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2021-08-12T11:26:09Z

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{{short description|Bengali & English Newspaper}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = Amrita Bazar Patrika
| logo =
| image =
| caption =
| type = Daily [[newspaper]]
| format = [[Broadsheet]]
| owners =
| founder = [[Sisir Kumar Ghose]] and Moti Lal Ghosh
| publisher =
| editor =
| chiefeditor =
| assoceditor =
| staff =
| foundation = {{start date and age|df=yes|1868|2|20}}
| language = [[Bengali language|Bengali]] and English (bilingual)
| ceased publication = {{end date|1991}}
| headquarters =
| circulation = 25,000 (before 1991)
| sister newspapers =
| ISSN =
| oclc =
| website =
| circulation_ref = <ref name=ABCIND />
| circulation_date =
}}

'''''Amrita Bazar Patrika''''' was one of the oldest [[daily newspaper]]s in India. Originally published in [[Bengali alphabet|Bengali script]],<ref name=agent>{{cite news |first=Subhrangshu|last=Gupta|title=Amrita Bazar Patrika may be relaunched|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030102/nation.htm#11|work=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]]|date=2 January 2003|accessdate=2006-12-28}}</ref> it evolved into an [[English language|English]] format published from [[Kolkata]] and other locations such as [[Cuttack]], [[Ranchi]] and [[Allahabad]].<ref>[https://rni.nic.in/ Registrar of Newspapers for India] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313012936/https://rni.nic.in/ |date=13 March 2015 }}</ref> The paper discontinued its publication in 1991 after 123 years of publication.<ref name=ABCIND>{{Cite news|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/media/story/19910715-debts-kill-123-year-old-english-daily-amrita-bazar-patrika-815485-1991-07-15|title=Debts kill 123-year-old English daily Amrita Bazar Patrika|date=15 July 1991|first=Ruben|last=Banerjee|publisher=India Today|access-date=24 September 2018}}</ref><ref name="agent" />

It debuted on 20 February 1868. It was started by [[Sisir Kumar Ghose|Sisir Ghosh]] and Moti Lal Ghosh, sons of Hari Naryan Ghosh, a rich merchant from Magura, in District Jessore, in [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal Province]] of British Empire in India. The family had constructed a [[Bazaar]] and named it after Amritamoyee, wife of Hari Naryan Ghosh. Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh started ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'' as a weekly first. It was first edited by Motilal Ghosh, who did not have a formal university education. It had built its readership as a rival to ''Bengalee'' which was being looked after by [[Surendranath Banerjee]].<ref>''Political Agitators in India, A Confidential Report'', pp. 15, Available in Digitized form on Archives.org, contributed by Library of University of Toronto, Digitized for Microsoft Corporation by Internet Archive in 2007, provided by University of Toronto, accessed on 8 June 2009 and link at https://archive.org/details/politicalagitato00slsnuoft</ref> After Sisir Ghosh retired, his son [[Tushar Kanti Ghosh]] became editor for the next sixty years, running the newspaper from 1931 to 1991.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/4db3a17ced7793bb6c774707a733e334|title=Tushar Kanti Ghosh, Independence Crusader, Dies at 96|website=AP NEWS|access-date=2019-10-17}}</ref>

== History ==
''Amrita Bazaar Patrika'' was the oldest Indian-owned English daily. It played a major role in the evolution and growth of Indian journalism and made a striking contribution to creating and nurturing the [[Indian Independence Movement|Indian freedom struggle]]. In 1920, [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Communist revolutionary]] [[Vladimir Lenin]] described ''ABP'' as the best nationalist paper in India.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

''ABP'' was born as a Bengali weekly in February 1868 in the village of Amrita Bazaar in Jessore district (now in Bangladesh). It was started by the Ghosh brothers to fight the cause of peasants who were being exploited by indigo planters. Sisir Kumar Ghosh was the first editor. The ''Patrika'' operated out of a battered wooden press purchased for Rs 32.

In 1871, the ''Patrika'' moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata), due to the outbreak of plague in Amrita Bazaar. Here it functioned as a bilingual weekly, publishing news and views in English and Bengali. Its anti-government views and vast influence among the people was a thorn in the flesh of the government. [[Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton|Lord Lytton]], the Viceroy of India promulgated the Vernacular Press Act on 1878 mainly against ABP.

