JesusHupp231 at 00:45, 30 April 2026

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{{Short description|Indian journalist and author (1900–1974)}}
{{Distinguish|Durga Das Basu}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Durga Das
| native_name =
| native_name_lang = pnb
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1900|11|23|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Aur Nawanshahr|Aur]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]], British India (present-day [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], [[India]])
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and given age|1974|05|17|73|df=y}}}}
| death_place = [[New Delhi]], [[India]]
| alma_mater = [[Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore|Dayanand Anglo Vedic College]]
| occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|author|social worker}}
| years_active = 1918–1966
| notable_works = ''Ram Rajya in Action (1956)'' ''India and the World (1958)'' ''India From Curzon to Nehru and After (1969)''
| spouse = Ratan Devi
}}
'''Durga Das''' (23 November 1900 – 17 May 1974) was an Indian journalist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=18 May 1974 |title=DUNA DAS DEAD; INDIAN NEWSMAN |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/05/18/archives/durga-das-dead-indian-newsman-chronicler-of-the-freedom-movement.html |access-date=31 March 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Bernard Weinraub Special to The New York |date=17 December 1973 |title=India's Journalists Worry They Have Become Timid and Dependent on the Government |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/17/archives/indias-journalists-worry-they-have-become-timid-and-dependent-on.html |access-date=3 April 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Vadukut |first=Sidin |date=27 June 2014 |title=Déjà View {{!}} A Nehruvian tragedy |url=https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/zsGIQxAT8qPOHAH1tcEFIM/Dj-View--A-Nehruvian-tragedy.html |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=mint |language=en |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331171513/https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/zsGIQxAT8qPOHAH1tcEFIM/Dj-View--A-Nehruvian-tragedy.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Assembly 1974">{{Cite book |last=Assembly |first=Meghalaya (India) Legislative |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCmhFUWsXgQC&q=press+club+of+india+durga+das+london+press+club |title=Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Debates |date=1974 |publisher=Meghalaya Legislative Assembly |language=en}}</ref> He was the founding president of the [[Press Club of India]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shams Tabrez Qasmi is Felicitated with Amar Shaheed Molvi Baqar Award 2021 {{!}} Millat Times {{!}} Multilingual Digital Media House |url=https://millattimes.com/archives/9158 |access-date=31 March 2022 |language=en-US |archive-date=29 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529055813/https://millattimes.com/archives/9158 |url-status=live }}</ref> A longtime parliamentary correspondent and editor with the [[Press Trust of India|Associated Press of India]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1sQ5AQAAIAAJ&q=durga+das+journalist+d.a.v+college |title=Famous India, Nation's Who's who |date=1975 |publisher=Famous India Publications |language=en}}</ref> he worked in several newspaper publications, including [[The Statesman (India)|''The Statesman'']], ''[[The Times of India]]'' and lastly the ''[[Hindustan Times]]'',<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 June 1950 |title=EDITOR SAYS INDIA IS FOR DEMOCRACIES |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/06/06/archives/editor-says-india-is-for-democracies.html |access-date=3 April 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=3 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403142947/https://www.nytimes.com/1950/06/06/archives/editor-says-india-is-for-democracies.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 July 2009 |title=Leading the change, again |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/leading-the-change-again/story-4LvNdAkSmB7cudbDNm1tGI.html |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref> serving as its editor-in-chief from 1957 till 1959 before he went on to establish his own news agency, India News and Feature Alliance (INFA) in late 1959.<ref>{{Cite web |title=India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - INFA |url=http://www.infa.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=3 |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=www.infa.in |archive-date=27 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227122048/http://www.infa.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=3 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Durga Das was born on 23 November 1900 in [[Aur Nawanshahr|Aur]], a village in present-day [[Jalandhar district]] in the Indian state of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]]. He attended an [[Arya Samaj]]-run school in [[Jalandhar]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sethi |first=Devika |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ToOWDwAAQBAJ&dq=durga+das+journalist+arya+samaj-in+school&pg=PA27 |title=War over Words: Censorship in India, 1930-1960 |date=23 May 2019 |page=27 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-48424-4 |language=en}}</ref> and graduated with a bachelor's degree from [[Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore|Dayanand Anglo Vedic College]] (now Government Islamia College) in late 1910s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 July 2016 |title=A Superior Person, Thorough Professional |url=http://prembhatiatrust.com/2016/07/18/a-superior-person-thorough-professional-inder-malhotra/ |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Career ==
After graduating from [[Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore|Dayanand Anglo Vedic College]], he joined the [[Press Trust of India|Associated Press of India]] in 1918 and served as its Parliamentary Correspondent till 1937. He later joined the [[Kolkata|Calcutta]]-based [[The Statesman (India)|''The Statesman'']] as its Special Representative<ref name="Assembly 1974"/> and worked there till 1943. In 1944, he joined the ''[[Hindustan Times]]''<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 March 2019 |title=Lessons from 1952, 1967, 1977 |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/jawahar-lal-nehru-first-congress-dmk-lok-sabha-elections-lessons-congress-sucheta-kriplani-from-1952-1967-1977-5629997/ |access-date=4 April 2022 |website=The Indian Express |language=en |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404082103/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/jawahar-lal-nehru-first-congress-dmk-lok-sabha-elections-lessons-congress-sucheta-kriplani-from-1952-1967-1977-5629997/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and went on to serve as its editor-in-chief from 1957 till 1959, before taking temporary retirement to establish organisations like the [[Press Club of India]] and India News and Feature Alliance (INFA).

