I had written this series in Vidura serially from 2011-13. Now I am updating it. Should the readers feel, there is something is being missed, kindly feel free to comment.
History of Regional Language Journalism | Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Bengali
Bengal, especially Calcutta was the cradle of journalism in India. The
first newspaper of India Hickey’s Bengal
Gazette was published in Kolkata on 29 January 1780. So were the first four
non-English newspapers- in Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and Persian. Several language
newspapers owe their birth to Kolkata in some form or the other; for example
the Odia types were manufactured in Serampore, a suburb of Kolkata. The
Christian missionaries from the Serampore Mission in Bengal went to Assam and
brought out the first Assamese magazine.
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| Samachar Darpan |
The year 1818 marks the beginning of Bengali (and regional language)
journalism. Samachar Darpan was the
first newspaper in Bengali language. It was published by Serampore Mission
press on May 23, 1818. Started by missionaries Carey and Marshman, it began as
a monthly, but soon converted into a weekly. It carried both Indian and foreign
news. It became bilingual in 1829, carrying Bengali and English news in
parallel columns. After surviving a number of crises, it closed down in 1852.
Digdarshan was also published in
1818. In 1821 a remarkable Bengali journal Sambad
Kaumadi was published under the patronage of Rammohan Roy. But it did not
survive for long. However Raja Rammohan Roy had a profound influence on the
social reform agenda pursued by the progressive intellectuals and journalists
across the country. He encouraged the publication of several journals and
papers.
Sambad Pravakar was the first Bengali
daily newspaper published in 1839, patronized by Iswar Chandra Gupta. It was
followed by Tattobodhini, published
by Akhya Kumar Dutta in 1843.
The other Bengali journals during this time were Samachar Chandrika, Bangadoot, Sambad Pravakar, Vividhartha Sangrah (1851), Masik Patra (1854), and Som Prakash (1851).
The first weekly within the territory of today's Bangladesh, Rangpur Bartabaha, was published in 1847
from Rangpur and the first weekly from Dhaka, Dacca News, was published in 1856. The long lasting Dhaka Prakash was first published in
1861 and Dhaka Darpan in 1863.
The early Bengali papers took up the cause of the oppressed workers in
the indigo plantation, and of the peasants. Notable among them were the Som
Prakash, the Grambartha Prakashika and the Amrita Bazar Patrika
(before it became an English weekly). They created problems for the government
with their exposure of the exploitation of labour in plantations and on the
fields, and violent denunciation of the European planters and the government.
In the course of this campaign, a number of newspapers were started in villages
and districts. Bengali journalism triggered and carried the message of
renaissance. The Bramho Samaj, a
socio-religious sect effected reforms and used newspapers as its vehicle. Prarthana Samaj in Maharastra and Arya Samaj in Northern and Western India
did the same later.
End 19th century saw some remarkable newspapers coming out
from Bengal. The Sulava Samachar of
the Indian Reform Association was started in 1870 by Keshab Chandra Sen. It was
a weekly, priced one pice per copy. It had a circulation of 3,500 copies and
was the most popular weekly of the period. Another journal which was also
popular was the Halishaar Patrika
edited by Babu Kisari Mohan Ganguli. The first newspaper to espouse the cause
of the working class, Bharat Sharmajibi,
was started as a weekly at about this time. The first Bengali daily to adopt
modern methods of production was the Basumati
(1880) which was edited by Krishna Kamal Bhattacharya. Surendranath Banerejee
published Bengalee. The editor of Bengalee faced contempt of court
proceedings and imprisonment when it voiced public indignation in 1883 against
a High Court Judge who ordered Hindu idols to be produced in court as evidence.
The paper which became a daily in 1900 was the first language paper to
subscribe to Reuter’s foreign news service. An associate of the Bengalee was the Nayak (1908), published by Panch Cowrie Bannerjee. Through the Bande Mataram, another important
newspaper of this period Aurobindo Ghose proclaimed his philosophy and the ‘new
path’ which meant passive resistance as an instrument of political action. In
fact Bengali papers were the earliest to demand self-Government and attack the
Moderate leaders of the nationalist movement with timidity and lack of courage
to demand what was the birthright of Indians. The division of Bengal in 1905
had a profound impact on the Bengali press, which not only opposed it along
with most of the nationalist press in other languages all over the country, but
became severely critical of the British government- at times going over the
board. Three papers which came on the scene after the partition as champions of
revolution were Sandhya, Nagasakhti and Yugantar. The Yugantar
founded in 1906 by Barendra Kumar Ghose, brother of Aurobindo achieved great
popularity.
On March 13, 1922 came the Ananda
Bazar Patrika, started by Mrinal Kanti Ghosh, Prafulla Kumar Sarkar and
Suresh Chandra Majumdar. Together with its English counterpart, Hindustan Standard (launched on 1937),
it played a glorious role in the freedom movement.
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| Ananda Bazar Patrika |
After Gandhi took over the leadership of the national movement, the Bengalee and Nayak which were the organs of the Moderates, lost ground rapidly
in spite of official support because of the tremendous pressure exerted by C.
