HISTORY OF INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS
HISTORY
OF INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS
Emperor Asoka’s
pillar inscriptions & rock edicts in different parts of the Mauryan Empire
during 3rd century B.C are considered examples of imperial political
communication to the informed & literate section of the population.
Ashoka used the Prakrit language in his communication on ethics & morals as
evidence by his inscriptions.
The learning
languages were confined to high casts, the aristocracy, priests, army personnel
& landowners. Another feature of communication in ancient India was the
emphasis placed on oral & aural systems. Writing was done on palm leaves using a style, but
the written documents were considered too scared to be touched or used by the
lower classes. The ruling class used certain methods for coding, transmitting
& decoding messages secretly through the network of spies to information
about neighboring enemies.
According to
historians of journalism, news was collected in a well-organized manner under
Akbar the Great. In 1574, Akbar established a recording office that helped
later medieval historians to gather materials for chronicles.
The
Bengal Gazette
Founded by James
Augustus Hickey (surname) or Hicky,
a highly eccentric Irishman who had previously spent two years in gaol for
debt, Hickey's Bengal Gazette or the
Calcutta General Advertiser was the first English language newspaper, and indeed the
first printed newspaper, to be published in the Indian sub-continent.
It was a weekly
newspaper, and was founded in 1779, in Calcutta,
the capital of British India. The
memoirist William
Hickey (who, confusingly, was not in fact related to the paper's
founder) describes its establishment shortly after he had succeeded (in his
capacity as an attorney-at-law) in having James Hicky released from debtor's
gaol:
"At the time I
first saw Hicky he had been about seven years in India. During his confinement
he met with a treatise upon printing, from which he collected sufficient
information to commence as a printer, there never having been a press in
Calcutta.....it occurred to Hicky that great benefit might arise from setting
on foot a public newspaper, nothing of that kind ever having appeared. Upon his
types &c., therefore reaching him, he issued proposals for printing a
weekly paper, which, meeting with extraordinary encouragement, he speedily
issued his first work. As a novelty every person read it, and was delighted.
Possessing a fund of low wit, his paper abounded with proof of that talent. He
had also a happy knack at applying appropriate nicknames and relating satirical
anecdotes".
Unfortunately
for Hicky he himself benefited little from the paper, as William Hickey further
tells us that he allowed it "to become the channel of personal invective,
and the most scurrilous abuse of individuals of all ranks, high and low, rich
and poor, many were attacked in the most wanton and cruel manner.His utter ruin
was the consequence”. The paper itself survived until the 1830s, when its
circulation was exceeded by The
Englishman (also published from Calcutta from 1818, and now known as The Statesman).
The first newspaper in an Indian language
was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue
of this daily was published from the Serampore Mission Press on May 23, 1818.
In the same year, Ganga Kishore
Bhattacharya started publishing another newspaper in Bengali, the Bengal Gazetti. On July 1,
1822 the first Gujarati
newspaper the Bombay Samachar was
published from Bombay, which is still
extant. The first Hindi
newspaper, the Samachar Sudha Varshan
began in 1854. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which papers have
grown over the years are Hindi,
Marathi, Malayalam,Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Bengali.
The
Indian language papers have taken over the English press as per the latest NRS
survey of newspapers. The main reasons being the marketing strategy followed by
the regional papers, beginning with Eenadu, a telegu daily started by Ramoji
Rao. The second reason being the growing literacy rate. Increase in the
literacy rate has direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the
regional papers.
The
people are first educated in their mother tongue as per their state in which
they live for e.g. students in Maharashtra
are compulsory taught Marathi language and hence they are educated in their
state language and the first thing a literate person does is read papers and
gain knowledge and hence higher the literacy rate in a state the sales of the
dominating regional paper in that state rises.
