1. Rise & growth of Hindi Journalism

2. How it started Hindi Journalism started because of 5 main reasons
Love for Hindi language
Love for Hindi literature
Love for Journalism & journalistic activities
To rid the society of social evils
To propagate religious values

3. Initial phase Concerned solely with social & religious matters
Not much involvement in political affairs
Singular attention to ridding society of social evils like Untouchability, lack of education especially girl education, sati, dowry, child marriage, widow remarriage etc

4. Change in tone
Hindi press transformed to political & nationalistic Press with a demand for self governance when
Racial discrimination became rampant
Grievances of people against the rulers multiplied

5. The beginning
1826, 1st Hindi NP- weekly started in Calcutta, Oodunt Martand
Editor- Jooghul Kishore (Jugal Kishor)
Pioneer of Hindi journalism in India
Faced many difficulties in running it
Needed postal facilities to dispatch it outside Bengal- but denied by the Govt.
Also refused postal concessions

6. Unable to face high postal rates
Closed down the paper within an year after 79 issues
Made an attempt to start another newspaper in called Samyadani Martand- but this too failed
1829, Bangadoot, owned by Rajarammohun Roy,
sister publication of Bengal Herald (Eng weekly),
Ed- Nilratan Haldar

7. Vehicle for propagation of Roy’s views- attacked Hindu orthodoxy & social vices
Also published in English, Persian & Bengali
Prajamitra- 3rd Hindi journal to appear in Calcutta
1854, 1st Hindi daily- Samachar Subha Varshan,
Ed- Shyam Sunder Sen

8. 1850-1857 Many newspapers started- Benaras Akhbar, Tathwa Bodhini, etc
Sudhakar- sustained campaign against missionary activities,
Ed- Tara Mohan Mitra, Bilingual newspaper
Language used- Khari Boli
Saraswathy- literary Hindi magazine, set high standards for future Hindi journals, Ed- Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi
Standardized the style & pattern for Hindi journalism- included literary criticism, book reviews, poetry etc,

9. 1st world war years- 1918 onwards
Birth of many Hindi dailies in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Patna etc
Most prominent ones: Sri Venkateshwar Samachar, Bharat Mitra, calutta Samachar etc
Bharat Mitra- became leading Hindi NP of its time in Calcutta, Eds- B Gupta, A P Bajpai
Main rival- Viswamitra in 1918

10. After 1st World War Hindi Journalism- made rapid progress
Most reporters & journalists were writers who had interest in Hindi literature & consequently in Hindi journalism
Produced outstanding J’s- M.P Dwivedi, C Ram Shukla, Shiv Ram Pandey, Laxminarayan Garde, Narmada Prasad Misra etc
Other distinguished writers include:
Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Varma, Ela Chandra Joshi, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri etc

11. Freedom for the country- sole mission
Masses influenced by regional language NPs, especially Hindi, as Hindi widely spoken
English not half as effective
Leaders wanted dissemination of news & views on freedom struggle through widely read Hindi papers
Reporters & writers had one foot in prison & the other in Ed office

12. Aaj
1920, started in Banaras
Notable part in Indian Independence struggle
1st Ed- Sri Prakasa- freedom fighter
Espoused the national cause & waged a never ending battle against the British
Assisted by Baburao Vishnu Pararkar- contribution to development of Hindi journalism immense

13. Sold at half anna
Often compared to The Times, London
Main aim of the NP was to spread the message of freedom to Hindi speaking masses of UP, Bihar & MP
Was a strong supporter of the INC
Famous for- impartial & objective reporting & fearless editorials
Covered both national as well as international news

14. Desh
1920, Patna weekly, influential paper, mouthpiece of the Indian National Congress
Proved valuable for nationalist propaganda
Founded by Babu Rajendra Prasad
Not a profitable venture, incurred huge losses
Made the mistake of gradually reducing ad rates
Hence, circulation increased and losses kept pace
End of non cooperation movement spelt doom

15. Dailies Vs Weeklies 1924, 102 papers in India
4 dailies: Aaj- Banaras, Swatantra- Calcutta, Arjun- Delhi & Calcutta Samachar- Calcutta
But , Hindi dailies were not as successful as Hindi weeklies
Their get up & printing was poor, content clumsily written, had countless errors & editorials were very lengthy
Weeklies better edited as they had more time at disposal

16. Some well known weeklies
In 1920’s, the previous ones and the following
Bhavishya- Kanpur, Sainik- Agra
In 1930’s,
Savadho Bharat- Bombay, Lokmat- Jabalpur, Vartaman- kanpur, Milap- Lahore, Lokmanya- Calcutta
Most played a notable role in our struggle for freedom

17. Hindustan & Aryavart Started in 1936
Sister publication of Hindustan Times
Wide news coverage & variety of special features
Had high circulation, a very popular paper
Aryavart- started in 1940, sister publication of Indian Nation – exercised considerable influence

