Mahatma Phule’s ‘Satsar’ magazine which laid the foundation of social change. It is natural that they should have a medium like a newspaper. In 1885, he started Satsar for social purposes. His idea was to publish it regularly on a weekly basis. He published the first issue on 13 June 1885 from his home in Ganjpeth. In the first issue, he had expressed the view that thoughtful Christians, Mahammadis and Hindus would give generous shelter to this issue.
Presenting his introduction, he had written – “Knowledge is gone, eyes are frozen, now the glory of Kanche is dead, Das becomes the disciple of Tuka, Shudra Shiva is embraced”. The second issue of ‘Satsar’ was also published promptly. Phule was constantly writing against the injustice done to the Shudra class in the caste system and against the exploitation and exploitation of women. Although the issue has a great social value, Phule’s contribution to the social movement in Maharashtra and the consequent momentum of the Indian Awakening is also significant.
They revolted against the heterogeneous social system that deprived women and Shudras of knowledge. Were. Open the doors of knowledge to all, he joined hands with the British rulers. He described his role in this regard as follows:
“विद्येविना मती गेली।
मतीविना नीती गेली।।
नीतीविना गती गेली।
गतीविना वित्त गेले।।
वित्ताविना शुद्र खचले ।
इतके अनर्थ एका अविद्येने केले ॥”
Considering Phule’s great contribution in the cause of social change, it is our duty to pay special attention to the issue of ‘Satsar’ in the circulation of newspapers. As mentioned earlier, the news media was gaining importance everywhere due to the new environment in British import essays. It is during this period that Marathi letters started appearing in many districts of Maharashtra. His note is summarized here. The letter ‘Induprakash’ was started from Mumbai in 1862 with the initiative of Prarthana Samaj. Social and religious reform was one of his main goals. The letter was being published on a weekly basis.
It was converted into a daily from 1902. Vishnu Pandit paid attention to the establishment of this newspaper. ‘Induprakash’ played the role of awarding widow marriage. Take some time to work on the English section of this letter. It was managed by Mahadev Govind Ranade. After that, one of the leaders of the prayer society, Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar took care of it. The publication of this letter stopped in 1924. Subodh Patrika was started as the mouthpiece of the Prarthana Samaj in 1873 and lasted for almost 100 years. Meanwhile, Kashinath Vishnu Phadke from Konkan started a letter called ‘Arunodaya’ from Thane in 1866.
After this, the letters ‘Suryoday’ and ‘Hindu Panch’ started from Thane. (1867 and 1872 respectively). Meanwhile, in 1870, a letter called ‘Satyasadan’ was started from Alibag (then Colaba district, now Raigad). Letters ‘Vrittavaibhav’ and ‘Nyay Sindhu’ were started from Ahmednagar district in 1866. ‘Nashik News’ was started in Nashik district in 1869. Khandesh Vaibhav, the first newspaper in Khandesh, was started from Dhule in 1868. After that ‘Prabodh Chandrika’ started from Jalgaon in 1881. The letters ‘Yugasuchak’ were published in Satara in 1858 and ‘Maharashtra-Mitra’ in 1867. In this journey, the weekly letter ‘Kalpataru-Anandvritta’ from Solapur should be mentioned.
These two letters were started in 1867 under the names ‘Kalpataru’ and later ‘Anandvritta’. Later, she became known as Jodna. This weekly paper from Solapur had made its centenary a few years back. Apart from this, Marathi letters were also being published in Goa, Vidarbha and Belgaum. Newspapers in Vidarbha started from Akola. Some letters were also being published from Nagpur, B-Hanpur, Amravati. Belgaum Samachar (1864) and Karnataka Mitra (1881) from Belgaum and Dharwad Vritta (1873) from Dharwad were also published. The awareness created by these letters in different parts of Maharashtra should be studied separately.