The Culture of Daily-Newspapers in India is all about the history of Indian newspapers, its fluctuations, ups and downs before and after the emergency era. This essay is written by Robin Jeffery and I, made a PPT of this specific topic. I hope you as a reader, gain the information you need in this particular topic.

1. Subject: History of Media
Article by: Robin Jeffrey
PPT by: Hamid Bahraam
18-10-19
*

2. *This PPT Identifies trends in daily newspapers
circulations13 major languages in Indian
speculates about these trends relate to
political activities and social changes.
*The first section of the paper focuses on
Kerala to identify the characteristics of daily-
newspaper culture
*The second section analyses daily-newspaper
circulation in the major languages from 1971
to 1983.

3. * The circulation of newspapers and periodicals in India increased
remarkably after the end of the emergency in 1977.
* Punjabi daily-newspaper (Punjabi Tribune) in a less than a
month had built a circulation of 30,000 copies. 1977-78,
circulation rose from 1, 19,000 to 2, 09,000 a day, an increase
of 75 %.
* Between 1976, which marked the depths of emergency
censorship and 1981, the circulation of daily-newspapers in all
languages rose from 9.3 million copies a day to 15.3 million, 65
% increase.
* In contrast, in the five-year period 1971-76, daily circulations
rose only 2.5 per cent.
* The ratio of daily-newspapers total population also felt sharply,
between 1971-72 and 1981-82, the DTP (dailies-to-people)
improved by a 3rd , from approximately one daily for every 62
men, women and children in India to 1:43. This occurred in spite
of a 25 % increase in India’s population.
* How ever, among India’s 13 major languages, the DTP ratio in
1981 varied strikingly from 1:4 for English, 1:19 for Malayalam
1:132 for Oriya and 1:170 for Assames.
* The rate of improvement in the ratio since 1971 was fastest for
Assamese (about 150 %) and Punjabi (about 130%).

4. *Punjab daily circulation increased by 192% between
1976-81, and the largest of any Indian languages.
*Punjab ranks 3rd on the road-to-area ratio, every village
is said to be served by an all-weather road, part of a
network built to foster the ‘green revolution’ in the late
1960 and early 1970.
*The growth of a daily-newspaper culture depends on
technology, on the ability to produce large quantities of
attractive newspapers fast. Kerala fascinated European
Christians, and by the middle of the 19th century,
Malayalam type, developed by missionaries, was fairly
widely available.
*Other Indian vernaculars took much longer to develop
effective type styles. Moreover, the depression of the
1930s, the WW2 and the important controls of post-
independence Gov. left India with antiquated printing
equipment.

5. *After the end of emergency in 1977,
innovations in printing, which
involved the use of computers,
cameras and offset presses,
increasingly arrived in India.
*Such techniques permit livelier-
looking newspapers with sharp
pictures and more flexible layout.

6. Kerala
*The ratio of Malayalam dailies to population in
1981, was roughly one copy for every 19-
speakers of the languages. Nearest rival was,
Guajarati (1:29), while the all-Indian ratio was
1:43
*Kerala has been the most literate region of India
throughout the 20th century. But a flourishing
vernacular press requires more than simply
literacy.
*Thailand in 1967 had a literacy rate of 70%,
nearly twice as great as Kerala’s. Yet, daily-
newspaper production of only 3, 50,000. Kerala
at that time printed more than 7, 50,000 copies
a day.

7. *Kerala demand for reading materials has created its
own solutions: a wide network of public libraries,
reading rooms and schools, all of which subscribe to
newspapers.
*Tea-shop owners keep at least one newspaper
available for customers.
*What makes people want to read newspapers in the
first place?
*Robin Jeffery suggests that politicisation – an
interest in and knowledge about politics – is the key.
*In Kerala, the appetite for political news had arisen
by the 1920. A dewan of Travancore, seeking to
pass an act to control the press in 1925… PPL were
‘prone to politics’ that ‘every school-master in
3,000 and odd schools, is the centre of a political
group’ and that consequently ‘the demand for
newspaper is great’.

8. Table 2: Literacy By States, 1971 and 1981
(Per Cent of Total Population)

9. *In 1940s, the communist daily, Deshabhimani, was
reckoned by British authorities to have a circulation
of 7-8,000 and a most insidious and heartening
affect on Communist sympathiser in Kerala.
*By 1960s, Malayalis were so addicted to their 32
dailies that on days when major political stories
broke ‘newspapers were sometimes available only
in the black markets.
The ‘Crimean War’ for Indian-newspapers was the
1975-77 emergencies. The pent-up curiosity and
the deluge of scandal that came in its aftermath,
touched the lives of millions of people who had
been affected by the ‘ family planning’ and ‘ slum
clearance’ campaigns.
*In 1976-81 periods, Malayalam dailies recorded the
lowest percentage growth (33%) of any of the 13
major languages. But Malayalam by 1971 had
already achieved a ratio of 1 daily for every
speakers, far headed of any language except
English.

10. *From such a base, it is difficult to show rapid
percentage increase, even though circulation
grew by 2, 75,000 copies b/w 1971-81.
*By 1981, the Malayalam DTP ratio had fallen
only to 1:19
*It appears that in rural societies, once people’s
reading habits are established, a ratio of about
one daily to every 20 people in the total
population is a likely plateau.
*In 1961-62 one oft-quoted survey estimated
that 6 or 7 people read single newspaper in
rural India.