18. Popular newspapers
Navbharat Times of the Times group- started in in Delhi
One of the largest circulated daily today
Many editions- from Maharashtra, MP, Chattisgarh
Popular for its coverage of national & international news and views on domestic affairs
Amrita Patrika- Allahabad, notable Hindi daily notable for its trenchant editorial

19. Some important NPs today
Dopahar Ka Saamna- Mumbai
Swatantra Chetna- Gorakhpur
Hamara Mahanagar- Mumbai
Jansatta- Delhi & Kolkatta
Amar Ujala- UP
Sanmarg- Calcutta
Kuber Times- Delhi
Nai Duniya- Indore
Hindi Milap- Hyderabad
Rajasthan Patrika- Rajasthan
Hindi Tribune- Chandigarh

20. Hindi Press- leading the way
Largest no. of Hindi papers- UP (In )
Oldest surviving Hindi newspaper (as on 1984)- Jain Gazette- weekly from Lucknow, started in 1895
Hindi Press as a whole commands maximum readership
More newsprint exists in Hindi than in any other language

21. Best in Hindi journalism- was seen in periodicals- stronghold of Hindi journalism
Better style, better made & more appealing
E.g., Ravivar (Hindi weekly of Sunday Group) & Hindi Blitz from Bombay
Main centers of Hindi publications- UP, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi

22. Popularization of Hindi
1918, Mahatma Gandhi advocated the need for recognizing Hindi as the national language
Several politicians & educationists supported him
Stressed the need for introducing Hindi as the medium of instruction in schools
Campaign for popularization of Hindi got an impetus- Millionaire philanthropist of Benares, Shiv Prasad Gupta launched Hindi NP Aaj in 1920

23. Paper was sold for half an anna
Wanted the paper to become as influential as The Times of London
When suggestions were raised to have a common script for all Indian languages, Gandhi asserted use of Devanagari (Roman script was used till then)
Indian Army used Roman script to write Hindi, it continued till 1951

24. Bitterness caused by Partition checkmated the effort to have a common script for Hindi & Urdu
Though they have lot in common in the spoken form, their scripts have different origins
Hindi developed from Sanskrit, Urdu from Persian & Arabic
Out of 27 Indian States - 8 States use Hindi as the State language (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh,)

25. Transition pre & post Independence
Writers before Independence were people who had love for Hindi language & Hindi literature
Till Independence, Hindi NPs had a mission- Freedom
Post Independence, this mission became a profession
Industrialists & businessmen took over, gained ownership

26. Ed lost importance, journalists who disagreed terms & conditions – unceremoniously sacked
Influx of Hindi supplements, weekend magazines, for both literary reasons + entertainment

27. By 1990’s Hindi was spoken by 49% of the population English- 3%
1978, NRS- Circulation of Hindi NPs exceeded that of English NPs
million Hindi dailies were sold as against 5 million English ones
The gap has widened since then & only increasing

28. Competition among Hindi NPs
Aaj & Dainik Jaagran- highly competitive since 1974
Aaj- audited circulation of about 1,20,000
By ‘93, published from 12 centers
1998, Aaj’s circulation- 5,70,000, Dainik Jaagran- 7 lac from 11 centers
Dainik Bhaskar lakh copies
Navbharat Times- 2 editions lakh circulation
Navbharat- 7 editions copies

29. Section of Press- fanning communal passions
Big NPs like DB, DJ hired Journalists who had 4-5 yrs experience in smaller NPs, no training as such
Most J’s came from right wing tinged communities with communal bias against the minority communities
Often brought their prejudices to work
Serious allegations that smaller Hindi NPs distorted news & exaggerated certain communally sensitive matter during the Babri Masjid demolition

30. Why did Hindi Press grow
More rooted in soil than English papers
Covered the mental gap between the readers in rural areas & the English language NPs
Bridged the distance between a foreign language NP readers & one who can read his own language
Escalation of literacy
Increasing purchasing power
Hunger for news as well as entertainment

31. Hindi press for developmental purposes
Attempts since 1950’s to exploit the potential of Hindi NPs for developmental purposes
Govt. realized how it could carry the message of planned development
Radio was earlier used to convey such vital info to farmers, agricultural communities
With the progress of the literacy programme, the focus shifted to print media since it had greater credibility

32. Hindi NPs played a constructive role in promotion of
Family planning programme of the Govt.
Rural health programmes
Literacy campaigns

33. Politics
Hindi press also helped the rural masses understand the political process
Result- more & more people from rural areas driven to politics + more awareness about our working system
NPs also played imp. role during elections in 2 ways:
Helped candidates get better exposure in small areas
Candidates made Press a part of their campaign to seek rural vote bank

34. Challenges to Hindi press
More like challenges to regional Press, not Hindi press alone
Maintaining neutrality & objectivity in reporting
Being exploited by powerful politicians & industrialists
Erosion of the authority of the editor
Growing English Press