His newspapers

01

मूकनायकMooknayak

“Leader of the Voiceless”

First issue

31 January 1920

Last issue

1923

Appeared

fortnightly (Saturdays). Pritchett's timeline calls it a weekly.

Language

Marathi

From

Bombay (Parel)

His role

Founder and real editor of the first 12 issues, which carried his editorials. He was not the named editor because he was then in government employment, as a professor at Sydenham College. He handed the paper to Gholap and left for England on 5 July 1920.

Mooknayak was Dr. Ambedkar's first newspaper. In it he argued that the excluded people needed a paper of their own to discuss the injustice done to them and the way forward. It ran only briefly, but it began his life as a journalist.

Named editor and publisher at first: Pandurang Nandram Bhatkar · From July 1920 (issues 13–19): Dnyandev Dhruvnath Gholap

(Translated) To suggest remedies for the injustice done, and still to be done, to our excluded people … there is no other platform like a newspaper. source

Verified facts

• Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur gave Rs. 2,500 to start it. A copy cost 2.5 annas; a year's subscription was Rs. 2.50. source
• Its masthead carried a couplet by the saint-poet Tukaram. Roughly: why hold back out of shyness, when no one in the world cares for the mute? source
• The imprint says it was printed at the Manoranjan Press, Girgaon, and published from the Mooknayak office, 14 Hararwala Building, Poibawdi, Parel. source
• Only some issues survive. The 1990 volume reprinted issues 2, 3, 5, 6 and 13–19 from originals at the People's Education Society's research centre, Rajgruha, and issue 10 from the Dr. Ambedkar Research Institute, Nagpur. Issue 1's editorial survives in a handwritten notebook at the Shivaji University library, Kolhapur. source
• Gholap later restarted it in Satara as Abhinav Mooknayak, which did not last long. source

First issue: Saturday 31 January 1920. Sources disagree. The last surviving issue is No. 19 of 23 October 1920. The 1990 Government of Maharashtra volume says the paper closed in 1923 (Forward Press: April 1923); LiveLaw says 1922, after Shahu Maharaj's death.

02

बहिष्कृत भारतBahishkrit Bharat

“Excluded India”

First issue

3 April 1927

Last issue

15 November 1929

Appeared

fortnightly (Fridays, from the second issue)

Language

Marathi

From

Bombay (Parel)

His role

Editor and publisher in his own name, and its main writer. He said the paper could not afford an assistant editor, so he had to fill all 24 columns himself.

He started Bahishkrit Bharat to support the movement that grew after the Mahad conference. It became the voice of the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha. Its long editorials on Mahad, the Hindu scriptures and untouchability are among his most important Marathi writings.

Editor and publisher: Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Rahim Building, Poibawdi, Parel

(Translated, 3 February 1928) The whirlwind of Bahishkrit Bharat had raised a kind of storm in Hindu society in Maharashtra. source

Verified facts

• A year's subscription cost Rs. 3 and a single copy 1.5 annas. source
• Money troubles made it irregular. A combined issue (nos. 22–24) came out on 3 February 1928, and the second year began only on 16 November 1928, about nine months later. source
• From issue 2 its masthead carried lines addressed to Arjuna (Partha), telling him to fight without doubt. source
• Its early editorials included a three-part series on the Mahad struggle, addressed in turn to caste Hindus, the British government and the Untouchables themselves (issues 2–4). source
• It closed because of financial problems in 1929. source
• An English translation by B. R. Kamble was published in Kolhapur in 2011. source

First issue: Sunday 3 April 1927, soon after the Mahad conference of 19–20 March 1927. The 1990 volume gives a last, combined issue (nos. 21–22) dated 15 November 1929. Forward Press, citing Vasant Moon, gives 19 November 1929.

03

समताSamata

“Equality”

First issue

29 June 1928

Last issue

March 1929

Appeared

fortnightly (alternate Fridays with Bahishkrit Bharat)

Language

Marathi

From

Bombay

His role

A note above the masthead said it was issued under his leadership, but he did not find time to write for it.

