Tushar Kanti Ghosh - Media Mimansa

Asim Kumar Mitra
Tushar Kanti Ghosh
(1898-1994)
World famous editor
IT WAS IN EARLY NINETIES when Shri Jyoti
Basu was the Chief Minister of West Bengal, I led a
delegation to him as President of West Bengal Union
of Journalists to protest against certain things which
were happening in Amrita Bazar Patrika house. There
were serious allegations against
them which would have landed the
Proprietor – Editor, Shri Tushar
Kanti Ghosh into the jail. The
Chief Minister gave us a patient
hearing and agreed on almost all
the points we produced before
him. But at the end of our
discussion, Shri. Jyoti Basu said,
“Look, whatever you say,
apparently those may be correct,
but I cannot take any action
against that house till that old man
is living.”
We had no idea that a
person like Shri Jyoti Basu, who
is a Marxist leader and against whom Amrita Bazar
Patrika under the editorship of Shri Tushar Kanti
Ghosh was putting serious allegations and criticizing
him bitterly on those counts, can have so much respect
and reverence for the “old man”, Shri Tushar Kanti
Ghosh. That way Tusharbabu was
very clear in his mind as he never
mixed up politics with persons. He
used to criticize Jyotibabu’s
Marxist policies but not him as a
person. It was a matter of principle.
Amrita Bazar Patrika was
thirty years old when Shri Tushar
Kanti Ghosh was born and his
father Mahatma Sisir Kumar Ghosh
was fiftyeight years old at that time.
Shri Tushar Kanti Ghosh was born
in Calcutta on 21 September, 1898
and breathed his last on 29 August,
1994. He lived an eventful life of
long ninetysix years. Although his
In 1928, just at the age of thirty, he became the editor of Amrita Bazar
Patrika and continued to hold that post till his death in 1994. For his
writing an inflammatory editorial on the working of Judiciary and
Administrative departments, he landed himself in a British jail in 1935.
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Tusharbabu was very clear in his mind as he never mixed up politics
with persons. He used to criticize Jyotibabu’s Marxist policies but not
him as a person. It was a matter of principle.
father had started Amrita Bazar Patrika and his father
and his uncles Shri Motilal Ghosh and Shri Golaplal
Ghosh, by their relentless fight against the foreign rule,
had acquired a prestigious place in the society, it was
Tusharbabu who expanded the area of its influence
and covered many more areas by new publications. In
1928, just at the age of thirty, he became the editor of
Amrita Bazar Patrika and continued to hold that post
till his death in 1994. For his writing an inflammatory
editorial on the working of Judiciary and
Administrative departments, he landed himself in a
British jail in 1935.
His family belonged to the Mogra Amrita Bazar
village of the Jessore district (now in Bangladesh).His
father, Shri Sisir Kumar Ghosh was deeply engaged
in the publication of the Amrita Bazar Patrika
alongwith his brothers S/shri Motilal Ghosh and
Golaplal Ghosh. The Amrita Bazar Patrika had already
been founded by the Ghosh brothers in 1868 as a
Bengali weekly published from their native village,
Amrita Bazar and printed at their own printing press.
Apprehending ill motives and stringent action under
Vernacular Press Act by the then British Government,
the newspaper was converted into a full fledged English
weekly with effect from 21 March 1878 —the second
week of operation of the Act. It was Shri Sisir Kumar’s
genius and dedication to the cause of a free press
that saved the newspaper from the clutches of a
mischievous law enforced by an alien government.
The Patrika became a daily on 19 February, 1891.
Youngest of the eight children
With her eight children and as a member of a
big joint family, his mother could not look after her
youngest child, Tushar Kanti very much. The child
grew up along with children, had his schooling at the
Town School and Hindu School in Calcutta and
matriculated at the age of sixteen. He joined his B. A.
course and passed out in 1920 from Vidyasagar
College, Calcutta. Those were the days of turbulence
when the Patrika was going through its glorious as
well as critical periods. Its security deposit with the
government was forfeited in 1919 for the two editorials
(i) To whom does India belong (18 April) and (ii)
Arrest of Mr. Gandhi: More outrages (12 April). On
May 15 of the same year, the government of Sir
Michael O’Dwyer banned the entry of the Patrika into
the province of Punjab.
Tushar Kanti grew up during those exciting
times. When his father, Shri Sisir Kumar died in 1911,
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his uncle Shri Motilal Ghosh took over the editorial
responsibility. As was the practice in the Patrika
groups those days, Tushar Kanti joined the
organization as a clerk in the Advertisement
department. Thereafter, he started serving his
apprenticeship in many of the departments of the
paper and gathered all-round experience of newspaper
journalism from composing, proof-reading onwards.
