Q. Describe the growth of Press in Modern Bihar and the role the press played in Bihar politics before independence.
Ans:
The growth of Press in Modern Bihar:
- By the second half of the nineteenth century most of the provinces of India were passing through social and political turmoil. The province of Bengal was in the forefront of this movement. Although Bihar was tagged with Bengal from the beginning of British rule, there was little public activity, little spread of education and very little impact of social reform movement in Bihar.
- In the last decades of the nineteenth century, however, attempts were made to spread education in Bihar. These attempts led to the emergence of a group of educated persons, who were eager to adopt modern ways of life.
- The growth of education brought new ideas to this group of men. They tried to launch organs in English and Hindi to propagate new ideas. The growth of literacy led to the rise of the press, which helped a great deal in the social and political development of Bihar.
- the first known news publication in Bihar can be traced to as far back as 1856. Before that, as noted in The Journal of Bihar Research Society, a printing press was set up by Shah Kabiruddin Ahmed in 1850. However, it wasn’t used for publishing a newspaper.
- This first newspaper was an effort by the British government, published for administrative purposes. William Taylor, the commissioner of Patna at the time, took the initiative to get an Urdu newspaper, Akhbar-e- Bihar, to start its publication on September 3, 1856.
- In Hindi:
- The first weekly newspaper was established in 1872. It was Bihar Bandhu, a Hindi weekly.
- Its founders were Madan Mohan Bhatt and Keshava Ram Bhatt.
- In the beginning, the office of the Bihar Bandhu was in Calcutta. After one and half years the Bhatt brothers brought its office to Patna (in 1874). Thus Bihar was way behind in traditions of newspapers that had been set up in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay which were humming with political activities.
- 1st pure Bihari hindi daily was ‘Sarbhitasi‘ in 1890.
- In 1913, ‘Hindi Bihari‘ was started.
- All the above three failed to gain the popular support.
- ‘Dainik Bihari‘: It raised the issue of Indigo planter of Champaran.
- ‘Bandi Kaidi‘ and ‘Karagar‘: Monthly magazine started during CDM by imprisoned leaders of Hazaribagh.
- ‘Satyagrah Samachar‘ was also started during CDM. It was soon banned.
- ‘Munger‘- It was published from Munger during QIM and was the mouthpiece of nationalists durin QIM.
- ‘Aryavarta‘ (1939)- It was hindi edition of ‘Indian nation‘.
- ‘Pradeep‘ in 1947- It was hindi daily of ‘searchlight‘.
- In English:
- The First English journal in Bihar owes its beginning to Sri Guru Prasad Sen, who began the Bihar Herald in 1875 and continued to run it for the advancement of Bihars’ social and political development.
- The educated and resourceful Biharis also tried to begin an organ in English. Two brothers, Bisheshwar Singh and Saligram Singh, new founders of B. N. College, started The Indian Chronicle in 1881 from Patna.
- Eventually, Shri Govind Charan, the first Bihari M. A. in English, became its editor.
- Later, Mahesh Narayan conducted the paper with conspicuous ability and when it languished for want of support, started a paper of his own under the name of The Bihar Times on Jan. 26, 1894.\
- The motherland and Bihar standard in 20th century. But they were short lived.
- in 1903- ‘Bihar times’– It was weekly and main theme was demand for separate Bihar.
- Later in 1906- Under the joint guidance of Sinha and Hasan Imam the Bihar Times was renamed as Beharee.
- It became a daily in 1913. But it lasted only four years in this form and closed down in 1917.
- However, only a year later, Sachidanand Sinha quickly filled the void by starting another news publication from Patna, the English news biweekly, Searchlight. It became a tri-weekly in 1920 and then a daily in 1930.
- It’s first editor was Sayyed Haider Hussain.
- ‘Motherland’– started Mazharul Haque during NCM from Sadakat Ashram, Patna.
- Severe criticism of the government-> faced many cases and was soon shutdown.
- ‘The Patna times‘ was started by the first Bihar Chief Minister (then Prime minister) Mohammed Yunus.
- ‘The Indian Nation‘ was started by Maharaja Kameshwar singh of Darbhanga in 1931.
- Bihar government also published the news bulletin under name ‘Patna Daily news‘.
- In Urdu:
- The urdu press releases were very limited in its scope, extent and circulation.
- ‘Nurul Anwar‘- 1st Urdu daily in Bihar. It was started from Ara by mohd. Hashim.
- ‘Sada-e-Aam’– was another Urdu daily.
The role the press played in Bihar politics before independence:
- The Bihar Bandhu emerged as a staunch supporter of Biharis interest. It launched a movement for preference to Biharis in government service in Bihear. It also tried to mould public opinion for promoting Bihar’s social and political development.
- The Bihar Bandhu lamented inactivity of the Bihar’ people: ‘what are the reasons of inactivity in Bihar ?. The ignorance of the common masses, the indifference of rich people, their apathy to the development of the country, their indulgence in petty affairs, their fear of the officials, their complete submission to the English people and their indulgence in licentiousness their lust for power—these are the reasons of the backwardness of this province.’
- The Bihar Bandhu was very vocal in condemning rich people of the province for their apathetic attitude. It held firm view that if rich persons of the province devoted energy and money for the improvement of the province, that would change the face of Bihar. It launched a crusade against the attitude of the zamindars and Nawabs of the province.
