Anandabazar Patrika, was conceived as a publication to raise voice against the British and was first published as an evening daily on March 1922 on the auspicious day of Dol Purnima. It was initially printed in red ink and consisted of four pages. Priced at two paise and had a first-day circulation of a thousand copies. The newspaper’s red ink led to the contemporary English daily, The Englishman terming it a ‘danger signal’. With its unshakeable patriotic stance, it soon became very popular. The inaugural editor was Prafulla Kumar Sarkar and the founder proprietor, Suresh Chandra Majumdar.
In 1923, the newspaper was transformed to a morning daily and ties up with Reuters, Associated Press and the Free Press of India. In 1923, a bi-weekly named Anandabazar was also published for suburban readers. In 1925, the newspaper grew to a 16-page format with a new Saturday section, Shanibarer Chithi, starts. It evolves into Rabibashoriyo from 1931.
The fad of Puja Numbers was started by Anandabazar Patrika in 1926 with its first Puja special issue, Sharadiya Shankhya. It starts its own press in 1930, Ananda Press but faced with a draconian Press Ordinance, goes out of circulation for a few months from May 2 – October 31 of the same year.
From 1931 Anandabazar Patrika starts coming out every day of the week earlier there was no issue on Sunday. In the same year the office shifts to 1 Burman Street, near Burrabazar. With the increase in circulation the company invests in a fast-paced Crabtree Rotary machine is installed to print 25,000 copies in an hour.
In 1941, Anandabazar Patrika was the first to report Subhas Chandra Bose’s escape . On 7 August 1941 Rabindrath Tagore dies, no ads were carried on the front page, the day after, a practice continued by the paper till recently. Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948 shocks the nation. Anandabazar Patrika echoes the sentiment with its landmark coverage and Lord Mountbatten calls it the greatest homage to the Mahatma.
In 1954 Anandabazar Patrika becomes the largest circulated newspaper in the country published from one location, according to the Press Commission report. 1955 Anandabazar shfits to a new building at 6 Sooterkin Street where an automatic rotary machine is installed with a capacity to print 40,000 copies of the newspaper in an hour. It is only in 1968 that the name of the street is changed to Prafulla Sarkar Street in honour of its founding editor.
In 1965 colloquial Bengali in narrative prose is introduced in Anandabazar Patrika and formal Bengali only in the editorials. Phototypesetting starts in 1980.