by A. N. SHIBLI
The history of journalism in India goes back to 1790, when an Englishman James Augustus for the first time started a newspaper ‘Bengal Gazette’ from Sedampur, a village close to Kolkata. The first Urdu newspaper was also started from West Bengal. In 1822 the Persian weekly ‘Jam-e-Jahan’ was first published in Urdu. Some times it was published in Urdu, at others in Persian and some times in both the languages. During the initial days of journalism every newspaper was a weekly or biweekly and none of them were dailies. On January 14, 1850 Munshi Harsukh Rai started the weekly ‘Kohinoor’. With a circulation of only 350 it was the largest circulated newspaper of that time. The circulation of other newspaper at that time was only 100 to 200.
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(Thanks to Asghar Vasanwala)