The
next reason being localisation of news. Indian regional papers have several
editions for a particular State for complete localisation of news for the
reader to connect with the paper. Malayala Manorama
has about 10 editions in Kerala
itself and six others outside Kerala. Thus regional papers aim at providing
localised news for their readers. Even Advertisers saw the huge potential of
the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more due to the
efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge
market.
THE
MAJOR INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER
Digdarshan was the
first Indian language newspaper. It started in April
1818 by the Serampur missionaries
William Carcy, Joshua Marshman & William Ward. They soon started another
journal in June of the same year & named it Samachar Darpan.
The famous Raja Ram Mohan Roy also brought out periodicals in English, Bengali & Persian. Some of Roy’s papers were Sambad Kaumadi, Brahmical Magazine, Mirat-ul-Akhbar, and Bangadoota & Bengal Herald
.
The famous Raja Ram Mohan Roy also brought out periodicals in English, Bengali & Persian. Some of Roy’s papers were Sambad Kaumadi, Brahmical Magazine, Mirat-ul-Akhbar, and Bangadoota & Bengal Herald
.
ASSAMESE:-
Amnodaya,
a distinguished journal in the Assamese language was started in 1846 under the
editorship of the Reverend Oliver.T.Cutter.
GUJARATI:-
The
newspaper with the greatest longevity in India, Mumbai Samachar was also the
first Gujarati Newspaper. It was established in 1822 by Farduvji Marzaban as a
weekly & then became a daily in 1832.
HINDI:-
The
first Hindi daily was samachar Sudhavarshan (Calcutta, 1854). Later Samayadant
Martand, Banaras Akhbar, Shimila Akbar & Malwa Akhbar came out.
Calcutta
was the birth place not only of English, Bengali & Hindi journalism. The
first Urdu newspaper was published by Urdu Akhbar in the second decade of the
19th century.
KANNADA:-
Kannada
Samachar was the earliest Kannada journal, according to many scholars. But
others think that the first Kannada journal was Mangaloora Samachar. Later
Subudhi Prakasha, Kannada Vaatika, Amnodaya, Mahilaasakhi & Sarvamitra came
out during the 18th century.
MALAYALAM:-
Mathrubhumi,
Malayala Manorama, Kerala Kanmudi are the main newspapers of Kerala. The other
daily newspapers are Desabhimani, Mangalam, Madhyamam, Chandrika, Deepika etc.
MARATHI:-
Darpan
was the first Marathi newspaper started on 6 January 1832. Kesari & Sudarak
were other papers of the 18th century. Induprakash was an Anglo-Marathi daily
established in 1862.
ORIYA:-
The
first Oriya magazine Junaruna was published by the Orissa Mission Press in 1849
under the editorship of Charles Lacey. Then came another publication from the
same press ‘Prabhatchandrika’, under the editorship of William Lacey. Utkal
Sahitya, Bodhadayini, Baleshwar Sambad Balika etc… started in the 18th century.
PUNJABI:-
Although
Maharaja Ranjit Singh encouraged the development of Punjabi journalism. The
earliest Punjabi newspaper was a missionary newspaper. The first printing press
in Punjab was established in Ludhiana in 1809.
TAMIL:-
The
first periodical ‘Tamil Patrika’ a monthly was brought out in 1831 by the
Religious Tract Society in Madras; it lasted till 1833.
The
next periodical weekly was the Dina Vartamani published in Madras from 1856 by
the Dravidian press & edited by the Reverend P.Percival. Later
Swadeshamitran, Deshabaktan etc… were other papers.
TELUGU:-
Kandukuri
Veeresaliongam Pantulu, known as the Father of the renaissance movement in
Andhra & the founder of modern Telugu, sparked a social reform movement
through his weekly Vivekavardhini. He also founded separate journals for women;
Satihitabodhini.
HISTORY
OF INDIAN NEWS PAPERS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Hindu
The Hindu is a leading English-language
Indian
daily newspaper.
