"Explore the rich tapestry of the Malabar region, where centuries of history, culture, and tradition come together.

Get In Touch

img

8281168513

img

mail@malabarjournal.org

img

University of Calicut,
Edapally - Panvel Hwy, Thenhipalam,
Kerala 673635, India

Malabar History journal

  • Home
  • Malabar History journal
Blog Image

Prabhatham Newspaper

Prabatham was a Malayalam weekly newspaper founded in 1935 by E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The newspaper served as the mouthpiece of the Congress Socialist Party in Malabar, Travancore, and Cochin. It was published initially from Calicut and later shifted to Shoranur in the Malabar district of British India. The newspaper, however, was forced to close down later with the suspension of its license soon after it published a poem about the hanging of Bhagat Singh.

Later, the license was restored, and it resumed publication as a weekly from Calicut in April 1938 and continued until the outbreak of World War II. It aided in the propagation of socialist and communist ideologies in Kerala. However, due to colonial repression and the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Prabatham lost its prominence.

Background

After the communist faction of the Indian National Congress formed the Congress Socialist Party in October 1934, the party’s Kerala state committee decided that it needed a mouthpiece there. However, due to the opposition of the British government towards the spread of socialist ideas, a calculated move was required in order to publish the newspaper. It was discovered that an owner of a newspaper called Prabhatham, published in Calicut, had decided to sell it due to financial difficulties. The newspaper was published by the Calicut-based Udayabhanu Press, which had a bank debt that had to be settled before the publication could be sold. Thus, E.M.S Namboodirippad paid the money and brought the newspaper to Shoranur.

The first issue of the newspaper was published on January 9, 1935 with E.M.S. Namboodirioad as its editor, and I.C.P. Namboodiri as the publisher.

In 1935, Chowara Parameswaran wrote a poem against the hanging of Bhagat Singh, for which the British government imposed a fine of Rs. 2000. The newspaper could not pay the amount and had to stop its publication as a result. In 1937, when C. Rajagopalachari became the chief minister of Madras he cancelled many orders of the British. This benefitted the party and it held a meeting on March 10, 1938, to resume the publication of Prabhatham. Namboodiripad remained the editor, while P. K. Balakrishnan took on the roles of printer and publisher, and A. K. Gopalan, the manager. Additionally, the newspaper moved to Calicut on April 11, 1938, and continued as a weekly until September 1939, when World War II started.

Further, it was replaced by Deshabhimani Weekly, which started publication on September 6, 1942.

References

  • In Dilip Menon. Prabhatam. Revolutionary Papers. Accessed on 17.03.2023 from

    https://revolutionarypapers.org/journal/prabhatam/
  • History of Mass Media. University of Calicut. Accessed on 21.03.2023 from

    https://web.archive.org/web/20161019033306/http://www.universityofcalicut.info/cuonline/exnotif/ex4235.pdf
  • Prabhatham. (19 February 2023). In Wikipedia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhatham