Baburao Vishnu Paradkar, the inspiration behind the magazine of ideological revolution, was born on 16 November 1883 in a Marathi family in Kashi. The renowned editor of the Hindi daily ‘Aaj’, who earned immense fame by setting the best standards of journalism, had three aspects of his personality: (1) Revolutionary leader of the freedom struggle, (2) Master of literature, and (3) Pioneer of modern Hindi journalism.
Despite Marathi being his mother tongue, Paradkarji gave a new direction to Hindi journalism and made Hindi prose beautiful and impressive. He spent 12-13 years of his youth in Kolkata, where he received the best education in journalism from his maternal uncle Ram Ganesh Deoskar. Paradkarji entered the field of journalism in 1906 as an assistant editor of the Hindi newspaper ‘Bangwasi’. After working in it for some time, he edited ‘Hitvarta’ and ‘Bharat Mitra’ published from Kolkata. Through these newspapers, he exposed the anti-national colonial politics of that time and inspired and encouraged the people to participate in the freedom movement.
In 1920, Paradkarji came to Kashi and took up the important responsibility of the editor of the daily ‘Aaj’. He discharged this responsibility throughout his life. During the days of the Salt Satyagraha, when the British government banned ‘Aaj’, Paradkarji edited and published a two-page secret magazine called ‘Ranbheri’ and distributed to the revolutionaries spread across the country. The daily ‘Sansar’ published from Kashi from 1943 to July 1947 flourished under his editorship. He also edited ‘Kamla’, the ideal magazine for women.
The comments and editorials he wrote as an editor are of historical importance. His writings not only raised the voice of nationalism, but he also enriched the Hindi language and coined new Hindi words like Shri, Sarvashri, Shrimati, Rashtrapati, Mudrasphiti, Vayumandal, Antarrashtriya, Magar Aansu etc. He showed generosity in adopting words from other languages, but did not consider it appropriate to use Arabic-Persian adjectives with Sanskrit words. The promotion, support and guidance he gave to the national language and literature through journalism for 50 years will be unforgettable.
Paradkar ji had the good fortune of coming in contact with many great men and personalities of Bharat, prominent among whom are Vitthal Bhai Patel, Purushottam Das Tandon, Arvind Ghosh, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sampurnanand, Rasbihari Ghosh, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Dr. Bhagwan Das, Babu Shriprakash ji, Shiv Prasad Gupta and Banarasi Prasad Chaturvedi. By staying in the company of these personality, he played an important role in the freedom struggle. He was imprisoned from 1916 to 1919.
While presiding over the first Hindi Editors’ Conference organized on the occasion of Vrindavan Sahitya Sammelan in 1925, Paradkar ji said: - “The policy of future Hindi editors will not be the policy of patriotic, religious or great editors who worship humanity. ................. The work of Hindi editors is very difficult. We are directly connected to the society. But we have to understand ourselves. The more success we can show in this and the deeper we go, the more success we will achieve. Till we do not adopt the common society and make our newspapers their reflection, we will neither be able to progress nor will we be able to truly serve the country.”
In 1938, he was made the President of the Shyamala (Shimla) session of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. In 1950, in the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Mumbai, he delivered an impressive speech on the development of Indian newspaper publication from the chair of the press conference. Paradkar ji wrote a book named ‘Desh Ki Baat’, which was a translation of ‘Deshor Katha’ written by his maternal uncle and guru Sakharam Ganesh Deoskar. ‘Vishwashanti Ka Agradoot’ written by him on 15 August 1947 was an excellent editorial.
Paradkarji wrote about a hundred editorials on various subjects such as - Language and Literature (14 editorials), Memoirs and Tributes (9 editorials), Journalism (8 editorials), Freedom Struggle (37 editorials), World and India (11 editorials), Economy and Inflation (94 editorials), Social and Rural Problems (8 editorials). His last editorial was published in the daily ‘Aaj’ on 8 February 1954 under the title ‘Amrit Kumbh Ya Vish Kumbh’. Paradkar ji, who had contact even with pigeons and hawks, was an expert in the knowledge of the afterlife. He was a supporter of widow remarriage and married a widow for the third time.
Some of the precious statements of Paradkarji related to journalism are still inspiring and useful : - (1) “The ideal of Hindi journalism is great, and its objective is to enhance the glory of the nation by bringing about its all-round development. The help of journalism is required in finding solutions to the challenges facing the nation.” (2) “News should be a reflection of the society and must also set high ideals before its readers. Description of the natural state of society, analysis of its merits and demerits, reform, guidance and entertainment, all these are the duties of newspapers. Public education is our true religion.” (3) “In my opinion, apart from knowledge of literature and language, it is necessary for the editor to have detailed knowledge of Indian history and general knowledge of world history and general knowledge of sociology, political science and international laws. He may not be an expert in economics, but at least he should have the ability to understand the Indian and provincial budget. It is also necessary for editors of newspapers published with different objectives to have special knowledge of those subjects.”
Journalism was both a weapon and a shield for Paradkarji. Whenever the black law of the British tried to snatch away the power of the pen, he wrote the entire editorial column “We are silent against the black law” and left it plain. This great architect of Hindi journalism died in Kashi on 12 January 1955. In the words of President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Paradkarji was the pillar of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and the Hindi journalist world.
Through journalism, Paradkarji not only raised consciousness against the British in the minds of the people, but also tried to make the country socially and culturally prosperous. He recognized, tested and patronized the creative potential of new writers and put them on the path of progress. Undoubtedly, he was a pioneer in the art of editing. The generations to come in journalism will continue to draw inspiration from him for ages.