Press club Mandi organized a seminar on Friday to celebrate Hindi Patrakarita Diwas in the Press club at Mandi.
Delivering his keynote address on the occasion, veteran journalist DP Gupta dealt with the history of Hindi journalism in India and presented challenges before the journalists.
He said, “The British started publishing Bengal Gazetteer to implement their policies and spread the English language at the same time, the freedom fighters and enlightened Indians of the country started publishing Hindi newspapers and magazines with the aim of promoting the Hindi language and the first Hindi newspaper Udant Martand was started from Bengal itself”
He said, “The role of Hindi newspapers was commendable in the freedom struggle, in the reconstruction of the country after independence and in unearthing several scandals to expose corruption on several occasions.”
“Many industrialists of that era were also not behind in contributing to the freedom struggle. One of them was the Birla family which started the Hindi newspaper Hindustan and English newspaper Hindustan Times” he added.
He said,” Even today the number and circulation of Hindi newspapers is the highest in the country and the future of Hindi journalism is bright but there are many challenges before the journalists.”
Dr. Chaman Premi, special guest to the function said, “The contribution of Hindi journalism in the freedom struggle showed the newspaper was more important than cannons”
He said, “Many of our freedom fighters like Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, awakened the people of India by publishing Hindi newspapers.”
District Public Relations Officer Hemant Sharma , Senior journalist and litterateur Murari Sharma, former president of the club Ankush Sood , Press Club president Subhash Thakur , General Secretary Hans Raj Saini , Vice President of the club Monika and Treasurer Bhagat Singh Guleria also spoke on the occasion .
Veteran journalist Birbal Sharma also proposed to organize a large function next year to celebrate 200 years of Hindi Journalism in India.