When Shri Motilal Ghosh died in 1922, his other
uncle, Shri Golaplal Ghosh became the Editor of the
paper. After some time and at the behest of Shri
The Ghoshes were a family with a progressive outlook.
In fact, Sisir Kumar and his brothers had embraced
Brahmoism at an early stage. Later, they became
Vaishnavas and Tushar Kanti and his family turned
into ardent followers of Shri Chaitanya. Tushar Kanti’s
interest spanned a variety of subjects like history,
philosophy and literature.’
Married in the year 1920 to Shrimati Bibha Rani,
daughter of Shri A. K. Dutta of Midnapore, Tushar
Kanti had two children. His son, Tarun Kanti Ghosh
was a Minister of the West Bengal Government for
Shri Tushar Kanti’s stewardship of the paper covers well
over half-a-century of eventful years during which he
steered the paper high to make it one of the leading
newspapers of the country.
Golaplal, who was in indifferent health, Shri Tushar
Kanti took over the editorial responsibility in 1928 till
his death in 1994. Shri Tushar Kanti’s stewardship of
the paper covers well over half-a-century of eventful
years during which he steered the paper high to make
it one of the leading newspapers of the country.
While writing about Shri Tushar Kanti Ghosh,
Shri P. K. Roy, who served the Patrika house as a
managerial head for a long time, mentioned that ‘the
Ghosh family loved music as a matter of tradition.
Tushar Kanti’s father as well as uncles were singers
and musicians in their own way. Tushar Kanti himself
inherited the musical talent and loved classical music
about twentyone years. His daughter, Srilekha was
married to a chemist entrepreneur. She lives in
Mumbai.
For the first time in 1935, the Patrika
organization was in an expanding mood. One of the
first thing Tushar Kanti did was to launch a Bengali
daily, Jugantar with Shri Jatin Bhattacharya as
Editor. There is an interesting story about how
Tushar Kanti acquired the name Jugantar for his
Bengali daily newspaper as there was already a
newspaper named Jugantar run by the
revolutionaries of Bengal. In fact, this newspaper
was the mouthpiece of the revolutionary
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organization. By the time
Tushar Kanti intended to
publish a Bengali daily, almost
all the revolutionaries
including the Editor of
Jugantar, Upendra Nath
Bandyopadhyay were arrested
and Sivaram Chakravorty, a
humorist writer of the time was
entrusted with the job of
running the newspaper
including its editing. But
Sivaram found it very difficult
to publish the newspaper.
Tushar Kanti came to know the
situation and took advantage.
He offered Rs. 500 to buy the
title of the newspaper which
Sivaram readily accepted and sold the title to
Tushar Kanti. Some years later however, he
himself took over the editorship of Jugantar.
He reached another milestone in newspaper
publication by starting an edition of Amrita Bazar
Patrika from Allahabad in 1943 and also a Hindi
daily Amrita Patrika from the same centre in 1950.
He was the Chief Editor of Northern India Patrika
and Hindi, Amrit Prabhat brought out from
Allahabad and Lucknow simultaneously. He also
brought out a Bengali weekly magazine Amrita
from Calcutta.
Internationally known editor
Tushar Kanti held an eminent position in the
professional world both in India and abroad and was
an internationally known Editor. He was an Executive
Council member of the London - based
Commonwealth Press Union and had been the
Chairman of the Indian Section since 1959. He was
President of Indian and Eastern
Newspaper Society (1948),
Chairman of Audit Bureau of
Circulation (1964), President of
the All India Newspaper Editors’
Conference for two terms (1946
and 1948), and also Chairman of
Press Trust of India (1956) of
which he was a Founder-Director.
The President of India conferred
on him the title PADMA
BHUSHAN in recognition of his
valuable service to journalism.
Tushar Kanti was a widely
travelled man. He had travelled
almost every part of the world. He
took his first trip to Europe soon after the World War
II was over.
Tushar Kanti was a person with humorous
mind. Apart from writing in English, he shared his
humor through writings in Bengali. In this
connection, the names of three Bengali books
written by him should be mentioned here (i)
BICHITRA KAHINI, (ii) AARO BICHITRA
KAHINI, (iii) CHITRA-BICHITRA etc. They are
all light-hearted anecdotal books reflecting his
strong sense of humor.
Having been brought up in liberal traditions and
to satisfy his own wide reading interest, he built up a
collection of rare books printed in India and abroad.
Tushar Kanti was a man of simple habits and was a
teetotaller. He was a deeply religious man and an
excellent raconteur and highly amiable in his
disposition.
The writer is an eminent journalist.
(e mail ID : mitraasimkumar@rediffmail.com)
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