Birth Centenary of Puran Chandra Gupta

Puran Chandra Gupta (1912-1986), founder editor of the Dainik Jagran media group, was one of the pioneers of Hindi journalism. He was born at Kalpi in Uttar Pradesh and was educated at Kalpi-Kanpur and Varanasi.

His fierce independence and power of expression came to be noticed during the days of education itself. Before long he realized that journalism was his calling, and in 1940, started publishing a weekly newspaper called Swatantra from Kanpur. His nationalist zeal soon attracted adverse notice of the British rulers, and he was forced to shift its publication to Jhansi. Mahatma Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience Movement inspired Puran Chand Gupta to think about a daily newspaper, and he started publishing Jagran from Jhansi in 1942. Its successor, the Dainik Jagran, was launched immediately after Independence, in September 1947, from Kanpur.

Puran Chandra Gupta was aware of the progressive role of newspapers in a nascent democracy, and ensured that Dainik Jagran fulfilled this role. He was uncompromising when it came to the principles he stood for, and this put him famously on a collision course with the government during the Emergency. He welcomed imprisonment, rather than sacrificing the democratic values that he stood for. He was elected Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation in 1974-75 and of PTI in 1975. He remained an executive member of the Indian Newspaper Society for 15 years and also served as its Deputy President.

Dainik Jagran is today one of the world’s most widely read newspapers, and a living tribute to Puran Chandra Gupta’s ideals and his grasp of the common man’s aspirations.