1950s: The forgotten independent newspaper owned by citizens & journalists

When it comes to the freedom of the press, India ranks a dismal 142 out of the 180 countries. But it would be wrong to think that this is just a recent phenomenon. As early as the late 1950s, a group of journalists were not happy at all with the lack of freedom of press back in the day.

In fact, the journalists of that era felt severe restrictions on the press from the pro-profit minds of the management and the government. This went on to such an extent that a group of top journalists started a newspaper owned by them as well as the readers.

This has an interesting backstory which was told to My Culture Café by one of the senior-most journalists in India Sudha Hariharan, who has around 47 years of experience. In the late 1950s, her father [name withheld] was the editor of a known newspaper. The paper used to also come out with a tabloid bulletin in the afternoon.

It so happened that the editor was in the US for an event with fellow journalists. He had kept an acting editor in the meantime. Exactly during this time, a known company was coming up with a detergent brand for washing clothes.

“So this detergent company contacted the acting editor as they wanted to publicize their product,” said Sudha Hariharan. “I don’t know whether they paid money or what the arrangement was. The entire tabloid from page one to the last page only had advertisement of this detergent. There was not a single news. Plus, at the bottom of a page my father’s name had appeared as a byline.”

When the editor returned, he was shocked and asked the acting editor for an explanation. “But he didn’t have any,” said Sudha Hariharan. “So this resulted in an en masse resignations by him and other journalists working for the newspaper. They walked out and started this independent newspaper called Newsday.”

She tells us that they all were very well-established, well-known and well-reputed journalists. “They were not happy with the way the newspaper was running. Secondly, they had their own ideas on what they wanted to do. They all got together and started Newsday. Their team also included Bal Thackeray and trade union leaders like George Fernandes,” she said.

When it came to investing capital in the new venture, Newsday got lucky. “They used to put their savings. They were also helped by the trade union people with some money. They raised money through the public by issuing public shares. It was the first paper in which the public could buy shares for Rs 10,” said Sudha Hariharan. The purchasers of the shares included some film-stars and people from the Public Relations and advertisement sector.

She added that taking help from trade unions didn’t mean that Newsday will support every strike of theirs.

Interestingly, they received words of encouragement even from the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s secretary wrote to say that as a matter of principle the Prime Minister could not subscribe to the shares, but wished the project every success,” added Sudha Hariharan.

But, as encouraging as this may sound, Newsday could run only for 10 months. As you may have guessed, the reason for the was financial. “Although they were very senior journalists, the problem was that they were competing with well-established newspapers in the market. Secondly, they didn’t have a proper place. They had taken up a small office in Dalal Street itself,” she said.

She continued, “In those days, they used to use linotype [machines for making newspaper pages]. Their linotype composition used to be done, I think, somewhere in Prabhadevi. They used to load the pages onto taxis and they used to bring it to the printers.”

This cost them a lot and printing was expensive then. “You are working in one place, composing in another place and loading in another place. Then you are printing and giving it to the guys who are distributing the papers. So, it was financially tough. They also had to pay for supplying newsprint. Those who were supplying newsprints were also pressurized by the established newspapers,” added Sudha Hariharan.  

They then had no option but to wind up the paper after 10 months. Once they even kept their principles at the backseat and took funding from Fatehsingh Gaikwad, the then Deputy Minister of Defence. “It was a huge loss because everybody had put in their money and savings. Half of the times they were also working without a salary,” said Sudha Hariharan.

Each member who was a part of the independent newspaper went different ways and took up jobs in other publications while Thackeray, as we know, concentrated on Shiv Sena. “My father joined USIS (United States Information Service) in Delhi. Later he joined Hindustan Times. He continued there till he passed away,” she said.

The short journey of the newspaper was indeed sad but Sudha Hariharan is glad that it happened. “It is interesting that such initiatives were undertaken. Whether they survived or not is a different story altogether. The very fact that the journalists took the initiative and had the guts to do it and fight against well-established giants itself is a big thing,” she said.

