ‘Bangadoot’ which was published in 1829 was actually printed in four languages. Namely English, Bangla, French, and Nagree (Hindi dialect) which highlighted all the above issues.

A Marathi weekly, 'Prabhakar’ which was edited by Govind Vitthal Kunte, who was popularly known as ‘Bhau Mahajan’ was published in the year 1841.  Prabhakar was popular for its stance on Swabhasha, Swadeshi and Swa-sanskruti,  which basically meant, ‘our language, our country and our culture’ and had its run for almost 25 years.  He is considered as the first professional Marathi Journalist and his paper catered to social reform.

Bringing in reform came another paper in 1851 called the Rast Goftar published by the popular freedom fighter and social reformer Dadabhai Nowroji in Anglo-Gujarati, who gradually reached out to all Indians through his publishing. 

The Hindu Patriot was an English newspaper which also played a very important role in conscientising people about the Indigo planters who oppressed the peasants and the imperial laws like the immigration bill, etc,. The paper was initially published on January 6, 1853 by Madhusudan Roy under the editorship of Girish Chandra Ghosh. But, it was later purchased by Harish Chandra Mukherjee. However, Harish Chandra named his Brother Haran Chandra as the Proprietor to shield himself from the Military Audit General under whom he officiated.

In 1857, a paper with strong Political views with a view of Hindu-Muslim unity for the freedom of India was ‘Payam-e-Azadi’ which was the brainchild of Azimullah Khan and edited by Mirza Bedar Bhakt. Azimullah Khan was well aware of the divide and rule policy and he tried his best to conscientize the people about the same through his paper. Gautam Chattopadhyay in his article ‘Petition, Protest and Revolt- The changing face of the Anti-Imperialist Press in India 1857- 1947’ writes that “The paper started publication from Delhi in February 1857 in Hindi-Urdu and right from May 1857 it openly supported the rebels. In September 1857, its Marathi edition was published from Jhansi and it became truly the central organ of the revolt. Copies of this journal are now available only in the British Library.” (Johansson, 1989)

In the year 1862, another Hindi paper that was started in Bombay was called the Induprakash by Vishnu Parshuram Pandit which rallied itself for the Indian freedom Movement by publishing political articles.

Girish Chandra Ghosh started an English newspaper in 1862 called The Bengalee. This paper too supported the freedom struggle and did have a good circulation. However, it is said that when it took a moderate stand on Swadeshi, the circulation was hit. This newspaper saw various phases as it was made into a morning and evening edition for urban and rural areas with the names The Bengalee for the morning and The Calcutta Evening News for the evening paper. However, the paper The Bengalee could not survive and was finally again made into one newspaper and renamed as The Star of India.

Amrita Bazaar Patrika was another English newspaper that contributed greatly to journalism and especially to the freedom struggle in India. The paper was initially in Bengali language but gradually became a bilingual and began its print in English. Today the place where this paper was initially printed exists in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was a weekly printed by Moti Lal and Sisir Ghosh in Bengali and launched on  February 20, 1868.  It is said that both Sisir and Moti Lal vehemently opposed the economic exploitation of India and the restriction on an individual’s civil liberties. They were close friends of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and went into great depths at exposing the atrocities and loop holes of the British Administration in India. It was a weekly that became a daily in 1891 and was one among the first one’s in India to enter into the genre of Investigative journalism. Despite many attempts at trying to dissuade the nationalistic activities, including cases of sedition and imprisonment on its editors at various times, this paper stood the test and kept on promulgating the cause of India’s freedom.

The Statesman too was an English newspaper that emerged from the merging of two newspapers called The Englishman and Friend of India. It was started in 1875. The Statesman was a paper worth acknowledgement. It opposed the decision of making Delhi the capital of India instead of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Ian M Stephens, the editor of the newspaper, who was disappointed that the world was not taking note of the drastic conditions of the Bengal famine (1943- 1944) due to the deliberate clamp on the freedom of the Press, printed a group of pictures which actually put Bengal famine in the limelight much to the dismay of the Administration. It is said The Statesman stood its ground in also opposing Indira Gandhi during the Emergency.

