IN THE heart of south Mumbai’s heritage Fort precinct, a bright red building houses the unassuming offices of an enduring institution that will soon turn 200 -- Gujarati daily ‘Mumbai Samachar’. Still going strong despite reverses in the print media industry the last few years, ‘Mumbai Samachar’ will celebrate its 200th year on July 1 after seeing through two pandemics, two world wars, and the growth of a city thriving in myriad avatars, from a textile and mercantile hub to a buzzing financial and film industry capital. Mumbai Samachar’s Director Hormusji Cama says that 20 years ago the newspaper conducted research and found that it is the oldest surviving publication in India and the fourth oldest in the world.

 

Bombay Samachar (as it was called then) started as a weekly in 1822 to primarily inform the readers about ship movements and commodities, and gradually evolved into a true city newspaper with a focus on trade that it is today. Fardunjee Marzban, a Parsi scholar, started the publication four years after the Bengali newspaper ‘Samachar Darpan’ was launched, to become the second non-English newspaper published in India. Then named ‘Moombina Samachar’, it was a weekly for the first 10 years, then a bi-weekly and has been a daily newspaper since 1855.