Ananda Bazar Patrika

The highest circulated leading

Razar Patrika was
started on 13 Bengali daily Ananda
able leadership of founder editor March, 1922 under the
Prafulla Kumar Sarkar.
Another distinguished person associted
was Suresh Chandra
with this
Majumdar who initiated newspaper
introduction Bengali lino type in 1935 in the AnandaforBazar
the
Patrika.
Since its inception Ananda Bazar Patrika followed
line of nationalism which aimed at the
from the yoke of foreign rule. The
liberating the country
founding editor Prafulla
Kumar Sarkar stated in an editorial that 'freedom is our
birthright' and we must have to obtain it. Whenever there
was any injustice on the part of the
government, Ananda
Bazar instantly took critical stand against it and
condemned the government for such activities. It was
highly critical of the British raj and supported the
nationalist and partiotic causes of the freedom strggle.
On many occassions the newspaper had to face the wrath
of the government for extending explicit suport for the
national movements.Its editor and printer were put behind
the bar in 1923 for publishing an editiorial that praised
the action of the famous
heroic and courageous
Tevointionary Jatin Das. when its
suffered a set back
1930 the newspaper
months
imprisoned for six
caitor Satyen Mazumder was congress
number
for publishing an article in a special
Another distinguished journalist
Lached to the n e w s p a p e r ,
raid in the
after a poice
Makhanlal Sen was also arrested

Journalism-8
 introduction to JOUTilaIS
106
office of the newspaper in November, 1930. Ed:.
ed in 1931.
Satyendranath Majumder was again arrested 1931 ditor
the Indian Official Secrets Act and spent nine months in iaunder
jail.t
On several occasions Ananda Bazar Patrika had
to
pay fine for publishing articles criticising The Britis
government. In 1942 after the start of Quit Indi
Movement, editor Suresh Chandra Mazumder was again
arrested under Defence of Indian Rules. The strong actions
taken by the governament against Ananda Bazar proves
that its role was very much pro-active in favour of
the
freedom struggle. In 1939 Ananda Bazar Patrika
came
forward to propularise Bandemataram' song by
L.P. record.
making a

Ananda Bazar successfully maintained its tradition of

nationalism by taking active part in the
process of
reconstuction of the country. It provided wide
the demands and aspirations of the common coverage
on

such
people
and
agenda setting had profound effect on the policy
making of the government. Throughout fitfies the role of
Ananda Bazar was remarkable in stengthening democratic
foundations of the country by shaping the public
with its updated news
opinion
coverage and critical editiorial
Comments.
Since the sixties Ananda Bazar's coverage started
becoming more diverse as it gave more emphasis on socio-
cultural issues besides, politics, business and
international
topics. Metropolitan development of Calcutta received good
cOverage in the Ananda Bazar. In June 1960 a mega plan
was designed by the state government for urban housing
in the salt lake that belonged to the eastern part of the city.
The plan estimated that 3.75 square k.m. wet land
areas
would be reclaimed for distributinghousing plots to the
middle income group people. Initially the plan had to face
tremendous odds from different corners who saw in this
new venture a great threat to the environment, drainage
 Bengali Newspapers in sixties 107
evstem of the city and the
livelihood of many people who
were engaged either in cultivation of vegetables or in fishiry
husiness. Ananda Bazar highlighted various aspects
involving with this issue of mega metropolitan project. This
involving
coverage greatly contributed to keep the government well
informed of many sides of disputation regarding the
developmental issue.
Apart from this east Calcutta urban development
planning, a lot of projects came up during this decade.
Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation was
established under the instruction of World Bank for the
reconstruction of the water supply and drainage cum
sewerage system. A master plan was designed to imporve
the transportation, electrification of the roads, slum
imporvement etc. Planning of Metro railway and circular
railway were also started in the first half of the decade. All
these developmental issues got enough space in the Ananda
Bazar Patrika.
Cultural life of Bengal was greatly enriched during this
time. The leading figures of litarature world were Rajsekhar
Bose, Tarasankar Banerjee, Premendra Mitra, Narayan
Ganguly, Saradindu Banerjee, Buddhadeb Bose, Bishnu
Bazar.
Dey. All of them were regular contributors of Ananda
Satyajit Ray made his master pieces like Kanchanjangha,
Bagha Bayen. Mrinal Sen made
Charulata, Gupi Gayen
film Bhuvan
Akash Kusum and the Indian first avant-garde
Shome. It was also remarkabnle time
for Bengali music.
Hamanta Mukherjee, Sndhya Mukherjee, Dey,
Manna
Lata Mangeskar
Satinath Mukherjee, Pratima Banerjee and
evoking great
rendered outstanding memorable songs tilm
of Bengali
Sponse from the people. This golden and music reviews
era