Vishnushastri Krushnashastri Chiplunkar was another prolific writer who wrote political articles that criticised the British Colonial rule and the Christian Missionaries in a Marathi paper called ‘Shalapatrak’ started by his father, Krushnashastri Chiplunkar, but had to be shut down in 1875 due to the controversies it got embroiled into for its stance. He then started another monthly called the ‘Nibhandmala’ a Marathi language Magazine which meant ‘a garland of essays’. The magazine had revolutionary ideas and which had a run for almost 12 years with almost all the essays contributed by him. He also teamed up with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar in 1880 for Kesari in Marathi and Mahratta in English. To familiarise people with Marathi History and poetry, he started another monthly in 1878 called Kavyetihas Sangraha and went on to establish two presses and a bookshop.

Bal Gangadhar Lokmanya Tilak, the popular freedom fighter himself started Kesari in 1881, a paper whose writings were aglow with the fire of freedom, swadeshi and social- reforming ideas. He sparked political and social upheavals with his bold and impressive writings. The Kesari was a huge success. He also started the Mahratta in English. Kesari stoked the fire of freedom and had a very huge number of subscriptions. Tilak with his zeal and passion for Swaraj (freedom) had the knack of touching people’s hearts and winning them over  through various initiatives like the Ganesh Mandali’s and his love and defence of Shivaji. Kesari became a powerful weapon in the fight against British rule in India.

In 1883, a bi-lingual journal in Hindi -English called 'Hindusthan' was begun by Raja Rampal Singh which was printed in London and had a subscription of Rs 10. He was the Talukdar of Kalakankar. On his return to India, he purchased a press and began publishing the same in three languages, namely, English, Hindi and Urdu. But by 1885, it had become nationalist in its views, was pro-Hindi and published as a Hindi daily.  This daily stopped its publication by the year 1912.

Saraswati, Abhyudaya (1900), and many other papers revolutionised the era in their times. Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, was a man known for his expertise in literature, history. It was under his editorship that ‘Saraswati’, a newspaper in Khadi Hindi, gained huge prominence.

A sub-editor named Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi contributed his mite to ‘Saraswati’ too. At a later stage, in 1913, Vidyarthi started his own newspaper called ‘Pratap’ which gained huge popularity. He was a social reformist and often highlighted in his paper the plight of the suffering farmers of Rae Bareilly and other suffering people in the Indian states.


Jugantar Patrika (1906) was another Bengali revolutionary newspaper founded in Calcutta by Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Abhinash Bhattacharya and Bhupendranath Dutt. The journal led to the formation of the Jugantar group who were heavily punished and even deported for their ideas, works and views which also included use of violence against Britishers. It was also critical of the ideology of the Indian National Congress. It carried numerous articles of Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Aurobindo Ghosh who were revolutionaries. 

The paper had a good readership of almost 20,000 copies and was primarily targeted towards the youth with the desire to politically motivate them and was priced those days at one paisa. 
Bhupendranath Dutt who was the editor till 1907, was punished for writing articles that the British claimed were inciting violence against them. It had to shut down its operations by 1908.

Although initially, most Tamil newspapers did not have problem with the government as there were no objectionable views. But towards the twentieth century there was a turn around. Papers like the Swadesmitran, the Hindu and the Swaraj were all printed from Tamil Nadu. At this point a Tamil periodical that created waves of patriotic fervour was S. N. Thirumalachari’s, ‘India’ which was published on May 6, 1906. The periodical is said to be one of the first one’s to publish cartoons that had political messages in the history of Indian journalism. The paper boldly carried articles and songs that were nationalistic in nature. Thus, was laid a foundation of a bold Press that supported the Indian Freedom movement in Tamil Nadu. “From the India office, many pamphlets and booklets were published about the Swadeshi propaganda and speeches of the extremists. The famous speech of Tilak on the ‘Tenets of the New party’ at the College Square in Calcutta was translated into Tamil by Subramania Bharati and published in February 1907. It was printed at the India Printing Works, Broadway, and the same place where India periodical was printed. The Speeches of B.C. Pal (in Madras), Life of Aurobindo Ghosh and Congress Yatra were printed and distributed from India newspaper office press. [6] (Sakthivel R., 2015)