11. Daily Circulations by Languages
*The average percentage increase for
all Indian dailies b/w 1976-81 was
64%.
*That mean b/w Malayalam’s ‘low’
33% increase and Punjab’s high of
192% was 80.
*Six languages – Bengali, Hindi, Oriya,
Punjabi, Telugu and Urdu – exceeded
the mean.
*

12. National Languages
*The most surprising aspect is that Urdu appears to
flourish.
*Most observers have a picture of Urdu as a failing
language in India, the script of an uncertain, unsettled
Muslim Minority.
*The circulation of Urdu daily increased strongly by
95% in 1976-81 and the number of Urdu speakers per
1000 Urdu dailies appears to have improved from 1:76
in 1971 to 1:46 in 1981
*In 1983, there were about 100 Urdu dailies in India,
nearly all of them originating from Jammu & Kashmir
(23), Andhra Pradesh (20), Bihar (19), UP (18),
Maharashtra (13) and Punjab (13)
*Urdu is one of the only languages to have increased its
circulation of dailies in every year since 1968.
*Hindi, Oriya and Punjabi are others, Malayalam and
Telugu have grown in every year except 1981

13. *Though Hindi is the national language, spoken by an
estimated 40% of the population, Hindi dailies
surpassed English dailies in circulation only in 1979,
32 years after independence.
*Since then, however, the gap has increasingly
widened. Hindi circulation forges ahead, while
English circulation actually fell in 1982.
*If the 1:19 DTP ratio of Kerala is any guide, Hindi
NPs have the potential for immense expansion.
*The Hindi DTP in 1981 was 1:74, yet it was an
improvement of 87% since 1971 when the figure
was 1:138.
*Only Punjabi and Assames have shown in such a
pronounced percentage improvement in availability.
*No languages, however – not even Malayalam – yet
approaches English in the availability of daily
newspapers to speakers.
*

14. *In 1981, this ran at approximately
one daily for every 4 English
speakers. However, like Malayalam,
the English DTP had improved only
slightly in ten years, from 1:5 in
1971.
*The near-doubling of Hindi daily
circulation took place b/w 1976 and
1981, and addition of 1.8 million
copies a day.

15. Table 1: Dailies-to-people By Language, 1971 to 1981

16. The Falterer
*Of all languages, only Tamil shows an increase in the DTP
ratio from 1:42 in 1971 to 1:47 in 1981.
*Circulations of Tamil dailies has fluctuated uniquely, from
a high of 9, 08,000 a day in 1971, it felt by more than
25% to 6, 72,000 in 1976.
*In the five years from 1976-81, Tamil dailies increased
their circulation by 42%, the lowest increase for any
language except Malayalam.
*However, in 1983, Tamil dailies recorded an increase of
nearly 30% in circulation rising to 10, 67,000 copies a
day.

17. Quiet Improvers
*Marathi daily circulation have fluctuated in the 1980s.
The fell by more than 10% b/w 1981-82 and a further 3%
in 1983.
*Yet over the 1971-81periods, the Marathi DTP ratio
improved.
*The fall in daily circulation in 1982 is perhaps related to
the lengthy textile strike in Bombay, of all publications
produced in Maharashtra, 77% of circulation originates in
Bombay.
*In 1981, Bengali and Kannada had DTP ratio of 50 and 46
respectively.
*Both have improve a 3rd in 10 years. Like Marathi,
however, circulation fell b/w 1981-82, though dailies in
each language regained some circulation in 1983.

18. *Why should circulations have fallen for more languages in
1982?
*Punjabi and Telugu circulations presumably rose to keep
pace with the Political excitement in Punjab and Andhra
Pradesh.
*Because both languages still have high DTP ratios, they
still have a large pool of literates from which to draw,
Hindi, Oriya and Urdu may have risen for the same
reasons.
*Malayalam circulations rose because daily NP culture is
entrenched, and proprietors in Kerala compete to sell
NPs in way the is probably unique in India.

19. Inconclusive Conclusion
*Plateaus and Politics
*It is noteworthy that all the languages except Assames in
which daily circulation fell in 1982 had DTP ratios about
the same as the national average of 1:43.
*This suggests there is a plateau about one daily NP for
every 40 speakers on which circulations stall.
*What makes them on to the level of Malayalam or indeed
English?
*English, of course, is special, since virtually every English
speaker is literate.
*In Kerala, daily NP culture is entrenched in reading
rooms, libraries and the daily practices of millions of
people. These have arisen over the past 60-years, partly
in response to the fact that increasing numbers of
Malayalis were enmeshing themselves in Politics.

20. *Intense political involvement, coupled with
growing rates of literacy, leads to growing
daily NP circulations if the equipment and
the road networks are available to produce
and distribute the NPs.
*As a concluding caution, however, we need
to note that this discussion relates almost
entirely to India’s pre-television era.
Widespread television only came in 1982
with the Asian Games in New Delhi.

21. *As per the latest data available with the
Government, a total of 1,
05,443 newspapers/periodicals are registered
with the Registrar
of Newspapers for India (RNI) as on 31st
March, 2016. India has the second-
largest newspaper market in the world, with
over 100 million copies
of newspapers sold per day as of 2013

22. Thank You!