Poulami Kundu
The erstwhile Goalpara
district comprised the present districts of Goalpara, Dhubri, Kokrajhar,
Bongaigaon and Chirang. The headquarters of the undivided Goalpara district was
in Dhubri town. Situated in the west of Assam on the bank of the mighty Brahmaputra,
this district possessed a unique character of ‘unity amongst the diversity’.
People from different religions, cultures and ethnicities lived together in
peace and harmony. The history of journalism in this district traces back to
the time of the Second World War.
In the year 1941 a
Bengali weekly magazine ‘Gana Sevak’ was published by Late Shivendra Narayan
Mondal, who was then serving as a circle officer and inspector under the
Gauripur Raj Estate. But the circulation of this magazine did not continue for
long. However the era of bold, independent and unbiased journalism in the
undivided Goalpara district started off with a Bengali weekly newspaper called
‘Chabuk’. The weekly was being circulated from Dhubri, under the editorship of
Late Bipin Chakraborty who was not only an eminent Journalist, but also a
freedom fighter and a trade union leader. In spite of immense financial
hardships and pressure from the ruling political parties, he would never
compromise the reports. In the year 1966 the then Additional Magistrate
directed the police force to fire at a peaceful gathering for no reason. In
this incident a Congress leader, Jagadananda Chakraborty lost his life. After
the incident, the editor of Chabuk sternly condemned the decision of the judge
which created a huge uprising. On this, the district administration directed to
stop the circulation of Chabuk.
In 1968 Bipin Chakraborty started publishing a
bilingual weekly newspaper ‘Gana Chabuk’ from Dhubri. From 1984, he also
published an English weekly, ‘Northeast Echo’. Owing to old age ailments, he
had to hand over the editorship of both the newspapers to his journalist son,
Dilip Kumar Chakraborty, who was publishing the newspapers till April 2017,
after which he breathed his last. 
In
the 1960s several other small newspapers like ‘Goalpara Batori’ in Assamese,
‘Dimasa’ in Bodo, ‘Majdur’ in Bengali, ‘Janamat Batayan’, etc were published
from the various places of the erstwhile Goalpara district. But due to
heterogeneous hardships these newspapers had to face premature deaths. In the
year 1980, Late Nirmal Kumar Bandopadhyay published ‘Shaptabarta’, a bilingual
newspaper from Shapatgram which comparatively lasted for a long time. In the
1980s different newspapers like Abhimat, Simanta Barta, Nabadiganta, Ganadut,
Dhubri Samachar, Pohor, Kamota Rani, etc were published but they were very
short lived. Apart from these newspapers many little magazines were also
published from Dhubri, Gauripur, Shapatgram, etc to uphold the cultural heritage
of the district. Among which a distinguished magazine ‘Samakal’, was published
by a group of youngsters like Ashutosh Kundu, Tapas Saha and others from
Dhubri. Due to poor communication and lack
of financial assistance the little magazines were not published for long.
During this evolutionary period of journalism
in Assam, different eminent personalities from the erstwhile Goalpara district
decided to work as correspondents in various national and regional dailies to
ensure proper reporting from this area. Some of them were Jayanta Chakraborty
(Ananda Bazar Patrika), Bhuwan Saikia (The Assam Tribune), Uddhav Chandra
Kalita (The Assam Tribune) Girindra Nath Goswami (The Sentinel), Amarendra Nath
Roy (Uttar Banga Sangbad), and Om Prakash Tody (Purbanchal Prahari). In this
context, it would be unjust if the name of the eminent photojournalist, Tapan
Kumar Roy is not mentioned. His contribution towards photojournalism can never
be disregarded.
Journalists from the undivided Goalpara
district have been struggling to uphold the right to express, the fundamental
right guaranteed under in the article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution
through various forms of media. Though late, but recently on the national press
day (16th November, 2016), the Government of Assam recognised and
felicitated Sri Dilip Kumar Chakraborty, a senior journalist from Dhubri town
(earlier a part of Goalpara district) for his lifelong contribution in the
field journalism.
Sources:
1. Souvenir of Dhubri
district Journalist Association in its first Annual conference on 23rd and
24th March 1991.
2. Souvenir of Dhubri
district Journalist Association in its 4th session 2005.
