200 and counting: Asia's oldest newspaper Mumbai Samachar to digitise, document its rich legacy

Mumbai | Asia's oldest active newspaper, 'Mumbai Samachar', which published reports on the first war of Indian independence in 1857, the death of legendary Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi and the birth of Congress, is turning a new page in its illustrious history by digitising its rich legacy.

Established in 1822 by Fardunji Marzban, a Parsi scholar, the newspaper's management has launched a new project to digitise and document the rich legacy of the Gujarati daily.

Located in a colonial-era building in Mumbai’s prominent Horniman Circle area, the newspaper has weathered many storms during its 203-year-old history, including a drop in subscription and readership after the advent of the internet, news apps and social media expansion, but continues its journey.

''We are in talks with different agencies to restore the old files in our archives, which is a national legacy. Similarly, we want to create a website whose content will be about 10,000 stories published in the newspaper in the last 200 years,'' Mumbai Samachar editor Nilesh Dave told PTI.

"From 1932 to 1947, we have old copies of the newspaper. Even till 1857, there are a few copies kept in our files. But they can't be opened since they are not in good condition,'' he informed.

Dave said the newspaper recently launched its English website and will soon have Marathi and Hindi ones.

''My documentary — Mumbai Samachar 200 Not Out — will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, being held from May 15 to 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched its trailer, while the documentary was released by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Mumbai (in September 2024),'' he said.

Started as ''Shri Mumbai Na Samachar'' by Parsi scholar Marzban, the newspaper primarily served as a source of information for traders, the majority of them Parsis and Marwaris, and details about goods coming on ships at the Bombay harbour.

Founder Marzban hailed from Surat and was always interested in the printing business. When he came to Mumbai, he started a book-binding shop.

He got 150 subscribers and offered them a copy of the newspaper for Rs 2 a month. Besides disseminating information about ships to traders, free death notes were published as community service, and later, news reports were also printed.

The newspaper started getting advertising revenue from traders who wanted to send their goods by ships to other places. There were advertisements for dramas as well. Since 1841, there have been two Marathi editors of the paper — Janardhan Vasudev and later Vinayak Vasudev.

Initially, traders were a source of the news published in the newspaper, including information related to Peshwas, Tatya Tope, and the death of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi during the 1857 uprising. The newspaper started as a weekly publication, then turned bi-weekly and became a daily in 1832. It had news handwritten and then printed on a machine brought especially from London.

When Bombay was rechristened Mumbai (in 1995), politician and former minister Chhagan Bhujbal displayed a Mumbai Samachar copy in the Maharashtra legislature to highlight that the city's name was always Mumbai. However, the publishing firm's name was Bombay Samachar Pvt Ltd.

Editor Dave affirmed Mumbai Samachar was the only newspaper unaffected during the 1975-77 Emergency when the press faced censorship.

''We published both opposition and government news and were neutral. Our owner, Mr Cama (Hormusji Cama), told then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that if all doors for dialogue are closed, there can be no solution. We don't publish any news under pressure. We have only one edition, which is available in the entire country," he said.