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Glimpse of Printing Presses : |
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The origin of the printing industry in J&K is almost about 150 years old.
Some small presses were established by the Dogra rulers at different places in Jammu to print the religious & official
documents between 1858 to 1875. Some where in 1890, the present day Ranbir Govt. Press was started by merging all these
Presses in the early reign of Maharaja Partap Singh Ji.
First printing press in the commercial sector was established by Late Sh. Mulk Raj Saraf (1924) in Jammu at Panjtirthi. At
that time about 10,000 copies of the Ranbir Magazine were printed by the Litho Press. Then during 1938-40, three more printing presses
were established. One was Vijay Printing Press at Moti Bazar near Kashyap Rajput Sabha. It was
started by Pt. Ram chand & Sh. Badri Nath. But
after one year Sh. Badri Nath left & Sh. Bansi Lal (Book Binder) of Pacca Danga
became the new partner and after one year Sh. Mohan Lal
Kapahi became the new partner. Then after some time, this press was shifted to another place at Moti Bazar behind where at present Deep paper mart is situated.
But this time it was having 4 more partners namely. Sh. Jagan Nath Sharma, Sh. Sehgal and Sh. Harbans Singh. These people installed cylinder
& other good machines of that time & after some years it was closed down.
In 1939 another Litho Press was established by Sh. N.D. Nargis (Dewan of Ramkot State) grand father of Sh. Kailash Dewan in the name of Chand Press at Purani
Mandi opposite to Excise office. Before 1947, a few more
presses came into existence. One of them Kranti Press was set up at old Hospital Road,
Purani Mandi by Sh. M.L. Bhatt. This press was an institution from where many youngsters learned the art of printing and composing.
Before 1947, the first printing press by a woman entrepreneur was started in the name of Bharti Press at Mubarak Mandi, Darbar Garh Road, by Late
Smt. Shanta Bharti.
In 1954, S. Harbans Singh & Mr. Sehgal again started Vijay Printing Press and in 1958-60 this press was
rechristened as Amar Art Press with
Mr. Kapahi as partner of S.Harbans Singh Ji.
After 4 years in the year 1958 Sh. Chuni Lal Chopra father of Sh. Dwarka Nath Chopra purchased this press. Now his son Sh. Ashok Chopra is running this press at the same place.
Sh. B.D. Bhasin father of Sh. Ved Bhasin also started one printing press in the year 1956 to print the weekly "Kashmir Post" which was later
on published by the Sh. Z.N. Zutshi from Kashmir. After some years this weekly was taken over by Late Sh. Prem Bakshi one of the best journalists of that
era. Sh. Ved Bhasin started Kashmir Times (weekly), in the year 1962 and in 1972
it became daily. Whereas Daily Excelsior started by Sh. S.D. Rohmetra from Parade Ground gradually climbed the Mount Everest of Jammu News papers.
Between 1958-1963, a number of new printing presses came into existence namely Sharda Press (Sh. Bashir), Azaad Press (Mr. Maqbool), The International Press (Sh. V.P. Gupta),
Jammu Security Printers (Sh. D.R. Sethi), Sher-e-State Printer (Sh. S.K.Gupta), Navrang Printers (Dewan Sahib), Pack-Well Printers (R.C Gupta ji),
Chadda press (Sh. Lajpat Rai Chadha) etc. |
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