When ‘India's’ printing had to be stalled dues to problems with the British Government, the printing was continued from Pondicherry which at that point of time was not under British rule. Thus, Tamil Nadu contributed massively to the growth of the Vernacular journalism.

Another newspaper which albeit had a short run was strongly patriotical and published in Urdu was ‘Swarajya’ which was published from 1907 to 1910 .Gautam Chattopadhyay in his article ‘Petition, Protest and Revolt- The changing face of the Anti-Imperialist Press In India 1857- 1947 writes that Swarajya a weekly, “denounced Bristish Rule in India week after week in scathing terms and called for the overthrow of British Rule in India. During four years of its existence, it suffered an ordeal unique in the annals of Indian journalism. Its successive editors were Shanti Narayan, Ram Das Suralia, Motilal Verma, Babu Ram Hari, Munshi Ram Sewak, Nanda Gopal Chopra, Sham Das Verma, ‘Field Marshal’ Ladha Ram Kapur and finally Amir Chand Bombwal. All the editors, except the last one, were tried and convicted by the British in a barbarous manner. They suffered long terms of rigorous imprisonment and deportation to the Andamans. (Johansson, 1989)

Among the most prominent names, we also have papers like ‘The Leader’ from Allahabad, ‘The Bombay Chronicle’, ‘The Hindustan times’, etc. Founded by Madan Mohan Malviya on October 24, 1909 in Allahabad, ‘The Leader’ had a long run till Sept. 6, 1967 and was considered to be an influential newspaper in English run by Indians due to its politically charged stance. The Paper also carried numerous writings by Mahatma Gandhi. The chief-editor was C. Y. Chintamani. It is said that Motilal Nehru was also partly associated with this newspaper. However, he and C. Y. Chintamani had a clash which gradually led to Motilal Nehru quitting the Paper.

                                                           THE BOMBAY CHRONICLE

Another English Paper which was known for its raconteur and its political content especially during the upheavals and the freedom struggles was The Bombay Chronicle started by a lawyer, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. This paper had a run from 1910 to 1959.

'Vijay' another Hindi newspaper that worked immensely for the Freedom struggle was launched in the year 1918 in Delhi by Pt. Indra Vidya Vachaspati. This paper was inspired by Swami Sraddhanand who contributed many Nationalist articles. It strongly opposed the Rowlatt Act with  a series of articles well scripted by Swami Sraddhanand a lawyer by profession who was very meticulate in his opinion so that it could not be retaliated to or pulled down by the Britishers.   But after his departure to Lahore, the paper could not survive and succumbed in 1920.

Another great journalist and intellectual who shaped Marathi Journalism and in the long run, was the primary brain-child behind the Indian Constitution was Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. On January 31, 1920, he started his first newspaper, 'Mooknayak', which only ran for three years and focussed on Dalit issues. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar also “found three more newspapers – 'Bahishkrut Bharat' (1927-1929), Janata (1930-56), and 'Prabuddha Bharat' (1956). He was directly involved in the editorial management of the first two newspapers, Mooknayak and Bahishkrut Bharat. From 1930 onwards, he delegated the task to his most important colleagues, such as, Devrao Naik, B.R. Kadrekar, G.N. Sahastrabuddhe, R.D. Bhandare, and B.C. Kamble. Interestingly, Naik, Kadrekar and Sahastrabuddhe were not Dalits”. (Prabodhan Pol, thewire)

The Hindustan Times  was involved equally in the contribution towards the cause of Freedom. It was founded by Sunder Singh of the Akali Movement in 1924 and had for in its managing committee the dynamic freedom fighter, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Master Tara Singh. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi was himself present at the launch of this Paper. This paper survived the Test of time and exists even today. It is said that due to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya’s dynamism, that The Hindustan Times was able to launch its Hindi version called the Hindustan Dainik in 1936. It contributed a great deal to the Indian freedom struggle with its journalism.

