N is for...Navigating....the Nineteenth... N... Newspapers

First off, here's Nachiketa with his super popular nineties track - Nilanjana. Followed by Neela, also a nineties title,  from Anjan Dutta.

And finally, take a listen to Nagarbaul James...one of the top rock bands from Bangladesh with the number Mira Baai...a bit remiscent of Kraftwerk, or is it just me? Oh, okay, it's just me with my midlife obsessive dejavu-ness of fitting everything encountered into some or other teenhood memory.

Navigating the Nineteenth. Nifty Newspapers.


As per the latest Indian Readership Survey, the readership of Bengali language newspapers is around 21 million in West Bengal alone (population 91 million). Circulation for Bangladeshi dailies indicate an estimate of around 24 million (total population 167 million). Bear in mind that English language dailies would have a substantial readership in both Bengals. It might be worthwhile pointing out here that India is one of the largest newspaper markets in the world and the print media is doing well there, unlike the West where some newspapers/journals have had to scrap print versions in favour of digital formats. Read more about the how and why of the Indian scenario here.

The nineteenth century was a time of much intellectual reflections and social change for Bengal. Bengal was the cradle of Indian journalism and had an early start on newspapers. Given the intellectual environment and the early exposure to European ideas, that is no surprise. A highly eccentric Irishman, James Augustus Hickey published Hickey’s Bengal Gazette, the first Indian newspaper in 1780, from Calcutta. It was critical of the East India Company, including top guy Warren Hastings, who sued Hickey for libel and shut the paper down. Later the Indian Gazette appeared, which supported the Company.

The vernacular newspapers also had their beginnings in Calcutta. The first Bengali newspaper Samachar Darpan (Samachar=News, Darpan=Mirror) made its appearance in 1818, published by missionaries William Carey and Joshua Marshman from the Missions Press at Serampore. This started off as a monthly, but was soon made into a weekly on popular demand and continued till 1852, when it folded due to various crises. Darpan was followed by Sambad Koumudi (1819-1836), Sambad Prabhakar (1831-early 1900s), Tattwobodhini (1843-1883) and several others, many of which, just like the Darpan, started life as monthlies and ended up as weeklies to cater to their readership.

But it wasn’t just the Bengali papers, the other regional language papers also got their start ups in Calcutta. Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, the first Urdu weekly in India, was started by Harihar Dutta in 1822. And – again, no surprises, the first Urdu daily, Urdu Guide, also started off in Calcutta in 1858. Udant Martand (The Rising Sun) a weekly Hindi paper was published by Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla in 1826. The first Persian language paper of India was published here too in 1822, though it did not run for long, shut down after a couple of years.

What is now Bangladesh wasn’t far behind either. The Rangpur Bartabaha was first published from Rangpur in North Bengal in 1847. Dhaka published the weekly Dacca News first in 1856. Dhaka Prakash and Dhaka Darpan started rolling out in 1861 and 1863 respectively.  

Amrita Bazaar Patrika, a Bengali language paper, was founded in 1868, and The Statesman in 1875. Both these newspapers are still running today, though in different avatars and in different markets compared to their original versions.

The early papers took up the causes of the exploited Indian workers and the wider cause of Indian nationalism. Particularly Amrita Bazar Patrika played a key role in the Indian freedom struggle and spearheaded  Bengali investigative journalism. The paper was founded in Jessore in present day Bangladesh by two brothers – Motilal and Sisir Ghosh, named after a bazar the family had constructed – Amrita Bazar, (Patrika=journal/paper). In 1871, due to a plague outbreak, the paper moved to Calcutta, evolving into a bi-lingual weekly published in English and Bengali. It regularly wrote editorials against the colonial government policies.

In the late 1880’s/early 1890's, during the tenure of Lord Lansdowne, a Patrika journalist rummaged through the wastepaper bins in the Viceroy’s office to piece together a letter outlining plans to grab Kashmir, which was published by the paper on its front page. The Maharaja of Kashmir read it and went to London to protest and lobby for independence.  Amitra Bazar rallied support for the Bengali revolutionaries, including Subhas Chandra Bose, when they were expelled from Presidency College. It constantly took potshots at the British colonial government, which feared its huge reach and its vast influence. In fact, the Patrika made life so intolerable for the British powers that Lord Lytton, the Viceroy during 1887-91, passed the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 largely to hobble Amrita Bazar. As the Act was applicable only to vernacular papers, the Patrika nimbly switched to English and continued with its disapproval and criticisms of the colonial government.  During the Calcutta killings in 1946, when other papers published highly partisan reports stoking communal flames and egging on the violence between Hindus and Muslims, Amrita Bazar's editorial columns were published blanked out for three consecutive days in support of communal harmony and silent outrage. 

Unfortunately, a series of financial decisions and competition from newer entrants forced the owners out in the nineties. Circulation figures which stood at 150,000 during the Patrika's heydays slumped to 25,000, wages remained unpaid, employees committed suicide. The presses fell silent finally in 1991 after reporting on Bengali and Indian life and times for 123 years. It was a tragic day for Bengali media and the middle classes to see this institution go. However, all is not lost - the Patrika was revived in 2006 in its original home in Bangladesh and is now published from Dhaka, one of the oldest newspapers in South Asia. 







Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2019