JOURNALISM IN THE DARJEELING HILLS DOWN THE AGES
BY SANDIP C JAIN, EDITOR, HIMALAYAN TIMES, KALIMPONG

It is pretty surprising that Darjeeling which boasts of its association with some of the biggest names in Nepali literature has very few periodicals or dailies to its credit.
The Darjeeling Hills have never been too favourable a place for daily newspapers or even periodicals to thrive. This is mainly due to the fact that it lacks committed readers as well as has a dearth of of high paying advertisers. For any publication to sustain itself, it needs the support of a good reader base as well as financial support from advertisers which helps to offset the high cost of printing and production of the newspaper or periodical. The Darjeeling Hills has been painfully short of both of them.
One of the earliest publications to have come out from the Darjeeling area was the “Gorkha Patra” which was the efforts of Phadari Ganga Prasad Pradhan, who incidentally was also one of the earliest local Christian preachers.
Incidentally, the only daily newspaper ever to come out of the Darjeeling Hills was a Tibetan newspaper named, “Tibetan Freedom”. Its first edition reached its readers on the 9th of March 1965 and it was born out of the merger of two Tibetan Weeklies named, “ Freedom” and “Defender Tibetan Freedom”. At its peak, its circulation was close to 1400 copies. Though not a circulation figure to be too encouraged about, it still was the only daily to be published out of the Hills.
The earliest publication to have been published from Darjeeling Hills is said to have been “The Darjeeling News”. It is supposed to have had a very small circulation of about 150 copies and was chiefly meant for and read by the English Tea planters of that time.
After Independence, several vernacular and English publications tried to cement their place in the Hills but most of them had very short life spans. “The Himalayan Times”, started in 1947 by Suresh Chandra Jain was probably the longest running periodical of its time. It continued publication up to 1962 and thereafter a break of almost forty years is back in publication and continues to circulate in the Hills in present days too. The “Siliguri Patrika” (started in 1950), the “Sainik” (started in 1960) and the “Sangharsha” (started in 1964) were a few other publications to have come out from the Hills. But besides the Himalayan Times, all others are out of publication as of today.
Among the Nepali publications, The “ Gorkha”(1950), “Goreto”(1959), the “Diyalo” (1961) , the “Aukho” (1966) and the “Janadoot”and the” Diyo” were some of the more prominent ones.
A Tibetan monthly by the name of “Yullchong Sasia Sargjur Melong”, dealing in current affairs, which was first published in 1925 continued to circulate in the District for a fairly long time.
The English language weekly, “Himalayan Observe”r, edited and owned by the late B.D.Basnet, was the most popular magazine in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, before it died an unnatural death with the unfortunate demise of its charismatic Editor. Another English Magazine which gained immense popularity in the Hills and in the surrounding areas in the 1990’s, was the “Flatfile” which was taken out by Anmole Prasad and his team of exceptionally talented and gifted writers. The “Darjeeling Today” which is currently being published out of Darjeeling too is popular with the readers of present times.
Presently, all major vernacular as well as English newspapers and periodicals, which are published from Siliguri, can be found circulating in the Hills. These publications, though dealing mainly on local issues, can hardly be labeled as local publications due to the fact that they are all based and controlled by business houses in the Plains.