Regional Language
Journalism: Problems and Prospects
Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Language press in India emerged from early 19th
century. It played an important role in social reform and subsequently in the
freedom struggle. Its role in augmenting freedom struggle became more
pronounced after Gandhi became the centre figure of the freedom struggle. The
language newspapers gave a fillip and strength to the movement for freedom
which found its echo in every nook and corner of the country. Several language
newspapers also raised and highlighted concerned language and region specific
issues and linguistic community-specific problems.
It was in Calcutta that the first regional
language newspaper, Samachar Darpan, a Bengali weekly was published in
1818 from Calcutta (now Kolkata). Following that in 1822 the first Urdu newspaper,
JameJahan Numa and in 1826 the first Hindi newspaper
Oodunt Marthand were also
published from Calcutta. The first Gujarati newspaper Mumbai Samachar, primarily a financial paper was published from Mumbai
in 1822. It is still in circulation and has the distinction of being the oldest
living newspaper of Asia. The first newspaper in Odia Utkal
Deepika was published on 4 August in 1866 from Cuttack.
By 1860s
several regional language newspapers had been published all over the country. Unlike the English newspapers, the regional language newspapers had an
upperhand at reaching out to the masses, as they were in the languages familiar to the
masses. Most of the regional language newspapers had altruistic objectives. One of the major objectives was to rid India of its inner societal evils
and superstitions through social reform. Prominent social reformers like Dadabhai
Naoroji, Raja Rammohan Roy, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Dwarkanath Tagore and
Gopalrao Hari Desmukh thus turned to publishing newspapers with an aim to
pursue this agenda. Some of the newspapers which actively
pursued this objective were Bangadoot
by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Rastguftar by Dadabhai Naoroji and Gyaneneshun. Exposed to western
education, these reformers began to see the decaying religious
and social traditions and superstitions that plagued India such as sati pratha, polygamy, child marriage, female infanticide, caste discrimination, untouchability,
etc. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a pioneer of social reform and the 'father of Indian Renaissance’ tried to propagate
the progressive and reformation ideas. Regional journalism at this juncture not only attempted to cleanse the society, but also gave the opportunity to the reformers to create a space for progressive intellectual discourse, which sowed the need of nationalism in the minds of the educated Indians.
It is true that many social reformers of that time favoured British rule as they were fascinated by western education and the liberal progressive ideas. But the concept of nationalism had been sown in their minds and it took root as they experienced blatant discrimination and atrocities by the British in their own land.
One such instance was the first war of Independence or Sepoy Mutiny of 1857,
during and after which, the gulf between the English and Regional newspapers widened, as the former
displayed worst levels of racism and blindly supported the British administration
despite the atrocities carried out by them. This led to a change in the attitude of
the Indian press. Several newspapers including PayameAzadi, which started publication in Hindi and Urdu, called upon people to unite and fight the colonizers. Although this paper was soon confiscated, the stream of such nationalist newspaper
continued. Hindi daily Samachar Sudhayarashan,
Doorbeen
in Urdu and SultanulAkbar
in Persian,
followed the same path and faced trial after having published a 'firman' by Bahadur Shah Zafar which urged the Indians to drive out the colonizers.
In the latter half of the 19th century, before Congress
was even formed, it was the newspapers that
began to voice demands for political freedom. Amrita Bazar Patrika in 1870 demanded the constitution of
a Parliament for India. Kristodas Pal in 1874 talked about Home Rule in India in
Hindu Patriot, the paper he used
to edit.
Gradually the dominant paradigm of the regional language press changed from social reform to freedom movement. It began mobilizing the masses against
the alien rule. In fact regional language press played a very important role in
freedom movement at a very heavy price. Many editors and journalists were jailed.
Many newspapers were either confiscated or fined or forced to stop publication.
But despite heavy odds the regional language press continued on their mission to
free this country from alien rule.
Another important contribution of the regional language press
relates to the development and
simplification of language. Newspapers were responsible for making language simpler
for common people. In a way it helped in democratisation of knowledge by
enhancing the engagement of common people with the newspaper. In several regional languages including
Hindi, Marathi and Telugu it was newspaper which tried and succeeded to bring
the language to the level of common man. Several experiments with language have
been done in regional language newspapers. The
Benares Akhbar (1845) published from Benaras aimed at evolving a common
language for Hindus and Muslims that could be written in the Persian and Nagari
script. In 1870 The Simla Akhbar used
Devanagari script for Urdu. Publishing multi lingual newspapers was quite
common in 19th century. A multi-language newspaper Marthand was
published from Calcutta, which had editions in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Persian
and English, each in five columns. Editor of the paper was Maulavi Nasaruddin.
On 1854 came the Samachar Sudha Varshan
in Hindi and Bengali from Calcutta edited by Shyam Sundar Sen.
After independence by and large the regional language press
has stuck to its role of a watchdog and a ‘friend, philosopher and guide’ of
the people of concerned language in particular and of the country in general.
Post- liberalisation and more so in
the last ten years, Regional Language Media is experiencing high volume growth
both horizontally and vertically in comparison to English Language Media. Even
the smart phone sale is also riding on regional language-friendly handsets. There
could be several reasons for this growth surge, which began However, the
physical and technological growth in regional language media has not translated
into commensurate growth in terms of content
quality, business and remuneration to the people providing content inputs (I
hate to use the word content providers), especially journalists. There are
honourable exceptions, but this is the general picture. There are other
problems, which are typical to regional language media. Regional Language media
are more prone to pressure. Regional political parties, fringe elements,
hooligans can and do try to pressurise the local media. At times this impedes
its zest and strength to stand for the just and speak the truth fearlessly. The
regional language media’s dependence on the concerned State Governemnt and
Business Houses make it more vulnerable compared to English (and to some extent
Hindi) language media, which has pan-Indian presence and business.
What, then,
could be done to improve the content quality, business, profit, general ethical
standard and of course remuneration to the journalists and writers working for
regional language media? What are the technological innovations that the
regional language media must adopt and journalistic practices that it must adapt?
What could be done to insulate the media from the pressures?
We need to deliberate on these issues.
(This is part of the introductory note of
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