Udant Martand: All you need to know about the first Hindi newspaper!

Journalism has played a great role in the development of society since time immemorial and in India, it has been a medium for various important revolutions. Due to the dominance of Hindi in most of north and central India, however, Hindi journalism has always played a great role in disseminating information and spearheading various protests and movements to ensure the free flow of communication and social justice. But do you know where did this start from? The answer is Udant Martand. 

Being the first newspaper of the Hindi language, Udant Martand was started on May 30, 1826, in Calcutta and began Hindi journalism in India. And, as we know, now, India houses more than a thousand Hindi newspapers, multiple news channels, web portals, and radio frequencies catering to the Hindi language. Here is more about the initials of Hindi journalism with Udant Martand and all that we need to know:

Udant Martand Timeline

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• As far as the development timeline is concerned, in the early 19th century, various Indian language newspapers started coming in Bengali and Urdu. 
• At that time, the Bangla, English, and Persian newspapers had more readership.
• Even then, printing in the Devanagari script was not usual, however, the movement for Hindi publication had begun as the Bengali journal, Samachar Darpan had already started in 1819.
• During this time, the reader base for Hindi was at a nascent stage.
• The journey of Udant Martand started as a lawyer, from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh named Shukla settled in the city of Calcutta.
• He became the Proceedings Reader at the Sadr Diwani Adalat (Civil and Revenue High Court), and later, turned out to be a pleader.
• It was in 1826, that he, along with Munnu Thakur of Banstala Gali secured a license to publish a newspaper in Hindi.

All about Udant Martand

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• 'Udant Martand' translated to 'The rising sun'.
• The newspaper, Udant Martand used a mix of Khari Boli and Braj Bhasha dialects of Hindi. 
• The first issue of the newspaper printed a total of 500 copies while the newspaper would be published every Tuesday.
• The office for the newspaper was established at 37, Amartalla Lane, Kolutolla, near Barabazar market in Calcutta.
• With the newspaper, Shukla wanted to draw attention to the rights of Indians in British India. 
• He pointed to the inequality faced by Indians by the Europeans. Along with publishing local news, it also raised all kinds of issues on social disparities.
• Udant Martand also featured market rates, news from India and abroad, government measures, and news about the whereabouts and tours of the Governor-General. It also featured advertisements.

The Fall of Udant Martand

• The newspaper found it difficult to get a subscription due to the distance of Calcutta from the Hindi-speaking belt at that time.
• The publisher also tried its best to get a government subscription, and patronage in the form of postal fee exemption for eight newspapers to be posted to North India.
• As the newspaper did not get the subscription, only one newspaper was allowed a postal fee exception. 
• The situation had already hinted that the newspaper could not be financially viable. 
• Owing to the higher postal rates and distance readership, the newspaper soon started having financial troubles. 
• The newspaper stopped operations on December 4, 1827.
• The following year, the government chose to withdraw government subscriptions to newspapers that started due to the liberal period of Governor-General Lord William Bentinck. It led to several other small newspapers closing.
• Later in 1850, Shukla also started a magazine called Samdand Martand which operated till 1929.