page_title: Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
section_title: Somprakash
hierarchical_section_title: Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan / Somprakash
caption_attribution_description: front page of somprokash
context_page_description: Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan was an Indian scholar, editor and publisher of the trend-setting weekly Bengali newspaper Somprakash.
context_section_description: Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar proposed the publication of a weekly newspaper Somprakash partly with the objective of providing employment for a deaf scholar. The newspaper hit the stands in 1858 but the deaf scholar never joined it. The entire responsibility of editing and publishing the newspaper vested in Vidyabhusan. At that time, Bengali newspapers such as Sambad Prabhakar and Sambad Bhaskar were 'defiling the moral environment in Bengal'. With its dignified tastes, lucid language and fearless criticism, Somprakash occupied the top position in the field of Bengali newspapers.
  Initially, Somprakash was published from a lane in Champatala in Kolkata. When the railway was extended to Canning in 1862, he shifted the printing press to his native village Chingripota (renamed as Subhashgram), now in South 24 Parganas.
  It strongly criticised the powerful indigo planters and landlords. In his evidence before the Indigo Enquiry Committee, Rev. James Long emphatically stated, "These periodicals play a significant role as the mouthpiece of the Indian public." In 1878, when the viceroy, Lord Lytton, introduced the Vernacular Press Act, specially targeting the Bengali press, Vidyabhusan closed down Somprakash, rather than sign an undertaking about it, agreeing to follow the dictates of the authorities. Sir Richard Temple, lieutenant governor, called him to his house and requested him not to close down the newspaper. Later, when the Act was withdrawn, he resumed publication of Somprakash, but it never regained its past form and glory.
caption: Front page of Somprakash, 17 June 1861
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