History of Regional Language Journalism | Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Hindi
The first Hindi newspaper Oodhund Martand, a weekly was published
in Kolkata on May 30, 1826 ‘in the interest of Hindustanis’.[1]
However, its editor Yugal Kishore Shukla (Jooghol Kishore Sookool- in some
documents) faced many difficulties in running it. He was not allowed postal
concession and had to close down the paper within a year. He made an attempt to
start another paper in 1850 called Samyadani Martand but this also
failed.
The second Hindi newspaper Bangadoot was published in 1829 by Raja
Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarika Prasad Thakore with Nilratan Haldar as its editor.
Besides Hindi, it was also published in English, Bengali and Persian.
The first Hindi daily Samachar Sudha Varshan came out in June 1854
from Kolkata with Shyam Sundar Sen as its editor and publisher. It was a
bilingual paper in which market and shipping reports were published in Hindi,
the rest in Bengali.
Between 1850 and 1857 a number of Hindi Newspaper were published. Among
them were Benaras Akbar, Sudhakar Tatwa Bodhini, Patrika and
Sathya. Benaras Akhbar (1849)
was the first paper to introduce Devnagari script in the North-West provinces.
Some papers of this time used to carry both a Hindi and Urdu name and used to
publish news in both languages in parallel columns, for example Sarvopkarak (Mufid-ul-Khaliaq),
published from Agra in 1861 and the Bharat
Khandamitra (Ab-i-hayat-i-Hind), published in 1864. But this trend did not
last long.
A literary magazine which set the standard for Hindi Journals in the
early year of century was Saraswathi,
a monthly edited by Mahavir Prasad Dwibedy. It standardised the style and
pattern of Hindi journalism and developed literary criticism and book reviews.
It became the torchbearer for later day Hindi journalists who cultivated its
prose style. 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. “Some 150 papers and journals were either started or
restarted between 1884 and 1894. The contents of most of these papers were
concerned with social or religious subjects, many of them were sectional, some
were political and a few set a high literary standard.”
The beginning of the new century saw the birth of many Hindi dailies in
Bombay, Calcutta and Patna. The more prominent among them were Sri
Venkateswar Samachar and Calcutta
Samachar. Viswamitra, which was started after the Calcutta
Samachar became defunct, offered serious competition to Bharat
Mitra from 1918.
Hindi journalism made
rapid progress during the First World War period and many outstanding
journalists came to the fore including Ganga Prasad Gupta, Nanda Kumar Deo
Dharma, M. P. Dwivedi, Hari Krishna
Jouhar, Chhote Ram Shukla, Indra Vidyavachaspati, Shri Ram Pandey,
Lakshminarayan Garde and Narmada Prasad Misra. One
of the foremost Hindi journalists who earned a name for his patriotism was
Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi. In 1913, he brought out weekly Pratap from Kanpur. He made the supreme sacrifice in 1931 in the
cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. Krishna Dutt Paliwal brought out Sainik from Agra which became a staunch
propagator of nationalism in Western Uttar Pradesh. The noted Congress leader,
Swami Shradhanand, started the publication of Hindi journal Vir Arjun and Urdu journal Tej. After the assassination of Swami
Shradhanand, Vidyavachaspathi and Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, both prominent
Congress leaders continued the publication of these journals.
At the turn of the century almost all Calcutta based Hindi
newspapers went vocal against the suppressive and divisive policies of the Raj.
This marked the beginning – in 1907- of two outstanding magazines: Nrisinha and Devnagar. Nrisinha edited by Ambika Prasad Vajpayee, a stauch
supporter of Lokmanya Tilak was a political magazine and it joined the protest
against British rule. Devnagar on the
other hand tried to work on a uniform script.[2]
In 1920, the Aj was started in Banaras. It played a notable part
in the freedom struggle. Its first editor was Sri Prakasa, a great freedom
fighter who occupied positions of power and prestige in free India. He was
assisted by Babu Rao Vishnu Parakar whose contribution to the development of
Hindi Journalism was considerable. Espousing the national cause and waging a
never-ending battle with the alien rulers, the Aj was a bulwark of the Indian National Congress and
its main forum to spread the message of freedom to the Hindi-speaking masses of
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal. It set the tone and style for
Hindi Journalism and was acclaimed for its impartial objective reporting and
illuminating and fearless editorials. A balanced blending of national and
international news was one of its strong features.
In Patna the Desh, a weekly, was an influential journal and the
mouthpiece of the Congress. It was founded by Rajendra Prasad and his friends
in 1920. But it was not a profitable venture and had to close down.
In 1924 there were 102 Hindi newspapers; four of them were dailies (AJ,
Banaras, Swatantra and Calcutta Samachar, Calcutta and Arjun,
Delhi) According to one historian, until
1926, Hindi dailies were not financially successful. “Their get up and printing was poor, the
reading material not quite up to the mark and the editorials unwieldy and
lengthy. The weeklies were better edited and got up.” Among the well-known
better produced weeklies were Bhavishya (Kanpur), Karmaveer (Khandwa)
and Sainik (Agra). Among the important Hindi dailies which flourished in
1930 were: Viswamitra and Bharat Mitra (Calcutta), Savadho
Bharat (Bombay). Lokkat (Jabalpur), Variman (Kanpur), Milap
(Lahore) besides AJ (Banaras), Arjun (Delhi) and Lokmanya
(Calcutta).