With a circulation of 1.45 million, The Hindu is the second-largest
circulated daily English newspaper in India after Times of
India, and slightly ahead of The Economic Times. According to the Indian
Readership Survey (IRS)
2008 The Hindu is the third most-widely read English newspaper in India (after Times of
India and Hindustan
Times) with a readership of 5.2 million. It has its largest base
of circulation in South
India, especially Tamil Nadu. Headquartered at Chennai
(formerly called Madras), The Hindu was published weekly when it was
launched in 1878, and started publishing daily in 1889.
The first issue of The Hindu was published on
September 20, 1878, by a group of six young men, led by G. Subramania Aiyer, a radical social reformer
and school teacher from Thiruvaiyyar near Thanjavur.
Aiyer, then 23, along with his 21-year-old fellow-tutor and friend at Pachaiyappa's College, M.
Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput, and four law students, T.T. Rangachariar,
P.V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu were members of
the Triplicane
Literary Society. The British-controlled English language local
newspapers had been campaigning against the appointment of the first Indian, T. Muthuswami Iyer, to the Bench of the Madras High
Court in 1878. "The Triplicane Six," in an attempt to
counter the dominant attitudes in the English language press started The
Hindu on one British rupee and twelve annas
of borrowed money. Aiyer was the editor and Veeraraghavachariar the Managing
Director. The first editorial declared, " the Press does not only give expression to
public opinion, but also modifies and moulds it."
The Times of India
The
Times of India (TOI) is a popular English-language
broadsheet
daily
newspaper in India. It has the largest circulation among
all English-language daily newspapers in the world, across all formats
(broadsheet, compact, Berliner and online). It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.
In 2008, the newspaper reported that (with a circulation
of over 3.14 million) it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations
as the world's largest selling English-language daily newspaper, placing as the
8th largest selling newspaper in any language in the world. According to the
Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008, the Times of
India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership
of 13.3 million. This ranks the Times of India as the top English
newspaper in India
by readership. According to ComScore, TOI Online is the world's
most-visited newspaper website with 159 million page views in May 2009, ahead
of the New York Times, The Sun, Washington
Post, Daily Mail and USA Today
websites.
The Times of India was founded on November 3, 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce,
during the British Raj. It was adopted in 1861. Published
every Saturday and Wednesday, The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
was launched as a bi-weekly edition. It contained news from Europe, the Americas,
and the Subcontinent,
and was conveyed between India and Europe via regular steamships. The daily
editions of the paper were started from 1850 and by 1861, the Bombay Times
was renamed The Times of India. In the 19th century this newspaper
company employed more than 800 people and had a sizable circulation in India
and Europe. Originally British-owned and controlled, its last British editor
was Ivor S. Jehu, who resigned the editorship in 1950. It was after India's Independence
that the ownership of the paper passed on to the then famous industrial family
of Dalmiyas
and later it was taken over by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of
the Sahu Jain
group from Bijnore,
UP.
The Times of India is published by the media group
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company, along with its other group
companies, known as The Times Group, also publishes The Economic Times, Mumbai Mirror,
the Navbharat Times (a Hindi-language daily
broadsheet), the Maharashtra Times (a Marathi-language
daily broadsheet).
The Times is self-declared as a liberal newspaper,
and is sometimes described as irreverent.
The present management of The Times Group has been
instrumental in changing the outlook of Indian journalism. In India, as is
elsewhere in the world, the Editor of a newspaper has traditionally been
considered as the most notable position in a newspaper set up. The Times of
India, however, changed this in the early 1990s, in keeping with the management
policy of treating the newspaper as just another brand in the market. The main
newspaper and its many sub-editions are now run by editors who are appointed
within the ranks and the company gives equal chance to everyone to occupy the
editor's seat. The Times Group also places equal focus and importance to every
department and function - which has made it a professional entity and ensured
its place as the most profitable newspaper in the country.
