Newspapers in India honoured with Stamps.

Early morning, a cup of tea and the newspaper, was once a peaceful morning scene in many households. The silent voice, providing a solace in the noisy world of media today, with a strong print order of over 60 million. For more than 150 years, they have remained the conscious ''mouthpiece'' of Indian society. The first newspaper of India was published on 29th January 1780 by James Augustus Hicky under the British Raj and its name was ''The Bengal Gazette''. It was also called ''Calcutta General Advertiser'', and people remember it as ''Hicky's Gazette''. This paper was printed once a week on Saturday. Printed in English-language, it was the first newspaper in Asia. 

By the late 19th century, the newspaper had become a strong medium to express a nationalist thought process.

Let us see the Newspapers published in India in English and native languages that have been honoured by creating them on stamps. These have been broadly classified as the Newspapers published in the Pre-Independence era and the post-Independence era.

The Times of India, also known as TOI, is an Indian, English language newspaper and is the largest selling English language daily in the world. Its first edition was published on 3 November 1838. It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.                       

                          

                                           

Two postage stamps were released; the first, a Rs 1.50 stamp, was issued in 1988, and the second was released in 2013 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its initial publication.

The first Indian newspaper in the native language is the Assam newspaper cum magazine Orunodoi. The advent of British in Assam ushered in, among things, the first printing press. It was published by the Christian Missionaries. The tagline of the newsmagazine was ''The Orunodoi, monthly paper, devoted to religion, science and general intelligence''. 

                        

To commemorate the 150th year, India Post issued a Rs 3 stamp in 1999 which depicts the front page of the newspaper.

Following the Assam newspaper, by late 19th century, political leaders and social reformers were taking active participation in journalism. One such was ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'', established in 1868. Perhaps it is one of the reasons among many others, for the government to pass the ''Vernacular Press Act'' in 1876.

                          

On the Centenary of the publishing of the newspaper, India Post issued a 15 paise commemorative stamp.

Meanwhile, in Kottayam, in Kerala, the first edition of the Malayala Manorama Newspaper was published on 22 March 1890. Kandathil Varghese Mappillai brought out the first edition. This newspaper would stay away from religion. Though the first edition was a weekly, the newspaper became bi-weekly in 1901, thrice a week in 1918, before becoming a daily newspaper in 1928.

                         

A special commemorative stamp of Re 1 was issued to commemorate the 100 years of the newspaper which features the building of Malayala Manorma Company Limited.

With the establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885the newspapers like Young India, Harijan, Kesari, Maratha etc. started being printed in various vernacular languages. One was an Odia daily newspaper, The Samaj. Published in Cuttack, Odisha, the newspaper started in 1919. Gopabandhu Das, a prominent freedom fighter and social worker started it as a weekly from Satyabadi in Puri district of Odisha. 

                         

The paper celebrated its centenary in 2019, with a commemorative stamp worth Rs 5. The stamp depicts the front page of the newspaper in the background with an effigy of its founder, Gopalbandhu Das.

The year when the freedom struggle of India reached its crescendo and found expression in the ''Quit India Movement'', Dainik Jagaran was launched. This was one of the last newspapers published during the pre-independence era, it was in Hindi language. It was launched with a vision of the revolutionary freedom fighter, Late Shri Puran Chandra Gupta, reflecting the free voice of the people. 

                            

In the year 2012, the newspaper completed its 70th year which was celebrated by India Post with a Rs 5 stamp.

After 1947, when India became an independent state, the first newspaper published after three months was Navjivan Daily. This was published by The Associated Journals Ltd on 01 November 1947.This was started with an intention to promote the principals of Mahatma Gandhi's freedom movement. The main objective of the newspaper was to speed up the creation of democratic, liberal and modern India. 

                           

In 1999, India Post issued a Rs 3 stamp with a portrait of Indulal Kanhaiyalal Yagnik. A boy and a girl are seen raising the Indian flag with the newspaper in the background. 

The last but not the least among the newspapers is the Rajasthan Patrika. It is one of the oldest Hindi newspapers of Rajasthan. It was started by Sh Kapoor Chandra Kulish in 1956. 

                         

This newspaper is honoured with a special stamp worth Rs 5, which depicts the newspaper in the background with the portrait of the founder in the foreground.

Even though the world has favoured the electronic media the newspaper is silently fulfilling its duty towards society.