1. Paper – Indian Regional Journalism

2.  Largest no. of Hindi newspapers - UP  Oldest surviving Hindi newspaper (as on 1984) - Jain Gazette - weekly from Lucknow, started in 1895.  Hindi Press as a whole commands maximum readership.

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

4.  1918, Mahatma Gandhi advocated the need for recognizing Hindi as the national language.  Several politicians and 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 newspaper Aaj in 1920.

5.  Paper was sold for half an anna.  Wanted the paper to become as influential as The Times of London.  When suggestions were made to have a common script for all Indian languages, Gandhi asserted use of Devanagari (Roman script was used till then).

6.  Bitterness caused by Partition checkmated the effort to have a common script for Hindi and Urdu.  Though they have lot in common in the spoken form, their scripts have different origins.  Hindi developed from Sanskrit, Urdu from Persian and Arabic.

7.  Out of the 29 Indian States - 10 States use Hindi as the State language (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh).

8.  Writers before Independence were people who had love for Hindi language & Hindi literature.  Till Independence, Hindi newspapers had a mission - Freedom.  Post Independence, this mission became a profession.  Industrialists & businessmen took over, gained ownership.

9.  Editors lost importance.  Journalists who disagreed with the terms and conditions – unceremoniously sacked.  Influx of Hindi supplements, weekend magazines, for both literary reasons and entertainment.

10.  Hindi was spoken by 49% of the population.  English - 3%  1978, NRS - Circulation of Hindi newspapers exceeded that of English newspapers.  1997- 16.1 million Hindi dailies were sold as against 5 million English ones.  The gap has widened since then and is only increasing.

11.  Aaj & Dainik Jaagran - highly competitive since 1974  Aaj - audited circulation of about 1,20,000  By 1993, published from 12 centers  1998, Aaj’s circulation- 5,70,000, Dainik Jaagran - 7 lakh from 11 centers  Dainik Bhaskar - 4.78 lakh copies  Navbharat Times - 2 editions- 4.19 lakh circulation  Navbharat - 7 editions- 4.65 copies

12.  Big newspapers such as Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran hired Journalists who had 4-5 yrs experience in smaller newspapers, no training as such.  Most journalists came from the right wing tinged communities with communal bias against the minority communities.  Serious allegations that smaller Hindi newspapers distorted news & exaggerated certain communally sensitive issues during the Babri Masjid demolition.

13.  More rooted in the local culture than the English papers.  Bridged the distance between a foreign language newspaper readers and those who read in their own language.  Increase in literacy.  Increasing purchasing power.  Hunger for news as well as entertainment.

14.  Attempts were made since 1950’s to exploit the potential of Hindi newspapers 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 programmes, the focus shifted to print media since it had greater credibility.

15.  Hindi newspapers played a constructive role in the promotion of:  Family planning programme of the Govt.  Rural health programmes  Literacy campaigns

16.  Hindi press also helped the rural masses understand the political process.  Result - more and more people from rural areas driven to politics.  More knowledge about how the political system works.

17.  Newspapers also played an important role during elections in two ways:  Helped candidates get better exposure in small areas.  Candidates made Press a part of their campaign to seek rural vote bank.

18.  Common challenges faced by the regional Press, not Hindi press alone.  Maintaining neutrality and objectivity in reporting.  Being exploited by powerful politicians and industrialists.  Erosion of the authority of the editor.  Growing English Press.