In January 2007, the Kannada
edition was launched in Bengaluru and in April 2008 the Chennai edition
was launched. Their main rivals in India are The Hindu
and Hindustan Times, which hold second and
third position by circulation.
Hindustan Times
Hindustan
Times (HT) is an Indian daily English-language newspaper founded in 1924
with roots in the independence movement. The name comes from the Persian word 'Hindostān', which amongst Muslims is synonymous for
northern and central India. Hindustan Times is the flagship publication of HT Media Ltd. In 2008, the
newspaper reported that with a (circulation of over 1.14 million) it was
certified by the Audit Bureau
of Circulations ranking them as the third largest circulatory daily
English newspaper in India. Indian Readership
Survey (IRS) 2008, revealed that
HT has a readership of (6.6 million) placing them as the second most-widely
read English Newspaper in India
after Times of India. It has
a wide reach in northern India (barring Southern India), with simultaneous
editions from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi,
Bhopal and Chandigarh. The print
location of Jaipur was discontinued
from June 2006. HT has also launched a youth daily HT Next in 2004. The Mumbai
edition was launched on 14 July 2005 and the Kolkata edition was launched on
early 2000.
Other
sister publications of Hindustan Times are Mint (English business
daily), Hindustan (Hindi Daily), Nandan (monthly children's
magazine) and Kadambani (monthly literary magazine). The media group
also owns a radio channel Fever
and organises an annual Luxury Conference which has featured speakers like
designer Diane von
Fürstenberg, shoemaker Christian
Louboutin, Gucci CEO Robert Polet and
Cartier MD Patrick
Normand. Hindustan Times is owned by the KK Birla branch of the Birla family.
HISTORY
OF INDIAN NEWS PAPERS IN HINDI
Dainik Jagran
Dainik Jagran is a daily newspaper in India. It is 2nd in India and
17th worldwide for the greatest circulation of a daily newspaper.
Dainik Jagran, is a Hindi newspaper in India. It is the
17th most widely read newspaper in the world. It was the brainchild of the
aggressive freedom fighter Mr. Puranchandra Gupta. The first edition was
launched in Jhansi
in 1942m and in 1947 Dainik Jagran shifted its headquarters to Kanpur, where it launched
its second edition.
More than 55.7 million people reach out for Dainik Jagran
making it the largest read daily of India. Dainik Jagran’s 37 editions carve a
huge swathe across eleven states – Madhya
Pradesh (Bhopal,
Indore,
Gwalior,
Jabalpur,
Ratlam,
Satna
& Saugor) along with the states of Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand,
Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Jammu&
Kashmir .
Some supplements offered by the Dainik Jagaran are:
Jhankaar ,Yatra,Sangini ,Josh,Nai,,Rahein and E - PAPER
Dainik Bhaskar
Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi-language daily newspaper
of India
published by Bhaskar Group. It was started in year 1958 from Bhopal, the capital city
of Madhya
Pradesh. Its is owned by the Agrawal family in Bhopal and its
current national editor is Shravan Garg.
Dainik Bhaskar was first published in Bhopal and Gwalior
of the central province. The newspaper was launched in year 1956 to fulfill the
need for a Hindi language daily, by the name Subah Savere in Bhopal and Good Morning India in Gwalior
in year 1957, it was renamed as Bhaskar
Samachar In year 1958 it was renamed as Dainik Bhaskar
Dainik Bhaskar has 27 editions in 9 states- Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab , Himachal Pradesh, and
the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
In Gujarat, Bhaskar Group publishes Divya Bhaskar
a Gujarati daily launched in 2003. This ;aunch is a case study in IIM (
Indian Institute of management - Ahmedabad) and the door-to-door-twin-contact
launch programme has been recognised as an Orbit shifting innovation. It has
won Business Process Innovation award by Marico Foundation.
