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Why JANUARY 29?
The day commemorates the birth of the first newspaper in India, a weekly called 'Hickey's Bengal Gazette,' which also went by the name 'Calcutta General Advertiser.' It was first published on January 29, 1780.
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January 29, is Indian Newspaper Day. The day commemorates the birth of the first newspaper in India, a weekly called 'Hickey's Bengal Gazette,' which also went by the name 'Calcutta General Advertiser.' It was first published on January 29, 1780.
Soon many other weeklies & monthlies such as Indian Gazette, Calcutta Journal, Bengal Harakaru, John Bull in the East came out during the 17th & 18th century.
Initially the newspapers concentrated on social issues. In 1851 Dadabhai Naoroji started the first political paper-- Rast Goftar. In later years, when K. N. Kabraji became the publisher, he stopped all political commentary and had a public exchange of letters with Naoroji in which each accused the other of deviating from the original agenda.
In 1878 the Government of India passed the Censorship Act. Protests from the press had no effect. Four years later, in 1882, the newspaper Kaiser-i-Hind was founded by Framjee Cowasji Mehta. This became a platform for the fledgling Congress from its inception in 1885. The leading British newspaper of this time was the Times of India.
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
In 1947, the major English newspaper in India were the Times of India (Bombay), Statesman (Calcutta), Hindu (Madras), Hindustan Times (New Delhi), Pioneer (Lucknow), Indian Express (Bombay & Madras) Amrita Bazaar Patrika (Calcutta), National Herald (Lucknow), Mail (Madras) & Hitavada (Nagpur). Of these, the Times of India, Statesman & Pioneer were under British ownership till 1964, when it came under a group of Indian business.
During the long struggle for India’s Independence, the major English newspaper that served the national cause were the Hindu (1878), Amrita Bazaar Patrika (1868), Bombay Chronicle (1913), Free Press Journal (1930, it became Indian Express) & Hindustan Times (1924). Among the Indian language newspapers, the prominent ones were Aaj (1920), Ananda bazaar Patrika (1922), Sakal (1931), Swadeshamitran (1882), Mumbai Smachar (1822), Malayala Manorama (1890) & Mathrubhumi (1930).
Hindi newspapers have the largest total circulation in India. Hindi is the main language of 10 Indian states- Bihar, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttranchal and Uttar Pradesh.
Certain trends in communication & journalism throughout the modern world prompted several sociologists & media experts to discuss the desirability of re-examining the trends in the light of basic issues. In other words, ‘back to the basics’ say the experts. This is where Gandhi becomes relevant. High technology is good, but if it does not enable us to solve basic problems confronting the succeed in catering to the greed of a few to the exclusion of the need of the many-as it has done through the recent decades and in all countries that experienced colonial subjugation in the past.
Just because 'paper' is part of the word 'newspaper' doesn't mean that all newspapers must be printed on it. Hickey's Bengal Gazette didn't have a choice of medium in 1780, but today, newspapers have a far more powerful medium they can leverage--the Internet.
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