India’s first four women journalists: The Lost gems of our country

The British Raj saw major dramatic transformation of the Indian society with the modernisation of the Indian Society for the better, With the English breakfast of bread and butter and the popularity of clothing like the trousers and blazers, India was starting to transform. On major positive change was the education of Women. Though only higher class women were educated first, slowly various option opened up for women, specially writing newsletters and articles. Let us look at India’s first four women journalists:

• VIDYA MUNSHI

Widely considered as the first woman journalist in India, she worked for several newspapers and magazines, including, devoting ten years to Russy Karanjia‘s Blitz. At a time, when the communist party was still illegal in India, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. She broke major stories, that received national attention then, which included, a plot by two Canadian pilots who were trying to smuggle gold through the Sunderbans and the the Chinakuri mine disaster in Asansol.

• HOMAI VYARAWALLA

Popularly known as ‘Dalda 13, Vyarawalla was India’s first woman photo journalist. Starting her career in the 1930’s, she photographed some of the most influential Indian politicians including, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Indira Gandhi. She was responsible for capturing the almost all the historic moments during India’s in independence struggle.

• PRATIMA PURI

In 1965, when Doordarshan started airing a 5 minute news bulletin, Pratima Puri became India’s first television news reader. She interviewed Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. She was truly an inspiration for the young women of her age.

• DEVYANI CHAUBAL

She was the most popular women journalists to cover cinema in the country. Chaubal was best known for her fortnightly column, “Frankly Speaking”. She was the first woman to use ‘Hinglish,’ (using Hindi words in her otherwise English language columns) in her writing.

Now, with the best journalism graduate schools, and the best colleges for mass communication in india at your disposal, your aspirations to become one like them seems so much more easy to achieve. Don’t lose out on this opportunity and be the next popular women journalist!