Question

Which is the oldest and still existing newspaper of India?

Answer 1

Hint: The founder of the newspaper also founded the first native press in 1812 and also brought out a Gujarati Calendar in 1814. He was also a Parsi scholar. This newspaper was founded in 1822.

Complete answer: The oldest continuously published newspaper in our country is Bombay Samachar. It is also referred to as Mumbai Samachar. The newspaper was established by Fardunjee Marzban in the year 1822. The Bombay Samachar is published in English and Gujarati. It is also Asia’s oldest continuously published newspaper, on the first of July, 1822, the first published newspaper comprised three quarto sheets, the size was ten inches by 8 inches, and contained fourteen pages of printed matter.

The first page of the newspaper contained advertisements like the sale of properties, about lost things, all of them were related to Parsis. The newspaper also contained an article on “Ourselves.” Till 1832, Bombay Samachar was a weekly newspaper and a bi-weekly newspaper till 1855. On Government and court changes and appointments, departure and arrival of ships of Europeans from Mumbai, there were columns and short paragraphs. The newspaper had six columns devoted to Calcutta, now Kolkata, and one Column to Madras, now Chennai but only a short paragraph was about Bombay. The newspaper grew and became one of the premier newspapers of western India. In India and abroad, the newspaper was well-read by a large segment of Gujarati speaking people.

Note: The founder of Bombay Samachar, Fardunjee Marzban was a great journalist in Western India and he also made major contributions to the Gujarati printed literature.