But she wonders why hardly anyone speaks about this, especially in journalism circles. “I don’t know why it doesn’t find a mention anywhere in the history of journalism. Nobody teaches this even in journalism school now. But it is an important part of newspaper history in Bombay,” she signed off.

By: Keyur Seta

Additional reading:

Bombay 1960s: When this govt card was mandatory to buy milk

How Bal Thackeray's 'Marmik' magazine looks today

Why the audio cassette shelf is my most prized possession

Songs have always played a major part in mainstream Hindi cinema, or Bollywood, as it is popularly known. As my love affair with Hindi films started right from the time I can remember, it is obvious that I was fascinated with Hindi film songs too from the same period.

Those who were born after the 1995 would find it difficult to believe that, apart from FM radio, our source of songs were audio cassettes. It's like a flat box which can be played on both sides - A and B. On an average, there were around five to seven songs on each side.

The decision on whether to buy a cassette would depend on the song trailers of a particular film played on TV or the new songs played on the radio. Then we would excitedly wait for the album of that film to release. Many a times, the decision of buying a cassette would depend purely on the number of big stars in a film.

It would be an exciting moment to visit the music shop buy a cassette. During my early years, a cassette would cost somewhere between Rs 25 to 30. The price kept gradually increasing until it reached around Rs 55 or 60 till the early to mid-2000s.

Unlike today, we used to patiently listen to the entire cassette of a film album, on both sides. But more than patience it was because of the the high quality of Hindi film music that we would never mind playing the whole album in one go.

This is absolutely impossible in today's times where you hardly find any album with even three impressive songs. This is the low at which the current Hindi film music scenario has reached. And those unending and unimpressive remixes have worsen the scenario many times further.

Going back to the old days, we had one or two favorite songs in every album which we would play repeatedly. No, unlike today, we didn't have a simple way of just clicking on a song to play it again. We had to rewind the cassette and stop exactly at the point where the song in question would start. I and many others too I suppose had developed the skill to stop at the exact moment using our judgement.

There would also be films where only three or four songs would turn out to be impressive. Hence, there was also an option of getting few songs from two films in one cassette.

Another interesting feature about audio cassettes was that we also had the option of having a medley of songs from various films. The audio cassette shops would do the task for us after we give a list of songs to them which they would copy on a blank cassette.

Later on, we developed the skill on our own. So, suppose my friend has a cassette from which I like only one song, I would get it copied in a blank cassette through the two-in-one tape recorder.

This would sound funny in today's times but back then I was quite passionate even for the dialogue cassettes. I have the dialogue cassettes of Mohabbatein (2000) and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001). Needless to day, I had mugged up all the dialogues from these cassettes. Much during my childhood we had a four-cassette set of Sholay (1975) which got lost over the years.

As you can guess from the picture, we are very possessive about our collection of audio cassettes. This shelf is more than 20 years old. It has cassettes from as early as Prem Rog which released way back in 1982 to The Killer [starring Irrfan Khan and Emraan Hashmi] which released in 2006.

Yes, we used the cassette player till 2006 or little after that even though music CDs had become the in thing much before that year. Actually the CDs were expensive at around Rs 100 to 200 and we didn't want to spend it on a not-so-great album. I had bought CDs of only superhit albums like Don (2006).

Obviously I get 'Those were the days' kind of feeling whenever I glance at the shelf. But along with feeling nostalgic for the simpler times, this is also because of the deteriorating quality of Hindi film music in today's times.

But nevertheless, I am glad we have maintained the shelf through the decades. This corner in my home assures me that life is still simpler like it was in the 1990s.

By: Keyur Seta

How Bal Thackeray's 'Marmik' magazine looks today

Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray started a magazine to publish his cartoons called 'Marmik,' which translates to 'from the heart.' As most of us from Mumbai would know, he started off as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal.

But he later felt the need to start his own weekly for which he got his father Prabodhankar Thackeray's support. This is how Marmik was born on 13 August 1960. It was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan at Dadar's Balmohan Vidya Mandir.

The main aim of Marmik was to publish Thackeray's Vyang Chitra or Satirical Cartoons on the current socio-political scenario in Maharashtra. Along with that, he also used 'Marmik' to propagate his political views and to trigger protests on issues close to him.