There were other papers that contributed to nationalism, freedom from the tyranny of Britishers and Hindu -Muslim unity. These include popular newspapers like ‘Biswamitra’ or ‘Viswamitra’ in 1916 started by Mahendra Chandra Aggarwal. 

‘Swarajya’ started in 1920 by T Prakasham, ‘Sainik’ by Krishna Dutt Paliwal in Agra, ‘Desh’ by Babu Rajendra Prasad in Patna, Swami Shradhanand’s ‘Vir Arjun’ and two other magazines, namely, ‘Nrisinha’ and ‘Devnagar’ were all popular in their era. 

Svatantra- a paper which was the mouthpiece of the Congress was begun by Ambikaprasad Bajpeyi on August 4, 1920. This paper became extremely popular as it carried the minutest details of Gandhiji's Non co-operation movement. The feature of this newspaper that stood out was the appointment of Women journalists to cover reportage of Women's meetings. It carried commercial news, had Market rates and also carried special features during the festival of Holi and Diwali. This paper however, did not have a long run as it succumbed to Press Ordinance act in 1930 where it was asked to deposit a security of Rs 5000/- .

Another paper with the same title of ‘Swatantra’ started in 1939 by Puranchand Gupta and Jagdish Chandra Kulsia. This paper was gradually launched as ‘Dainik Jagran’ which is very popular and has a huge readership today.

Another paper that brought in a revolution and popularised Hindi was ‘Aaj’ by Shiv Prasad Gupta on September 5, 1920 from Benaras with Baburao Vishnu Paradkar as its editor. The paper grew in circulation and was hailed for its stand on nationalism under the brilliant editing skills of Paradkar.

Abhyudaya by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was a hindi weekly, also contributed massively to the Indian freedom struggle. At a later stage he also founded the ‘Hindustan Dainik’ in Hindi in 1936 which rose to popularity.

After his return from Africa, Gandhiji revolutionised the phase in India’s struggle for freedom by steering the Satyagraha, Dandi March, Salt Satyagraha, Non-Violence Movement, promotion of Khadi and the use of the Press. His contribution to journalism was seen in all his newspapers like ‘Young India, Indian Opinion, Navajivan, Harijan in English, Harijan Bandu in Gujarati and Harijan Sevak in Hindi.

Around the year 1904, it is said that Gandhiji received a proposal in Johannesburg, to take over  a weekly. Thus, began the venture of 'Indian Opinion'  which was a multilingual weekly, largely financed by Gandhi. He initially began it with Mansukhlal Nazar as his editor, but due to a huge loss of over 200 pounds, was compelled to take up the editorship himself and transfer the printing to Phoenix where Rustomji Parsi helped with its finances.  

In India, Gandhiji also launched a Gujarati newspaper on October 7, 1919 called the Navajivan and 8 October 1919, he launched an English Daily called the 'Young India'. Navajivan- the Gujarati newspaper actually became popular and had a circulation of 12000 copies as compared to 1200 copies of Young India, which led Gandhiji to launch a Hindi version of the paper Navajivan on August 19, 1921. Although, it is said that the subscriptions of the Hindi 'Navajivan' dropped down considerably from 12000 to 1400. 