R. Das who was the undisputed Congress leader in Bengal. In 1926 a weekly Atmasakti and in 1927 a daily Banglar Katha was published as associate
publications of the English daily Forward.
However, all three ceased publication in 1929. The three newspapers
reappeared in different names: Liberty,
Bangabani and Nabasakti, but could not survive for long.
Another daily Jugantar was
started in 1937 by the management of the Amrita
Bazar Patrika. Two more dailies were published in 1939: The Bharat, founded by Makhan lal Sen and
the Krishak, the organ of the Krishak
Praja party. In 1941 A.K.Fazlul Huq started the publication of the daily Navajug. In 1946 the official organ of
the Communist party of India the Swadhinata
was published. In the same year, Swaraj was
published with Satyendra Nath Mazumdar as the editor.
Bengali papers suffered after the partition in 1947 because they lost a
good slice of their readers in the new East Pakistan, which in 1971 became a
new independent country: Bangladesh. Notable newspapers started in the first
two decades after the independence included Loksevak
(1948) and Jansevak owned by the
Congress leader, Atulay Ghosh.
Several daily newspapers
appeared in the 1980s. Established in 1980 in Siligudi, Uttar Banga Sambad claims to be the first daily newspaper in West
Bengal to be published from outside Kolkata. Suhas Talukder, a lecturer in
Economics turned journalist was the founder editor. By the new millennium it
emerged as the largest circulated newspaper in North Bengal. Among other newspapers published in this
decade were Aajkal (1981) and Bartaman (1984). In the Nineties, Sanbad Pratidin (August 9, 1992) was
published.
In 1984, there were 1662 Bengali newspapers as against 1583 in 1983. Of
them 52 were dailies and 433 weeklies. By 2013-14 the total number of publication
grew to 5089 as per the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) Press In India report.
The circulation increased to 1,13,35,535. Out of the total 3,780 registered
newspapers, 179 were daily, 19 were Bi/Tri Weekly, 806 were Weekly, 815 were
Fortnightly, and 1010 were monthly. Rest were different periodicity.
Apart from West Bengal’s (3442), Bengali language newspapers and periodical
are also getting published from other states like Assam (125), Bihar (7), Chhattisgarh
(3), Delhi (37), Gujarat (1), Jharkhand (4), Kerala (2), Maharashtra (13), Meghalaya
(2), Odisha (1), Pondicherry (1), Rajasthan (1), Tamilnadu (3), Tripura (113)
and Uttar Pradesh (11).
Regarding the ownership, out of the total 179 dailies, one is owned by
firm/partnership, 134 are being owned by individuals, 8 are being owned by
Public Limited Companies, 24 are owned by Private party, 2 are controlled by
the state government, 6 are owned by society/association and rest 4 are owned by
trusts.
Radio: Calcutta was the second place in India to have a radio
station after Bombay. Bombay station was inaugurated on July 23, 1927. Calcutta
station followed on August 26, 1927.
By mid-2011 there were about 30-35 stations including AIR (All India
Radio) and Private Radio Stations. Besides Kolkata, there are AIR stations in Asansol,
Balurghat, Chinsurah, Darjeeling, Farakka, Kurseong, Midnapore, Murshidabad, Purulia, Shanthiniketan
and Siliguri. There are several Private
Radio Stations like Big FM, Red FM, Friends FM, Fever FM, Radio Meow, Amar FM,
Power FM, Nine 91.9 FM, High 92.7 FM and Radio Misty in West Bengal. There were
campus radios like Radio SRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute) and Radio
JU (School of Media, Jadavpur University, Kolkata).
The estimated radio market in West Bengal is around 50 crore and it is
expected to go high after more number of Private Radio stations come up and
allowed news broadcasting permission.
Television: The first Television
station in Calcutta was set up by Doordarshan in 1975. In June, 1984, Calcutta
Doordarshan entered the world of colour transmission.
By mid-2011, there were about 15 satellite television channels airing
Bengali news programmes including Doordarshan, ETV(Bangla), Channel 10, Star
Ananda, News Time, Kolkata TV, Tara Newz, 24 Ghanta, Mahuaa Khobor, NE Bangla,
CTVN Plus, R Plus, etc.
According to FICCI report (2012), Bengali TV industry is expected to
attract around INR 780 crores in advertising revenue. And out of the total INR
780 crores advertisement revenues, 600 crore will be from Bengali general entertainment
channels (GECs) and rest 180 will be from other sources. And it was expected by
then in 2012 that by 2016, the advertisement revenues of Bengali television
industry will reach around 1900 crores. Bengali TV also generates an amount of Rs
950 crores from subscription. It is expected that after digitization, the
subscription revenue will be considerably more.
New Media: Bengali Journalism took
to new media in a big way by late 1990s. By end 2016 almost all major
newspapers had their presence on cyber world with several having their e-paper.
There were numerous Bengal and Bengali Diaspora-centric websites. Several media
houses have started disseminating news on mobile platform as either separate
service on payment or add on to their existing service.
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