Sulava Samachar

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Sulava Samachar (Bengali: সুলভ সমাচার, Sulov Somachar, meaning Cheap News), (can also be spelt as Sulabh Samachara), a Bengali weekly, published from Kolkata, was a pioneering journalistic venture, published by the Indian Reform Association in the 19th century. It created a sensation in its own days and set the trend for others to follow.

1 Indian Reform Association
2 Pice Newspaper
3 Men of Consequence
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Indian Reform Association

Keshub Chunder Sen established the Indian Reform Association immediately on return from England in 1870. It had been a highly successful lecture trip, where he explained many of his ideas and held forward Indian traditions. At the same time, he was imbued with new ideas about reform for the improvement of the lot of the people of India. One of the things that impressed him was the immense power of the press, particularly the daily newspaper in England.

The objective of the Indian Reform Association was to iniate reforms in Indian society. While Keshub Chunder Sen was elected its president, it had amongst its members many persons not attached to the Brahmo Samaj. The latter represented the secular side of Brahmo life of the period. The physical work was carried on mainly by the missionaries and other members of the Brahmo Samaj. The work of the association was divided into five sections: (1) Charity (2) Female Education (3) Technical and General Education (4) Temperance and (5) Cheap Literature. While the first section carried out such work as relief in areas struck by malaria, the second section organised female adult education activities, the third section organised night schools and vocational training for the working classes, and the fourth section carried forward the temperance activities.

The objective of the Cheap Literature section was to disseminate useful and scientific information amongst the masses of the people by the issue of a cheap journal and the publicatin of cheap and useful tracts.

[edit] Pice Newspaper

Sulava Samachar was started on 16th November 1870. It was priced one pice. Such a cheap journal for the information of the masses was a pioneering journalistic venture and the first of its kind in India. Umanath Gupta was its first editor.

Initially 1,000 copies were printed and once it was all sold, another 1,000 had to be printed. The circulation increased to 5,000 in two weeks and in two months to 8,000, a circulation unknown and unheard of in those days. It was avidly read by common people who had not handled a newspaper till then and who were for the first time brought in touch with events that were happening around them.

The weekly dealt with diverse subjcts such as the miserable condition of the peasants, the administrative system, measures for the uplift of the common people and their education, abuses of the zemindary system and exploitation by the zemindars, abuses of the British administration, importance of science and scietific explanations in rudimentary form, diseases of the human body and their remedies, and prices of commodities, apart from general news from urban and rural areas. Keshub Chunder Sen himself was one of the chief contributors. The news weekly carried classified advertisements, a novel idea in those days.

Within a few weeks of the launch of the Sulava Samachar, as many as a dozen pice newspapers, started off with varying degrees of fluctuating success. In 1879, the Indian Reform Association reported the publication of three newspapers: Sulava Samachar, Paricharika, a women’s journal, and Balya Bandhu, a journal for children. All had good circulation.

According to Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, “The novelty and success of the newspaper stimulated repeated imitations till at the present moment cheap journalism has become a widespread institution and created a public opinion, which the Government itself is obliged to respect. Of this kind of vernacular journalism… Keshub Chunder Sen was the pioneer.”

Sivanath Sastri wrote, “It was the fore-runner of an era of cheap journalism in this country, which is now an established institution. After having faithfully fulfilled its mission as a pioneer, it has now been incorporated with another newspaper and has passed into other hands.”

[edit] Men of Consequence

Keshub Chunder Sen used to contribute articles in chaste Bengali. Excerpts from a translation of an article in Bengali, entitled Men of Conequence, published in November 1870 is given below.

Who are the people of importance in the country?... To tell the truth there are in the country now, a few families of aristocratic descent. But who after all are the real people of consequence? In our country it is people of the lower classes. If these people were not there, who could have his supply of provisions, ride coaches and witness horse races, or enjoy a toil-less leisure? It is indeed the insignifiacnt people who supply all our needs. We live in affluence at their cost. But how many of us think of expressing gratitude to them?...

There will come a time on earth when the proletariat will not remain dumb, will not remain lying down on the ground f misery… We do not desire that the proletariat should commit outrages. But we do certainly wish that they should, without committing unlawful deeds, bring the land owners to their senses.

To be able to do this it is necessary that they should have education. Those of you among our readers, who are farmers or artisans, do ye unite and stand up. Exert yourselves to the utmost to improve your condition, to forcibly stop outrage, cruelty an oppression to the tenantry. It is for your good, consider, that we publish this little journal. Sleep no more. It is time, wake up. No one is there to speak for you.

[edit] See also

Tattwabodhini Patrika

[edit] References

History of the Brahmo Samaj by Sivanath Sastri, Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, 211 Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata – 700 026.

Keshub Chunder Sen: A Study in Encounter and Response by Kashinath Kayal, Minerva Associates (Publications) Pvt. Ltd., 7B Lake Place, Kolkata 700 029.