YOUNG INDIA NEWSPAPER

Indian was and continues to have an ingrained caste system. Despite the modern era, in many parts of India, this caste discrimination continues to be upheld. 'Harijan' was a word used by Gandhi to address 'the untouchables' in order to encourage people to overcome this discrimination. He gradually started a newspaper called 'Harijan' in English February 11, 1933 from the Yerwada Jail in Pune where he was imprisoned by the Britishers. He gradually launched the Hindi edition of the same paper on February 23 1933 from Delhi with Viyogi Hari as the editor and titled it as 'Harijan Sevak'. He drew the financial support for this paper from Ghansyamdas Birla. The Britishers were vary of Harijan and asked Gandhi to submit the paper for proof reading before printing. Gandhi refused the same with the demand that Freedom of the Press was his Right. The paper succumbed for this reason by its tenth issue. Gradually due to financial losses these  papers closed down too.  

The newspapers were a weapon that silently and non-violently stoked the fire of freedom all across India and the British Government grew wary of its reach and power. At the height of this movement, the British Government brought in the Press Act 1910, due to which within a few years over 350 printing presses were punished with penalisation and almost 300 newspapers were asked for security deposits. The pressurisation, penalisation and harassment led to the closure of almost 200 papers. However, this only catapulted the freedom movement as this act of penalising and trying to shut down the voices of the locals only confirmed the mismanagement in India and the cruelty shown towards Indians by the East India company and the Britishers. 

There were many pamphlets and papers printed and circulated anonymously to ignite the freedom struggle. The slogan, “the pen is mightier than the sword” proved itself true in the struggle for freedom, the demand for economic liberties and civil rights as citizens of a country and right to freedom of speech. It is the obligation of every citizen of this country to uphold these rights as these were gifted to us through the ordeal and zeal of great socially reforming journalists of great calibre.

(Pictures clicked by Sis Michelle from Indira Gandhi Museum, New Delhi)


Below are few pictures for your perusal...

RISING AND GROWTH OF HINDI JOURNALISM

RISING AND GROWTH OF HINDI JOURNALISM 

It is important to note that modern day Hindi is not as it is spoken today, rather it has emerged over a period of years. Hindi was spoken in varied dialects and it is the brilliance of varied poets, writers, journalists, and literature scholars of India who have contributed to the rising of the Hindi that is spoken today.

Mishra in his research paper defines five phases in the history of the Hindi press and its journey towards the Modern Hindi Press that exists today. He says, “In this process, it has gone through five distinct phases of transformation: (1) The Beginning Phase, 1826-1866, (2) The Harishchandra Phase, 1867-1899, (3) The Literary Phase, 1900-1919, (4) The Gandhian Phase, 1920-1947, and (5) The Post-Independence Phase, 1948 to the present.” (Mishra, 1971)

We look at these five phases.

(1) The Beginning Phase, 1826-1866

Scholars in the History of Indian Journalism trace the first weekly paper in Hindi to be ‘Oodunt Martund’ published by Jugal Kishore Shukla in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1826. ‘Oodunt Martund’ appealed for a concession in postal fees for the first 8 copies of his paper, but was rejected. It could not sustain itself and thus closed down in 1827 barely within a year of beginning publication.

It is during this time that popular social reformist Raja Ram Mohan Roy who was known his intellectual skills and his strong opinion against social evils like Sati, brought out a newspaper himself. Roy wrote many articles opposing Sati and other social evils that had ingrained themselves in Hindu culture. He wrote against the orthodox ideas that perpetrated these social evils in religion. He was not in favour of the Serampore missionaries who were promoting Christianity either. His paper ‘Bangadoot’ which was published in 1829 was actually printed in four languages. Namely English, Bangla, French, and Nagree (Hindi dialect) which highlighted all the above issues.

‘Banaras Akhbar’, a hindi newspaper with local news and some translations from Sanskrit law books was started in Kashi in the year 1845 with Govind Raghunath Thatte as editor. The paper had 44 subscribers. Another paper called ‘Martand’ was published in 1846 by Maulvi Nasiruddin which consisted of five languages including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Persian and English in one paper in five columns. 