- The zamindars of the province were very much conscious to employ only English people in their estates. This paper started a movement for appointing Bihari people in various zamindaris.
- It wrote: ‘The Darbhanga Maharaj has employed from Manager to the gardener or horse keeper, only English people. It is a question, whether the Biharis are not qualified to look after gardens or horses of the Raj. The zamindars should think welfare of the province and help educated Biharis by giving them suitable jobs.’
- The Bihar Bandhu started campaign against various social evils like child marriage and pleaded for widow re-marriage. It commented that child marriage was a great social evil that engendered so many other evils.
- This weekly launched a movement for fighting the earliest battles of Hindi against the domination of Persian then in vogue as the principal language in the lawcourts. Consequently Hindi was introduced in the courts of Bihar in January 1881.
- The Bihar Bandhu hailed this decision in its editorials. ‘Devanagri has been accepted in civil courts from 1st January 1881. Those who will not learn Hindi during this period mill loose their jobs. This is a victory of truth.’
- After a quarter of a century’s run it fell on evil days. But the paper had set an example in national integration. It took lead in this direction by employing a Muslim editor of a Hindi paper owned by a Hindu.
- The Bihar Bhndhu should be considered as the pioneer of journalism in Bihar and harbinger of modern age in the province.
- The Bihar Herald was the chief organ of domiciled Bengalis of Bihar. This paper was in sharp disagreement with the younger generation of Biharis who launched a movement for the separation of Bihar.
- The Bihar Herald took up the cause of the voiceless peasants of Bihar against the tyranny of white indigo-planters.
- It drew a vivid picture of a famished population hit by recurring draught, famine and flood.
- It also focussed attention on an agrarian situation in which farmers were exploited mercilessly.
- This paper spotlighted the appalling illiteracy of the rural masses and backwardness of even the urban communities.
- But the greatest good that the Bihar Herald did was to provide opportunities for training to Biharis in carrying on journalism and publicity on modern lines.
- The educated and resourceful Biharis also tried to begin an organ in English. Two brothers, Bisheshwar Singh and Saligram Singh, new founders of B. N. College, started The Indian Chronicle in 1881.
- Eventually, Shri Govind Charan, the first Bihari M. A. in English, became its editor.
- Later, Mahesh Narayan conducted the paper with conspicuous ability and when it languished for want of support, started a paper of his own under the name of The Bihar Times on Jan. 26, 1894.\
- As Sachchidanand Sinha said, the birth of The Bihar Times may be said to have begun the period of reauassance in Bihar.
- The Bihar Times staked the claims of Biharis for a saparate province and started compaigns for the separation of Bihar from Bengal.
- Later Shri Sachchidanad Sinha joined this paper and gave new dimensions to this movement.
- The Bihari gave the educated Biharis a medium to express their views on important social and political problems of the time. The movement for the saparation of Bihar was carried successfully by this journal.
- It prepared a solid background for it during the closing years of the 19th century, and on this background the movement grew in the first decade of this century.
- In 1889 Mahesh Narayan began ‘Kayasth Gazette, an organ of social reform in a community which was suffering from many social evils. It started a crusade against social evils and called upon the Kayasth community to fight against them. Similarly, Sachchidanand Sinha started The Kayasth Samachar.
- Other caste organisations also brought out periodicals and pamphlets for propagating social reforms.
- There were other journals like ‘Bihar Patriot, started in 1884 in English, and one Hind daily, Sarvahitaishi, at the turn of the 19th century at Patna. They played a significant role in the political life of the province.
- Searchlighthad printed several articles that interpreted various observations made by judges of the Patna High Court as derogatory and hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.
- The high court, with Sir Courtney Terrell as its chief justice, held such articles as being in contempt of the court. In defence of Searchlight, eminent lawyers like Motilal Nehru, Sir Tej Sapru, and Sarat Chandra Bose even came to Patna to argue against the charge. The paper lost the case and was fined Rs 200.
- But later, at Sachidanand Sinha’s residence, Terrell met Murli Manohar Prasad, the editor of the paper at the time, and was impressed by his stand and views. Terrell assumed an Indian pseudonym and began contributing articles to Searchlight. In his writings, Terrell supported the cause of India’s freedom movement.
- During most of Gandhian mass movements like Civil disobedience movement and Quit India movement, ‘the searchlight’ acted as mouth piece of nationalists.
- In these newspapers, government Acts and policies were put to critical scrutiny. They acted as an institution of opposition to the government.
- The government on its part had enacted many strident laws, such as Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code which provided that anyone trying to cause disaffection against the British Government in India was to be transported for life or for any term or imprisoned up to three years.
- But the nationalist-minded journalists had evolved many clever strategems to subvert these legal hurdles. For instance, writings hostile to the government used to be prefaced with sentiments of loyalty to the government or critical writings of socialists or Irish nationalists from newspapers in England used to be quoted.
Besides these important organs in English and Hindi, many vernacular journals in Hindi and Urdu were started in different towns of the province during this period. Most of them had a local circulation and they often ceased publication after a short time. But they, too played a very important role in creating public opinion and spreading political consciousness in the province. As the national movement progressed the the attitude of press became more and more nationalist and anti-British.