'Marmik' turned into a full fledged political weapon, naturally, after he formed his political party Shiv Sena in 1966. Now, the magazine became all the more fiery with political cartoons and views. What started as a satirical cartoon magazine now became a mouthpiece to publish Thackeray's views for and against anyone or anything related to Maharashtra.

Old Marmik dated 1970 when Shiv Sena called for Mumbai Bandh

Much later in 1988 Thackeray started Shiv Sena's Marathi daily newspaper called 'Samana.' But he continued 'Marmik' simultaneously. From here onwards, Thackeray's views and editorials started appearing in 'Samana' more than 'Marmik' as the former was a more ideal place for such write-ups.

Despite 'Samana's popularity, the editions of 'Marmik' were continued non-stop. But somewhere down the line, the popularity of the magazine decreased. This didn't have anything to do with its quality or content but with 'Samana' becoming a stronger mouthpiece for the party.

This one was published when the textile mills in Lalbaug and Parel area were shutting down. 

In the last decade or so, we have witnessed the decline in the sale of magazines which is multiplying with every passing year. Some of them are shut down, naturally. Hence, I thought the same whould have happened with 'Marmik' too.

Also see: Photo tour of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2020

However, last month when I was just walking past a newspaper vendor, I just stopped and was pleasantly surprised to see the latest edition of 'Marmik.' I bought it instantly. It costs only Rs 5.

I then realized that a lot of my near and dear ones were also unaware that 'Marmik' is still coming up with newer editions and is very much active. Hence, this blog post.

Here's how 'Marmik' looks today, 60 years after it was launched:

In the edition I got, I could not find too much of political stuff except a dig at India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the state of the economy and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil for his comments on Maharashtra's Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Here's an interesting article on how the names of various places in Mumbai were derived from.

'Marmik' is not devoid of cartoons. Apart from the two political pieces, I could find few political sketches and a section on political one-liners which, obviously, in Shiv Sena's favour.

This is a coverage of the annual fruits and flowers exhibition in the famous Ranibaug of Mumbai.

Apart from these items, 'Marmik' has sections on recipes, devotion, astrology, short stories, experience articles, jokes, etc.

By: Keyur Seta

Additonal reading:

Play Review: Manshaa Ki Shaadi 

Bombay 1960s: When this govt card was mandatory to buy milk

Bombay 1960s: When this govt card was mandatory to buy milk

Over the years we have gotten used to using cards to buy a wide range of items, especially since we understood the importance of going cashless. But once upon a time in the state of Maharashtra way back in the 1960s people used to buy milk through a card.

No, this wasn’t a cashless transaction as the term itself was unheard then. Actually it was mandatory for people back then to get a ‘milk card’ in order to buy milk, as per the rule imposed by the then Maharashtra Government. In other words, you wouldn’t get access to milk if you didn’t have a permit in the form of this card even if you had money to buy it.

Yes, you read it right.

Somehow, my family in Mumbai has preserved this card over all these decades. I can’t thank them enough since I haven’t found anyone in the city who still has this card. Even after Googling about the same, I am unable to find anyone to have mentioned this anywhere on the internet.

As you can see in the picture, this is a simple card made of aluminium. It mainly only consists the words ‘Govt of Maharashtra Milk Scheme, Bombay.’ The name of my grandfather ‘M V Seta’ indicates that it belongs to us.

Back then, one could buy milk only from government milk stalls that are still called ‘Doodh Kendra.’ They used to provide milk in glass bottles.

My father tells me that the mandatory rule of getting milk only through this card was done away with somewhere in the 1970s. From then onwards, anybody was able to buy milk without any card. However, it was mandatory to provide empty bottles in exchange of bottles filled with milk.

I clearly remember in the early and mid-1990s going to buy milk in exchange of empty bottles. Today, people might find it difficult to believe that there used to be a long queue as early as 5:30 or 6 am back then to buy milk in our area in Dadar west.

We have come a long way now when anyone can order home delivery of milk literally by just a few clicks or swipes.

By: Keyur Seta