Bhubaneswar: Today is a big day for Odisha journalists. Today is Odia Journalism Day. Every year August 4th is celebrated as Odisha Journalism Day. Today, the first Odia newspaper “Utkal Deepika” was published by Karambeer Gourishankar Ray and Babu Bichitrananda Das.
August 4, 1866. That day was the day of glory for Odia journalism. ‘Utkal Deepika’ launched itself as Odisha first Odia newspaper. Gourishankar Ray was its first editor. It was first published as a weekly and later as a daily. This newspaper was being published from the Cuttack Printing Company established in Cuttack by the efforts of Gaurishankar and his close associate Bichitrananda Das. Uttara Deepika played an important role in giving a new direction in the social and political field of the time and presenting strong demands to the government for the self-defense of the Odia. This newspaper made an effort for social reform by raising its voice against abhorrent practices like child marriage. Utkal Deepika’s success created the trend of newspaper publishing in Odisha.
After Gauri Shankar Roy’s departure, Nilamani Vidyaratna took over as the editor of Utkal Deepika. However, after Odisha became a separate province in 1936, Utkal Deepika was closed in the same year and later published as a daily newspaper. After that a newspaper called Asha O Niya Odisha was published. However, before this, in 1919, Pandit Gopbandhu Das had published weekly to the society. It was published daily from 1930 onwards. Later, the newspaper Prajatantra, Keeling (while Biju Babu was Chief Minister), Internet Times was published.
On the one hand, the starving skeletons in the grip of the Nao famine and on the other, the dependent and almost dead under the British rule, the ‘Utkal Deepika’, a voice against the British government, ignited a patriotism among every Odia, this newspaper, to remember that day every year in August On the 4th, the Odia Journalism Day is celebrated.
