In its struggle for achieving the status of the national press in India, the Hindi press during the post-independence era no longer had
to fight against such odds as obsession of the elites with the English press,
the discriminatory postal rates, the lack of government patronage, the
inadequate printing facilities and advertisement revenue, the ill-trained Hindi
journalists and the inadequate news collection and newspaper distribution
facilities.
Through the governmental assistance and capital investment,
these problems were slowly resolved. As a result, the Hindi press began to grow
as a national press of India .
All the states in the Indian union now have their Hindi newspapers. Hindi has
surpassed its rival English in the number of newspapers published in either
language. For, out of 8,640 newspapers of all categories published in India , the
largest number of papers (1,931) is in Hindi. In comparison, English newspapers
number 1,843. The Hindi newspapers, with 14.6 per cent gain over 1963
circulation figures, are challenging their English rivals in circulation
growth. For, the English newspapers have registered 6.5 per cent growth in
circulation for the same period.
The important Hindi dailies that are exerting a great deal
of influence in shaping public opinion in India are Vishwamitra, Bharat,
Lokmat, Lokmanya, Navbharat. Navbharat Times, Aryavarta, Pradeep, Sansar,
Rashtravani, Hindustan , Sanmarg and Aj.
Vishwamitra is the foremost of the Hindi-language newspapers. 20 Such pioneers among the Hindi periodicals as Saraswati, Madhuri, Siidha,
Chand, Kalyaii and Hans are still healthy and influential.
The importance of the Hindi press continues to grow
especially since Hindi acquired the status of lingua franca of India . This has
brought in an added measure of public and government support, a high newsprint
quota, and a high volume of government advertisement revenue for the Hindi
press. A 1961 survey showed that two of the small Bombay dailies received
almost as many government ads as private ads: some rural papers probably
received more’ . The government patronage accorded to the Hindi press draws
strong political support from at least 40 per cent of the Indian population
whose mother tongue is Hindi and who live in eight of the 14 politically
influential states in India.
Another reason for the emergence of the Hindi press as a
national press in India is
subsidy given by the government to such agencies as Nagari Prachar Sabha,
Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Sahitya Academy and
Raslatrabhaslra Parishad. These agencies are devoted to the task of propagation
of Hindi in India .
Also, with the increasing rate of literacy, which is largely confined to Hindi, there is a
growing demand for Hindi papers to fulfill the information needs of the
neo-literates.
The compulsory teaching of Hindi in schools has further increased
this demand. Even the improved news collection and newspaper distribution
facilities have favored the Hindi press. Most of the news agencies have started
paying special attention to the Hindi press. A noted example of this
development is the activities of Hindusthan Samachar ltd., the second largest
news agency in India