Divya Bhaskar is the largest circulated daily of Gujarat
as per ABC ( audit Beauro of circulation ) and has the maximum edition by any
newspaper in Gujarat. It is published from Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat,
Rajkot,Jamnagar, Mehsana, Bhavnagar ( saurashtra Samachatr ).
The company launched English newspaper DNA in Mumbai in 2004 in
partnership with the Zee Group. DNA is today published from Mumbai, Bangalore,
Pune, Ahmedabad
and Jaipur.
DNA is the second largest broadsheet newspaper of Mumbai. as per Indian
Readership survey ( IRS R2 09)
HISTORY
OF NEWS PAPERS IN BENGALI
Sambad
Prabhakar
Sambad
Prabhakar or Sombod Provokar was a newspaper created
by Ishwar Chandra Gupta in 1831. It was a newspaper
read by many and included views on: religion,
politics,
society,
and India
as well as covering literature and foreign news.
Sambad Prabhakar was the brainchild of Ishwar Chandra Gupta. He was patronized by
Yogendra Mohan Thakur of Pathurighata. It began as
a weekly newspaper launched on January 28, 1831 (16 Magh 1237BS). As stated,
Mr. Thakur was the backbone to this paper and his death caused the paper to
close publication in 1832.
In 1836, the
newspaper was revived by Ishwar Chandra Gupta and appeared as a
tri-weekly on August 10, 1836. The Thakurs of Pathurighata lent a helping hand
to the paper again and in 1837 the Sambad
Prabhakar became the first Bengali
language daily on June
14, 1839.
Samachar
Darpan
Samachar
Darpan was a Bengali
weekly newspaper published by the Baptist Missionary Society
from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore
in early half of the 19th century. It is considered to be the first Indian
language newspaper although some historians contend that the Bengali
weekly Bengal Gazetti published by
Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya
had commenced publication first.
The success of the Bengali
monthly Digdarshan encouraged the missionaries of the Baptist Missionary Society
to embark on a new venture - the publication of a Bengali
newspaper. The initiative was taken by Joshua
Marshman and William Ward. At about the
same time Harachandra Roy was also planning to start a Bengali
newspaper from his own printing press at Chorebagan Steet in Calcutta.
But before he could bring out his publication, the missionaries published the
first issue of Samachar Darpan from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore
on May 23, 1818.
The newspaper was published every Saturday and was edited
by John Clark Marshman. Its price was 4 annas
per copy. It contained news, both Indian and European, collected from various
sources, particular from English newspapers. It also contained brief
articles on various subjects. It carried some material of educational value
which made it respected and popular among the educated people. Both in typography
and contents the Samachar Darpan maintained a fairly good standard. Its
coverage of local news was certainly better than any other English or Indian
language newspaper. By reprinting news and comments from other Bengali
newspapers, the Samachar Darpan enabled its readers to have acquaintance
with the different sections of the Bengali
opinion.
The paper covered seven main beats: news of the
government officials, government circulars, news of the European countries
other than Britain, new events, birth, obituary and
wedding, news of England,
history of India and its scholarly books. It published useful information on
the appointment of judges, collectors and so on.
From July 1829, the newspaper began to appear in both Bengali
and English; the Bengali
and English sections represented translation of
each other. From January 1832, the Samachar Darpan began to be published
twice a week - on Wednesday and Saturday. The price was raised from a rupee per month to one and
a half. However as a result of the hike in postage duty the twice a week
publication was discontinued and it again became a weekly newspaper from 8
November 1834.
In December 1841 the missionaries decided to discontinue
the publication that ended with the last issue of December. The official reason
stated was that John Clark Marshman who was still the editor of
the newspaper couldn't find sufficient time owing to other pre-occupations. But
the actual reason was that the Samachar Darpan, though very successful
as a newspaper, had failed miserably in its primary objective - propagation of Christianity.
Samachar Darpan had an uninterrupted career till the end of 1841, when
the publication was discontinued. By 1836, the circulation had reached 400,
which was much higher than any other Indian language publication.
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