Bartaman

About Bartaman

Anandabazar Patrika is a Bengali-language broadsheet daily newspaper published from Kolkata and owned by the ABP Group. First issued on 13 March 1922 as a four-page evening paper printed entirely in red ink, it is the largest-circulation Bengali daily in India and one of the country's most storied newspapers. With a certified average circulation of 802,289 copies for January to June 2022, it has chronicled more than a century of Bengal's public life, from the freedom movement through Partition, the Bangladesh Liberation War and the digital age.

Often described as the voice of Bengal, the paper is the flagship of a media conglomerate that spans print, television, magazines, books and digital platforms. Its centenary in 2022 was celebrated as a landmark in Indian journalism, honouring a publication that began with a circulation of about 1,000 copies a day and grew into a household name for millions of Bengali readers.

Founding in 1922

The modern Anandabazar Patrika was launched on 13 March 1922 by Suresh Chandra Majumdar and editor Prafulla Kumar Sarkar. The first issue was a four-page evening daily that sold for two paise and had a circulation of about 1,000 copies a day. It appeared on Dol Jatra, the festival of colours, and its red ink was noted by contemporaries; the British saw in it what the group's centenary history describes as a warning of danger rather than the red of the festival.

An earlier publication carrying the Anandabazar name had existed in the 19th century in the Jessore region, but it did not survive into the modern paper. The 1922 launch was a fresh beginning, conceived by men associated with the nationalist movement who wanted a newspaper that would serve ordinary Indians rather than colonial rulers.

Confronting Colonial Rule

From its earliest years the paper adopted a bold and uncompromising position against British colonial rule, earning the nickname "danger signal" in the contemporary British press. The group's own centenary history records 19 occasions of official British pressure between 1922 and 1947, including a 1934 case in the Calcutta High Court over articles published in 1933.

The paper's nationalism was not merely rhetorical. By 1923 it had become a morning newspaper and established news-gathering arrangements with international agencies including Reuters, the Associated Press and the Free Press of India, professionalising its journalism even as it challenged the colonial state.

Growth Into a Mass Institution

The paper grew from a political sheet into a mass institution with remarkable speed. By 1925 it had expanded to 16 pages and carried its first byline. In 1926 it launched the Sharadiya special for Durga Puja, which became a beloved Bengali cultural tradition, eagerly awaited each autumn as a literary event in its own right.

Through the 1930s and 1940s the paper embedded itself in the political and cultural life of Bengal, combining serious news coverage with literature, culture and opinion. It became the newspaper that educated Bengali households read first, a position it has never fully relinquished.

Partition and Its Aftermath

The Partition of 1947 was a defining test. Scholarship on the paper's history shows that it editorialised in favour of Partition in August 1947 as a response to communal violence, participating in the debate rather than causing it. After the border was drawn, its reporting on relief and rehabilitation made it a central newspaper of the refugee crisis, shaping public debate in West Bengal for years.

The paper's coverage of Partition's human cost, the influx of refugees into Calcutta and the struggles of resettlement, remains one of the most significant bodies of journalism in its archive, documenting a trauma that reshaped Bengal.

1971: The Bangladesh Liberation War

If Partition was one defining year, 1971 was another. According to the paper's own centenary retrospective, it carried material about Bangladesh essentially every day from the start of 1971, especially between March and December, reflecting the war's enormous significance to Bengali readers in India. The conflict's direct connection to Bengali identity and family ties across the new border made it the story of the year, and the paper's sustained coverage is remembered as a high point of its journalism.

The ABP Group

Anandabazar Patrika is the flagship of the ABP Group, which has grown into one of India's leading media conglomerates. Beyond the flagship daily, the group owns the English daily The Telegraph; television news channels ABP News in Hindi, ABP Ananda in Bengali, ABP Majha in Marathi, ABP Ashmita in Gujarati, ABP Sanjha in Punjabi and ABP Ganga for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand; Bengali magazines Desh, Sananda, Anandalok and Anandamela; a leading book publishing business; and news websites in several languages, including the Telugu site ABP Desam launched in 2021.

In July 2021 the group announced Atideb Sarkar as chief editor and publisher of ABP Private Limited, which owns the print publications and the television wing, while his father Arup Sarkar took on the role of "nestor." The paper itself is currently edited by Ishani Dutta Ray.

Circulation and Readership

The Audit Bureau of Circulations certified the paper's average daily circulation at 802,289 copies for January to June 2022, and industry surveys have placed its readership in the millions, with close to six million readers a day claimed in earlier years. It remains the highest-selling Bengali-language newspaper in India, with its readership cutting across age groups, professions and social backgrounds.

Its major competitors include Bartaman, Ei Samay, Sangbad Pratidin, Aajkaal, Jago Bangla, Uttarbanga Sambad, Ganashakti and Dainik Statesman, in one of India's most competitive regional newspaper markets.

Content and Character

The paper blends news, opinion, culture, entertainment and lifestyle, offering comprehensive coverage of regional events, national affairs and international developments. Its pages carry politics, business, sports, cinema and cultural criticism, and its supplements and special issues, from the Sharadiya Puja number to its regular features, are institutions in Bengali publishing.

The paper's blend of credibility, literary quality and mass appeal has made it, in the words of its admirers, synonymous with the standards of Bengali journalism: serious without being dull, popular without being sensational.

Digital and the Centenary

Anandabazar Patrika operates an extensive digital presence at anandabazar.com, publishing Bengali news around the clock, with e-paper editions serving readers beyond West Bengal, including the Bengali diaspora. The digital platforms have extended a century-old brand to new generations of readers.

The centenary celebrations launched in 2022 honoured the newspaper's role in the Indian media landscape since 1922. A hundred years after a four-page evening paper in red ink first lent its support to Gandhi's cause, Anandabazar Patrika stands as both a living archive of Bengal's modern history and a working newsroom serving millions every morning.

The Telegraph: The English Sibling

Anandabazar Patrika's sister newspaper is The Telegraph, the ABP Group's English daily published from Kolkata. Known for its distinctive editorial voice and design, The Telegraph gave the group a foothold in English journalism to complement the Bengali flagship. Together the two papers anchor the group's print operations, sharing infrastructure while serving different readerships, and their combined newsroom strength underpins the group's position as eastern India's dominant publisher.

The Centenary

The centenary celebrations launched in 2022 at the Biswabangla Convention Center in Kolkata honoured the newspaper's century-long role in Indian media, with chief editor Atideb Sarkar recalling that ABP serves ordinary Indians, not their rulers. A hundred years after its first issue, the paper that began as a four-page evening daily in red ink continues to set the benchmark for Bengali journalism, its archives a living record of Bengal's modern history.