''Sulabh Samachar'' ( bn, সুলভ সমাচার, ''Sulov Somachar'') was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

weekly, published from

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, a pioneering journalistic venture in 19th century

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

Indian Reform Association

Keshub Chunder Sen Keshub Chandra Sen ( bn, কেশবচন্দ্র সেন; also spelled Keshab Chunder Sen; 19 November 1838 – 8 January 1884) was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within ...

established the

Indian Reform Association The Indian Reform Association was formed on 29 October 1870 with Keshub Chandra Sen as president. It represented the secular side of the Brahmo Samaj and included many who did not belong to the Brahmo Samaj. The objective was to put into practice ...

on returning from England in 1870. One of the things that impressed him was the immense power of the press, particularly the daily newspaper in England. The objective of the Cheap Literature section of the Association was to disseminate useful and scientific information amongst the masses by the publication of cheap and useful tracts.

Cheap Newspaper

''Sulabh Samachar'' was started on 16 November 1870. It was priced one pice (the smallest unit of currency). Umanath Gupta was the first editor of this cheap journal for the information of the masses. At the time there were about a dozen similar pice newspapers in

. Initially 1,000 copies were printed. The circulation increased to 5,000 in two weeks and in two months to 8,000. It was avidly read by common people who were for brought in touch with events that were happening around them. The weekly dealt with diverse subjects such as the miserable condition of the peasants, the administrative system, measures for the uplift of the common people and their education, abuses of the zamindari system and exploitation by the zamindars, abuses of the British administration, importance of science and scientific explanations in elementary form, diseases of the human body and their remedies, and prices of commodities, apart from general news from urban and rural areas.

Indian Reform Association

Cheap Newspaper

Further reading