Small newspapers’ role in literary development hailed

Small newspapers and periodicals have contributed to the development of Kannada literature by nurturing budding writers, veteran writer Siddhalinga Pattanashetty has said.

Participating in a session on the ‘Role of small newspapers and periodicals in development of literature’ on the second day of the Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama on Saturday, he elaborated on how they promoted young and new writers.

He said that newspapers’ focus shifted to Navodaya Kannada during the mid 19th century and it was the boom period for small newspapers in north Karnataka particularly in Dharwad and the then Bijapur.

Popular periodicals or ‘little magazines’ like Sankramana, Jai Karnataka, Jeevana, Sakshi, Jayanti, Swadharma, Prabhath and Vagbhushana of Karnatak Vidyavardhakh Sangha published several literary works and encouraged the new writers.

Jayanti patrike introduced literary criticism and others followed suit, Mr. Pattanashetty said.

However, these periodicals had to shut shop because of various reasons, which resulted in mainstream newspapers opening up for the columns and literary reviews of prominent writers.

Recalling the history of small newspapers, D.V. Pralhad termed 1970s as the “harvesting period” as ‘bandaya’ and ‘Dalit’ movements had ignited the minds of everyone and the small newspapers provided a platform for the budding writers. But the golden period was shortlived as these papers had to close down owing to financial constraints, he said.

Intervening in the discussion, Chandrashekhar Patil made an appeal to the audience to add strength to the ‘Sankramana’ magazine edited by him by buying the subscription. Various issues concerning the small newspapers were raised during the session moderated by Rajendra Patil.

‘It was boom period for small newspapers in north Karnataka in the mid 19th century’