and music was captured in the reportage

persisted
era
OI Ananda Bazar. The effect of this golden
the
potrayea
was aequately
in the seventies and this reality
ven
in the Patrika.
 Introduction to Journalism
and Mass Communication
108
changes in the political
Late sixties witnessed rapid
first time non-congres
scenario of West Bengal. For the
government was formed in 1967 when a coalition
government came to power with the support of left parties
under the Chief Ministership of Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee.
Erstwhile congress government led by Mr. Prafulla Sen had
failed to solve the food crisis generated mainly because of
severe drought and the practice of hoarding by some
dishonest businessmen. Though Ananda Bazar had pro-
congress leaning, it gave wide coverage on the activities of
the left partis.
Meanwhile an ultra left force was getting
under the leadership of Charu Mazumder and Kanu
strengthened
An agragarian revolt took
Sanyal.
place Naxalbari in North Bengal.
in
Several money lenders and landlords were killed in the
wake
of forcible occupation of land
by the landless people. Thus
Naxlite movement that followed the
China brought extremist revolutionary line of
politics in West Bengal.
Naxalite movement had tremendous effect on the urban
youth, mostly the student community in the colleges and
universities. Armed revolution inspired the youth to seek a
new horizon of social
transformation. The police force i.e.,
state power became a serious bottlneck in the
proces of
revolution. Armed actions were launched
against the
landloards, money lenders and the police force. A good
number of landlords, money lenders and lower
police officals were killed in actions engineeredranking by the
naxalite activists. Though the movement was
started in the
northern part of rural Bangal, its
activities were getting
confined to the urban centres,
Educational institutions were mostly in the city of Calcutta.
the centres of attack as
bourgeoisie education was considered
Calcutta and district towns turned into anti-revolutionary.
where arson and killing became places of nightmares
routine affairs. From 1969
 Bengali Newspapers in sixties
109
anwards the pages of Ananda Bazar
draconian reality. documented this
In the eighties Ananda Bazar
started to be very critical
to the policies and
periormances of the Left Front
government. The main thrust of criticism was
aimed at the
nerformances of the governemnt led by Mr. Jyoti Basu. But
this criticism was not only confined to
governmental
activities, left party activities came also under its scanner.
The Congress party which was in the
opposition was not
spared from its tirade, whenever such occasion arose.
The early mineties witnessed the historic
emergence of
economic liberalizalion and reformation. In 1991 the
Government of India adopted a policy of liberalisation in
the economic front givining strong inpetus to reformation
by removing licence raj. Ananda Bazar unequivocally
supported this move and hailed the move of Manmohan
Singh, the then Finance Minister as judicious and
commendable. It was evident that the paper's policy was in
favour of liberalisation that tended to ignore socialistic
principles.
Since the eighties Ananda Bazar was going through
radical changes both in the context of introducing latest
technology in the production of newspaper and adopting
soft approches to the presentation of news package. This
change gained pace with the introduction of metro section
and weekly supplements. Metro section as well as T2 is
published six days a week and supplements are published
on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Satarday and Sunday.
Bditorial policy remained very much critical to the state
government led by left front as well as central government
t s socialist inclination. Crisis of socialism in the wake
O1 the collapse of USSR was potrayed with adequate space
a the coverage tried to depict the failure of socialism.
eing critical and skeptical to the left movements and
lopting a soft approach to anything global economically
 110 Introduction to Journalism and Mass Communication

and culturally turns out to be the characteristic feat

res
of the Ananda Bazar Patrika.
Since 1963 Ananda Bazar Patrika started to be a leadina
Bengali newspaper adopting radical changes. Santosh
Kumar Ghosh was the main architect of this change change.
Language of newspaper was simplified and arrangement of
headlines was dramatized in order to make them much
more attractive. For long time up to 1990s Ananda Bazar
was able to maintain its status as the largest circulatied
daily as a single edition newspaper.