Deshbandhu Gupta

June 14, 2010

A commemorative postage stamp on the Birth Anniversary of Lala Desh Bandhu Gupta, championed the cause of the freedom of press and founder of ‘Daily Tej‘ newspaper :

Issued by India

Issued on Jun 14, 2010

Issued for : India Post is proud to honour Deshbandhu Gupta by issuing a commemorative postage stamp.

Credits :
Stamp, FDC & Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Mint condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 0.3 Million

Printing Process : Wet–offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

Name : Rati Ram Deshbandhu Gupta

Born on Jun 14, 1901 at Panipat, Haryana, India

Died on Nov 21, 1951 at Kolkata, India

About :

Deshbandhu Gupta was born on 14^th June 1901 in Panipat. At the age of seven he started his formal education at Municipal School, Arya Vedic High School, Ambala and later at Hindu College, Delhi.
The orthodox atmosphere at home, the impact of the Arya Samaj, the company of Swami Shraddhanand in the Mainwali Jail, and the emerging personality of Gandhiji were important influences on Deshbandhu‘s young mind.
Deshbandhu‘s political career started against the background of the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy. The latter incident affected him profoundly. He left college and plunged into the freedom movement. He responded to the call of Gandhiji and joined the Non-cooperation Movement and was subsequently jailed. He assisted Lala Lajpat Rai in penning the articles for the Bande Mataram newspaper, thus receiving his first lessons in journalism.
In 1923 Deshbandhu Gupta, along with Swami Shraddhanand founded the newspaper, the ‘Tej‘, thus beginning his long association with media. He also owned the News Chronicle (now called the Indian Express) along with Ram Nath Goenka.
He was a founder member and the President of the Indian and Eastern Newspapers Society – IENS (now called INS), and also the President of the All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference (AINEC) of which also he was President. In both organizations he was active in upholding the interests of the print media. Deshbandhuji was tragically killed in a plane crash at Kolkata on November 21, 1951.
Text : Based on the material provided by the proponent.