As freedom struggle gained
momentum, there was a steady rise of Hindi journalism both in terms of quality
and quantity. More number of Hindi publications took birth in almost all North
Indian states and also in Maharashtra, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, especially
Hyderabad. Hindi publications like other language publications by and large
supported Nationalist movement and faced the suppression of the British rulers.
One of the important Hindi dailies to be published from the capital was
Hindustan, sister newspaper of the
Hindustan Times, started in 1936.
Wide news coverage and a variety of special features marked the Hindustan. Started in 1940, Aryavari of Patna was a sister
publication of the Indian Nation and
enjoyed considerable influence.
Hindi journalism grew more
rapidly after independence. After independence Hindi was adopted as the
official language of India on September 14, 1949. This also helped to spread
Hindi language nationwide. The Nav Bharat
Times of the Times of India group started in Delhi in 1950. The Amrita Patrika of Allahabad was another
notable Hindi daily which was well-known for its trenchant editorials. By 1964
Hindi had the largest number of newspapers among language papers. The trend of
publishing multiple editions from different states helped Hindi newspapers to
increase their reach and circulation.
According to RNI (Registrar of Newspapers in India) Press in India Report
(2013-14), Hindi is the Indian languages, in which the largest number of
publications have been registered as on 31st, March 2014. And the
total number of publication was 40,159 in Hindi. The total circulation of publications during
2013-14 in Hindi language was 22,64,75,517. Hindi (11,184) was also the largest
in submitting annual statements in any Indian language. “DainikvBhaskar” (35,49,796),
a Hindi daily was also the second largest circulated multi-edition daily India
with 35 editions throughout the country. “Sunday Navbharat Times” (6,88,330),
Hindi/Weekly edition, Mumbai was the largest circulated periodical in Hindi.
According to the annual statement released by RNI for 2013-14, the circulation
of dailies have increased by 17.81% and in Hindi language, there were 3,213
dailies claiming a circulation of 12,64,77,693 copies. Based on the data
released by RNI (2013-14), among dailies, Hindi was leading the list of daily
publications with 3.213. In Hindi, there are a total of 5739 dailies and in
Bi/Tri weekly, there are a total of 131, which highest in any language in India.
There are a total of 2295 publications, which were registered during the period
between 1.4.2013 TO 31.3.2014, out of which there were 527 daily, 1 Bi/Tri
weekly, 857 weekly, 221 fortnightly, 586 monthly, 54 quarterly, 2 annual and 47
were others. As on 31.03.2014, there are a total of 40159 number of registered publications
were there in Hindi, out of which 5739 daily, 131 Bi/Tri weekly, 17708 weekly,
5325 fortnightly, 9243 monthly, 1374 quarterly, 69 annual and 570 were in
others category. According to the RNI report, Hindi was having the highest
publication from the state Uttar Pradesh (12232) followed by Delhi (5084) with
highest number of registered publications. In terms of concentration of
publications as on 31.03.2014, Hindi is having more registered publication from
Big Cities (14770), followed by 9546 from the state capitals in the country.
By mid 2011 Hindi daily Dainik
Jagran claimed to be the largest read newspaper of the world. Six out of
the top ten newspapers with highest number of readership in India were Hindi.
According to IRS (Indian Readership Survey Q-4) the top ten largest read Hindi
newspapers are: Dainik Jagran (readership:
164.1 lakh), Dainik Bhaskar (146
lakh), Hindustan (120.4 lakh), Amar Ujala (88.4 lakh), Rajasthan
Patrika ( 68.47 lakh), Punjab Kesari (33.30 lakh), Navbharat
Times (25.73 lakh) Prabhat
Khabar (21.87 lakh), Patrika (17.87 lakh) and Nai Dunia (16.49 lakh). All of the newspapers have multiple
editions from different cities and states.
By mid 2013, Hindi newspapers are published from
several states. Besides the North Indian Hindi belt, sizable numbers of Hindi
publications are there in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states. There are two good Hindi
dailies from Hyderabad – Swatantra
Vaartha and Milap. Kolkata based Sanmarg has an edition from Bhubaneswar,
Odisha too. Assam also had Hindi newspapers. Dainik Lokamanya was the first Hindi newspaper of Assam. It was
published in 1963 in Guwahati by Pandit Ramshankar Tripathi. The four page
broadsheet was priced 10 paisa. It survived only for few months.
Television: By mid 2012, besides
Doordarshan, there were over 100 Hindi news channels including Aaj Tak, IBN-7,
Azad NEWS, Maurya Tv, AryanNews, News 7 Network, Khoj India, India TV, Raftaar
News Channel, Live India, NDTV India, India News, News 24, Press TV, Sudarshan
News, Sahara Samay, STAR News, Zee News, Zee Business, DD News, Total TV, A2Z
News, Crime Nazar News, Channel No. 1, S-7 News, Mahua news, ETV Bihar, Time
Today, DayNightnews, Jansandesh.tv, GNN News, P7, TV 24 News, newsxpress, tv9 Mumbai, Sea News, Taaza TV, etc.
New Media: Rajasthan Patrika claims
be the first Hindi newspaper to go online in 1999. By early 2012, almost all
major Hindi newspapers, television channels and radio stations had their
presence on cyber world. Several newspapers had e-paper version. There were
numerous Hindi language news sites. Several newspapers like Raipur based
Deshabandhu had started disseminating news on mobile platform either as a free
service or as a paid service.
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