The ''Patrika'' became a daily in 1891. It was the first Indian-owned English daily to go into investigative journalism. During the tenure of [[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne]], a ''Patrika'' journalist rummaged through the waste paper basket of the Viceroy's office and pieced together a torn up letter detailing the Viceroy's plans to annexe Kashmir. ''ABP'' published the letter on its front page, where it was read by the Maharaja of Kashmir, who immediately went to London and lobbied for his independence.

Sisir Kumar Ghosh also launched vigorous campaigns against restrictions on civil liberties and economic exploitation. He wanted Indians to be given important posts in the administration. Both he and his brother Motilal were deeply attached to Bal Gangadhar Tilak. When Tilak was prosecuted for sedition in 1897, they raised funds in Calcutta for his defence. They also published a scathing editorial against the judge who sentenced Tilak to 6 years of imprisonment, for 'presuming to teach true patriotism to a proved and unparalleled patriot.'

The ''Patrika'' had many brushes with [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]], the Viceroy of India at the time of the Partition of Bengal (1905). It referred to him as 'Young and a little foppish, and without previous training but invested with unlimited powers.' Because of such editorials, the Press Act of 1910 was passed and a security of Rs 5,000 was demanded from ABP. Motilal Ghosh was also charged with sedition but his eloquence won the case.

After this, the ''Patrika'' started prefacing articles criticising the British government with ridiculously exuberant professions of loyalty to the British crown. When Subhas Chandra Bose and other students were expelled from Calcutta Presidency College, the ''Patrika'' took up their case and succeeded in having them re-admitted.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Even after Motilal Ghosh's death in 1922, the ''Patrika'' kept up its nationalist spirit. Higher securities of Rs 10,000 were demanded from it during the [[Salt Satyagraha]]. Its editor Tushar Kanti Ghosh (son of Sisir Kumar Ghosh) was imprisoned. The ''Patrika'' contributed its share to the success of its freedom movement under the leadership of Gandhi and suffered for its views and actions at the hands of the British rulers.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

The ''Patrika'' espoused the cause of communal harmony during the [[Partition of India]]. During the great Calcutta killings of 1946, the ''Patrika'' left its editorial columns blank for three days. When freedom dawned on 15 August 1947, the ''Patrika'' published in an editorial:

''It is dawn, cloudy though it is. Presently sunshine will break.''{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

== Archives ==
[[File:Hopkinson & Cope - Printing Press - Amritamoyee - Information Revolution Gallery - National Science Centre - New Delhi 2014-05-06 0763.JPG|thumb|This Hopkinson & Cope press was used for the Amrita Bazar Patrika. Now it is at the [[National Science Centre, Delhi|National Science Centre]], New Delhi.]]
As a part of the 'Endangered Archive project' attempting to rescue text published prior to 1950, the [[Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta]] took up the project of digitizing the old newspapers ''(ABP and Jugantar)'' for safe storage and retrieval in 2010.<ref>[http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/2009/bhattacharya.html Retrieval of two major and endangered newspapers : CSSSC] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110206154347/http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/2009/bhattacharya.html |date=6 February 2011 }}</ref> The newspaper archives are also available from the [[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]], Delhi, and in 2011 over one lakh images from the newspaper were digitized by the library and available online.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nehru Memorial library digitised |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-28/delhi/29594300_1_nmml-digitization-project-archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925063452/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-28/delhi/29594300_1_nmml-digitization-project-archives |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 September 2012 |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=28 May 2011}}</ref> and also at The Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge.

== References ==
<references />

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525055010/http://www.cssscal.org/projects.html Endangered Archive Project, CSSSC]
* [https://www.nehrumemorial.nic.in/ Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131016080246/http://karachi.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/archive/archome.html Centre of South Asian Studies]

[[Category:Bengali-language newspapers]]
[[Category:Defunct newspapers published in India]]
[[Category:English-language newspapers published in India]]
[[Category:Newspapers published in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Newspapers established in 1868]]
[[Category:Daily newspapers published in India]]
[[Category:1868 establishments in India]]
[[Category:1991 disestablishments in India]]
[[Category:ABP Group]]

Amrita Bazar Patrika - Revision history

imported>Indian English Literature at 11:26, 12 August 2021