- On 220th Anniversary of Newspapers in India

Mussoorie has long history of newspaper publication
By Gopal Bhardwaj
The advent of the first newspaper in India occurred in the capital city of West-Bengal, Kolkata, by James Augustus Hickey on 29th July, 1780. He started the first Indian newspaper from Calcutta (Kolkata), The “Bengal Gazette or “Calcutta General Advertiser”. The first newspaper from Bombay (Mumbai), the “Bombay Herald” was published in 1789, followed by the ‘Bombay Courier’ in 1790. This newspaper merged with the Times of India in 1861. The first newspaper in an Indian language was the “Samachar Darpan” in Bengali, published from the Serampore Mission press on 23 May, 1818.
Mussoorie has the privilege of being the recipient of these early newspapers from the time of their inception, because it was the home of the elite Indians and the educated European settlers.
Mussoorie also had the honour of being one of the first towns to boast of a printing press, where the early newspapers were first printed.
The brief history of Mussoorie newspapers started with the “Hills”, a paper published by John Mackinnon in 1842, which contained news of the activities of the missionaries and the churches. The second newspaper printed from Mussoorie was “Mussoorie Exchange Advertiser” in 1870. This newspaper was the official murderer of the name “Masuri”, replacing the victim with Mussoorie.
In 1872, came the “The Mussoorie Season”. At the beginning of 1875, “The Himalaya Chronicle” was started by Mr John Northam. In 1884, from the same press, was published “The Chameleon” an advertising medium for all of India.
In 1884, also, Messrs Buckle and Company, contractors of bullock train and carrying agents, published “The Hills Advertiser”. Then, in 1885, one Mr Hawthorn started the “Beacon”. Next in line, was Charles Liddell’s “Mafaslite”. Then in 1896, Mr Norton released “Eagle”. In early 1901, Mr Bodycot bought “The Mafaslite” and while retaining the name of the press, he rechristened the paper as “The Mussoorie Times”.
One Mr Kinny was in the field with his “The Echo” in 1907-13. In 1924, Mr RC Gupta started the “Mussoorie Herald” the first by an Indian in Mussoorie, but had to close down in 1927.
JH Johnson then took over the “Mussoorie Times” and it was in circulation till 1955-56, and after a gap of 35 years, this newspaper was revived by Hukum singh Panwar, the late ex-president of the City Board, Mussoorie, in 1990, and later on it was passed on to Anil Pandhi, a well known resident of Mussoorie. This newspaper is still in circulation as a Hindi weekly in Mussoorie.
Then Sardar Harbhajan Singh started a weekly newspaper, “Seemant Prahari”, in 1963. This paper is also running successfully for the last 48 years .
Now, many weekly and fortnightly papers are being published from Mussoorie, prominent among them are the reincarnated “Mafaslite by JP Uttarakhandi for the last 20 years.