During his five decades long journalistic career, he interacted with numerous political figures, including [[Viscount Chelmsford]], [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Louis Mountbatten]], [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak|Bal Tilak]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], [[Lal Bahadur Shastri]] and [[Indira Gandhi]].<ref name=":0" />

He is said to have preferred [[Vallabhbhai Patel]], not Nehru, to become the first Prime Minister of India.<ref>{{cite book|title=India-Pakistan: An analysis of some structural factors|quote=Durga Das, who was an admirer of Sardar Patel and who together with some other witnesses of that period - would have preferred a Patel government to a Nehru one|page=155|author=Lars Blinkenberg|publisher = Odense University Press|year=1998}}</ref> He had authored three books, ''Ram Rajya in Action'' (1956), ''India and the World'' (1958) and ''India From Curzon to Nehru and After'' (1969).<ref>{{Cite book |first=Durga |last=Das |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLEZAAAAYAAJ&q=durga+das+indian+parliamentary+correspondent |title=Eminent Indians who was Who, 1900-1980, Also Annual Diary of Events |date=1985 |publisher=Durga Das Pvt. Limited |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Das |first=Durga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dojQPgAACAAJ |title=Ram Rajya in action |date=1956 |publisher=Coronation Print. Works |language=en}}</ref> The book ''India From Curzon to Nehru and After'' has been described as "reporter's fiction" and that it relies "on gossip, not history".<ref>{{cite book|title=Political Thinkers of Modern India: Jawaharlal Nehru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1VEAAAAIAAJ|year=1993|author=Virender Grover|publisher=Deep & Deep Publications| isbn=9788171002535 }}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Das was married to Ratan Devi,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sWY6AQAAIAAJ&q=durga+das+ratan+devi+wife |title=The Illustrated Weekly of India |date=1975 |publisher=Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited, at the Times of India Press |language=en}}</ref> and they had four sons and two daughters. He liked playing tennis and enjoyed swimming.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y40MAAAAYAAJ&q=durga+das+indian+parliamentary+correspondent |title=Personalities: A Comprehensive and Authentic Biographical Dictionary of Men who Matter in India [Northern India and Parliament] |date=1950 |publisher=Arunam & Sheel |language=en}}</ref>

== Death and legacy ==
Durga Das died on 17 May 1974 due to cardiac arrest in [[New Delhi]], India. The then [[Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister]] [[Indira Gandhi]] sent condolences to his family. [[President of India|President]] [[V. V. Giri]] also sent condolences and described him as "one of my best friends in life" and a "great journalist".<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - INFA |url=http://infa.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=3 |access-date=3 April 2022 |website=infa.in |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417083419/http://www.infa.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=3 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2003, nearly 29 years after his death, the Indian government led by [[Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister]] [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]] released a commemorative stamp in his honour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Khanduri |first=Ritu Gairola |via=Google Books |page=317 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lf-GBAAAQBAJ&dq=durga+das+2003+stamp&pg=PA317 |title=Caricaturing Culture in India: Cartoons and History in the Modern World |date=2 October 2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-04332-9 |language=en}}</ref>

His apparent bias in favour of [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] continues to be noted by the authors who have reviewed his work.<ref>{{cite book |title=The post - centenary volumes of Patel's miscellaneous writings which are now being brought out are free from the bias which Durga Das and others invested in the main volumes on Patel. |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRc6AAAAIAAJ |publisher= Triveni Publishers |year=1981 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Magnus & Muses: Off the Record Musings of "MC" (M. Chalapathi Rau) |quote=Till the day of his death, he was on the side of Patel. The ten volumes of Patel's Correspondence edited by him were evidence of his devotion to Patel. |page=38 |author=M. Chalapathi Rau |publisher=Academic Press |year=1980}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Das, Durga}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district]]
[[Category:Government Islamia College alumni]]
[[Category:The Times of India journalists]]
[[Category:Hindustan Times journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Punjab, India]]
[[Category:Journalists from British India]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male journalists]]

Durga Das - Revision history

JesusHupp231 at 00:45, 30 April 2026