‘Malwa Akhbar’ was started in 1848 in the state of Madhya Pradesh by Prem Narayan. In the meanwhile, the publisher of ‘Oodunt Martand’, Jugal Kishore Shukla, made another attempt in 1850 at starting one more Hindi newspaper in Calcutta called ‘Samtand Martand’ while Naran Mohan Mitra started a newspaper in Khari Boli, a dialect in Hindi, called the ‘Sudhakar’ in the same year.  In 1854, the first bilingual daily in Hindi and Bengali by Shyam Sunder Sen was published in Calcutta. It was called ‘Samachar Sudha Varshan’ and had a continuity for almost 14 years. It is often considered as the first Hindi daily. Despite the fact that it was bi-lingual and that ‘Oodunt Martand’ was published before it.

In 1857, a paper with strong Political views with a view of Hindu-Muslim unity for the freedom of India was ‘Payam-e-Azadi’ which was the brainchild of Azimullah Khan and edited by Mirza Bedar Bhakt. Azimullah Khan was well aware of the divide and rule policy and he tried his best to conscientize the people about the same through his paper. Gautam Chattopadhyay in his article ‘Petition, Protest and Revolt- The changing face of the Anti-Imperialist Press in India 1857- 1947’ writes that “The paper started publication from Delhi in February 1857 in Hindi-Urdu and right from May 1857 it openly supported the rebels. In September 1857, its Marathi edition was published from Jhansi and it became truly the central organ of the revolt. Copies of this journal are now available only in the British Library.” (Johansson, 1989)

(2) The Harishchandra Phase, 1867-1899

One of the major contributors to Hindi literature and journalism at large was a great Indian writer who is also called the “Father of Modern Hindi”, Harishchandra Bhartendu. Bhartendu’s influence most probably was his father, Gopalachandra, who was a poet himself and wrote in Braj Bhasa- a dialect of Hindi and not exactly the modern Hindi that we speak today. “Before Bhartendu, the prose of Hindi was being written in three styles- Brajbhasha prose, prose in Khari Boli and prose in Rajasthani, which was limited to religious tales, commentaries, love stories and historical tales. The prose of Khari boli could not get established on account of faction of Hindi-Urdu. (Chaturvedi, 2010) Other dialects which are considered quite close to Hindi were Awadi, Nagri, and other Maithali Languages.

Bhartendu started his career with ‘Kavi-vachana-sudha’, the first poetic, literary magazine in 1867 and ‘Harishchandra Magazine’ which was later christened ‘Harishchandra Chandrika’ in 1872. It was a monthly newspaper with poetry, literature, travel, satirical and humorous essays, etc,. In 1874, he also started ‘Balabodhini’, a women’s journal in Hindi. Bhartendu Harishchandra is attributed for the drastic rise of the literary Hindi and its promulgation.

In the book, ‘Role of Media in Nation Building’ edited by Anand Shanker Singh (2016), Amit Kumar Dubey in his article writes that “The Hindi press began to make its mark in 1867 with the publication of bilingual journals such as the Gyan Dipak (Sikandrabad) and the ‘Kavi Vachan Sudha’ (Kashi). A flood of high literary quality followed but most of them lived a short life because of the lack of public support. In 1869, ‘Papmochan’ (Agra) and ‘Jagat Samachar’ (Agra) were started and in 1870 ‘Budhi Vilas’ and ‘Agra Akhbar’ made their appearance.” (Singh, 2016)

The other Hindi journals and papers from 1877 to 1900, include ‘Kavi Sudha’ in 1877 from Banaras, ‘Bastae-ul-Ashquian’ from Aligarh and a bi-lingual, Hindi-English, monthly newspaper called ‘The Aryan’ in 1878, by Rev J.Hewlitt. Amit Kumar Dubey adds a few more names like “Kayasth Vyavahar, Dharma Pracharak Bharat Chandrodaya, Dharam Prakash, Abla Hit Karak, Subh Samvad, Prayag Mitra, Aryavarta, Narad Muni, Deva Nagari Gazette, Jain Prabhakar, Vidya Vinod, Chaturvedi Patrika, Bharat Bhushan”, etc,.

