Hindi Journalism Day: What happened to first Hindi newspaper Udant Martand?

On May 30, 1826, the first Hindi newspaper was published in Calcutta. In honour of this historic event, the day was coined as "Hindi Journalism Day"

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The first Hindi newspaper was "Udant Martand" (the rising sun). It was a weekly published every Tuesday. Notably, it was the first-ever newspaper completely written in Hindi using the Devanagari script.

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The newspaper began with 500 copies on a weekly basis

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It was published by Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla, who was a lawyer by profession

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Udant Martand employees had a mix of Khari Boli and Braj Bhasha dialects of Hindi

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At that time, English, Bangla, and Persian newspapers had more readership with a lesser scope for Hindi newspapers

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The newspaper found it difficult to find subscribers due to its distance from Hindi-speaking areas of the North. Higher postal rates also bothered people from buying it

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In 1827, only a year later, the newspaper collapsed due to financial breakdown. But it had already ignited the fire and paved way for Hindi journalism

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