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.