Mrinal Chatterjee in her paper, ‘History of Hindi journalism’ mentions a few more papers that contributed to Hindi journalism in this era. She says, “Newspapers like Bharat Mitra (1878), ‘Sarsudhanidhi’ (1879), ‘Uchit Wakta’ (1880) and ‘Hindi Bangavasi’ (1890) were published from Calcutta during the last three decades of 19th century. ‘Bharat Mitra’, published from Calcutta became the leading Hindi newspaper of the time under the dynamic stewardship of its early editors, Balmukund Gupta and Ambika Prasad Bajpai.” (Chatterjee)

(3) The Literary Phase, 1900-1919

Saraswati, Abhyudaya (1900), and many other papers revolutionised the era in their times. Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, was a man known for his expertise in literature, history. It was under his editorship that ‘Saraswati’, a newspaper in Khadi Hindi, gained huge prominence.

Another Sub-editor named Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi contributed his mite to ‘Saraswati’ too. At a later stage in 1913, Vidyarthi started his own newspaper called ‘Pratap’ which gained huge popularity. He was a social reformist and often highlighted in his paper the plight of the suffering farmers of Rae Bareilly and other suffering people in the Indian states.

Abhyudaya by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was a hindi weekly, also contributed massively to the Indian freedom struggle. At a later stage he also founded the ‘Hindustan Dainik’ in Hindi in 1936 which rose to popularity.

'Vijay' another Hindi newspaper that worked immensely for the Freedom struggle was launched in the year 1918 in Delhi by Pt. Indra Vidya Vachaspati. This paper was inspired by Swami Sraddhanand who contributed many Nationalist articles. It strongly opposed the Rowlatt Act with  a series of articles well scripted by Swami Sraddhanand a lawyer by profession who was very meticulate in his opinion so that it could not be retaliated to or pulled down by the Britishers.   But after his departure to Lahore, the paper could not survive and succumbed in 1920.

Besides, these there were other papers that contributed to nationalism, freedom from the tyranny of Britishers and Hindu -Muslim unity. These include popular newspapers like ‘Biswamitra’ or ‘Viswamitra’ in 1916 started by Mahendra Chandra Aggarwal.  

(4) The Gandhian Phase, 1920-1947

‘Swarajya’ started in 1920 by T Prakasham, ‘Sainik’ by Krishna Dutt Paliwal in Agra, ‘Desh’ by Babu Rajendra Prasad in Patna, Swami Shradhanand’s ‘Vir Arjun’ and two other magazines, namely, ‘Nrisinha’ and ‘Devnagar’ were all popular in their era. ‘Swatantra’ started in 1939 by Puranchand Gupta and Jagdish Chandra Kulsia. This paper was gradually launched as ‘Dainik Jagran’ which is very popular and has a huge readership today. It is said that by 1924 there were almost 104 Hindi dailies in circulation. While, some did have a long run, others had a shot span of life.

Another paper that brought in a revolution and popularised Hindi was ‘Aaj’ by Shiv Prasad Gupta on September 5, 1920 from Benaras with Baburao Vishnu Parakar as its editor. The paper grew in circulation and was hailed for its stand on nationalism under the brilliant editing skills of Parakar. Parakar had been imprisoned earlier too for his nationalism. He advocated a revolution through his writings and vehemently opposed the stand of the British Government who was suppressing the freedom of the press. 

After his return from Africa, Gandhiji revolutionised the phase in India’s struggle for freedom by steering the Satyagraha, Dandi March, Salt Satyagraha, Non-Violence movement, promotion of Khadi and the use of the Press. His contribution to journalism was seen in all his newspapers like ‘Young India, Indian Opinion, Navjeevan, Harijan and Harijan Sevak’.


Gandhiji launched a Gujarati newspaper on October 7, 1919 called the Navajivan and October 8, 1919, he launched an English Daily called the 'Young India'. Navajivan- the Gujarati newspaper actually became popular and had a circulation of 12000 copies as compared to 1200 copies of Young India, which led Gandhiji to launch a Hindi version of the paper Navajivan on August 19, 1921. Although, it is said that the subscriptions of the Hindi 'Navajivan' dropped down considerably from 12000 to 1400. 


India was and continues to have an ingrained caste system. Despite the modern era, in many parts of India, this caste discrimination continues to be upheld. 'Harijan' was a word used by Gandhi to address 'the untouchables' in order to encourage people to overcome this discrimination. He gradually started a newspaper called 'Harijan' in English February 11, 1933 from the Yerwada Jail in Pune, where he was imprisoned by the Britishers. He gradually launched the Hindi edition of the same paper on February 23, 1933 from Delhi with Viyogi Hari as the editor and titled it as 'Harijan Sevak'. He drew the financial support for this paper from Ghansyamdas Birla. The Britishers were vary of Harijan and asked Gandhi to submit the paper for proof reading before printing. Gandhi refused the same with the demand that Freedom of the Press was his Right. The paper succumbed for this reason by its tenth issue. Gradually due to financial losses these  papers closed down too.  

The newspapers were a weapon that silently and non-violently stoked the fire of freedom all across India and the British Government grew wary of its reach and power. At the height of this movement, the British Government brought in the Press Act 1910, due to which within a few years over 350 printing presses were punished with penalisation and almost 300 newspapers were asked for security deposits. The pressurisation, penalisation and harassment led to the closure of almost 200 papers. However, this only catapulted the freedom movement as this act of penalising and trying to shut down the voices of the locals only confirmed the mismanagement in India and the cruelty shown towards Indians by the East India company and the Britishers.

(5) The Post-Independence Phase, 1948 to the present

Today, Hindi journalism and publishing has grown in leaps and bounds. The highest readership in India is that of Hindi newspapers. ‘Dainik Jagran’ and ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ are popular. So is ‘Amar Ujala’, which started in 1948 in Agra and has grown sizably.

‘Dainik Bhaskar’ has a name of its own as it promoted a secular and unifying approach especially in troublesome times in India. During the Ayodhya riots, this newspaper unlike other newspapers, urged the people for peace. Although it was initially published in 1956 as a hindi daily called ‘Subah Savere’ and ‘Good morning India’ from Gwalior, It gradually was named ‘Bhaskar Samachar’ and then relaunched as ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ by 1958.

‘Punjab Kesari’ another Hindi daily was begun by Lt. Lala Jagat Narainji in 1965.

There are too many newspapers and it is impossible to name them all. However, it is to be noted that post-independence, newspapers contributed their mite to the concept of Development journalism and highlighting the plight of the people. Many went through a huge turmoil during the days of emergency. Some opposed the emergency with various expressions, including circulation with blank papers to oppose emergency and were penalised. However, their might grew. The people were slowly getting educated as a result the circulation grew higher.

However, currently commercialisation dominates the Press. While it continues to give news and information. It is also to be noted that Advertisement revenue has gained primary importance in the circulation of papers. Corporate management, Commercialization and State interference has taken its toll on what is being printed and given to the people. A recent Investigation led by Cobrapost team of investigative journalists in India exposed how many newspapers belonging to corporates were willing to compromise with their content for the sake of money. This is not good for a country like India.

The press along with other media is the fourth pillar of democratic India. It has to strictly adhere to the principles in which it rose during the freedom struggle. Commercialization and interference prevents the press from effectively carrying out this role. Despite all these issues, journalism is a boon. It educates, informs and brings to fore issues that require attention.