Samata was the paper of the Samaj Samata Sangh (Social Equality League). Its editor and most of its writers were caste Hindus, so it was an attempt to have caste Hindus themselves write against caste. Its experience fed into the founding of Janata in 1930.

Editor: Devrao Vishnu Naik · Writers included B. V. Pradhan and his elder brother Dattatreya

Golden Rule printed above its editorials: "Do unto others as you would be done by." source

Verified facts

• Each issue had eight pages and cost 1.5 annas. source
• Above every editorial it printed the Golden Rule twice: in Sanskrit from the Mahabharata and in English from the Bible. source
• Its editor Devrao Naik was a Govardhan Brahmin who had earlier run a monthly, Sanjivani, and a fortnightly, Brahman-Brahmanetar. source
• Naik is named as 'editor, Samata' among those with Ambedkar at the Chiplun conference of 13 April 1929. source

29 June 1928 (Ashok Gopal; Vasant Moon quoted by Forward Press). The same Forward Press article also gives 29 November 1928 elsewhere. Closed in March 1929 after 19 issues (Ashok Gopal).

Janata was the longest-running paper of his movement, from 1930 to 1956. It reported his speeches, conferences and campaigns, and the Writings and Speeches volumes rely on its reports for many of his speeches.

Editor: Devrao Naik (1930–1932) · Editor: Bhaskarrao Kadrekar (from 1932) · Editor: Gangadhar Sahastrabuddhe (from 1939) · Later colleagues who helped run his papers included R. D. Bhandare and B. C. Kamble

Verified facts

• Devrao Naik, the editor of Samata, was also Janata's first editor; Janata began as a fortnightly and was later turned into a weekly. source
• The English Writings and Speeches (Vol. 17, Part 3) cites Janata issues again and again as the source for his speeches of the 1930s. source
• In a message of 29 May 1947 for the new Nagpur weekly Arun, Ambedkar wrote that the Bombay Janata had stopped publication, so the new paper was badly needed. source
• Speaking at the launch of People's Herald in 1945, he credited the influence of his Bombay weekly with helping him win his 1937 Assembly election. source
• The Government of Maharashtra is reprinting Janata in volumes. Vols. 7–9, covering 12 February 1938 to 1 February 1941 (48 issues each), were released at Mantralaya in April 2025, after six earlier volumes. source

24 November 1930, on the eve of the first Round Table Conference (EPW; BAWS Marathi Vol. 19). Forward Press gives 25 November 1930. Renamed Prabuddha Bharat; its first issue under the new name is dated 4 February 1956.

05

प्रबुद्ध भारतPrabuddha Bharat

“Enlightened India”

First issue

4 February 1956

Last issue

1960

Appeared

weekly (BAWS Vol. 20 cites issues of 6 and 13 October 1956)

Language

Marathi

From

Bombay (Gokuldas Pasta Road, Dadar)

His role

Founder and guide. He renamed Janata as he moved towards Buddhism; as with Janata, he did not do the editing himself.

Prabuddha Bharat was the renamed Janata, now turned towards Buddhism. In its first months it carried the news of the Nagpur conversion of October 1956 and of his plan for a Republican Party.

Founder: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (as printed in the paper's imprint)

Verified facts

• Its issues of 6 and 13 October 1956 reported the decision, taken under his chairmanship in New Delhi on 30 September 1956, to form the All-India Republican Party. source
• It brought out an 'Ambedkar Bauddha Deeksha' special issue on 27 October 1956 about the Nagpur conversion; a copy is on the Internet Archive. source
• Most of its old prints were lost when Ambedkar Bhavan in Dadar, home of the Buddha Bhushan printing press, was demolished in June 2016. source
• The name was revived in 2017 for a 16-page Marathi fortnightly. source

Janata took the new name from 4 February 1956 (The Wire; Forward Press 2020). A 2017 Forward Press article says 1954, and Pritchett's timeline places the change after the October 1956 conversion. Continued after his death; The Wire says Yashwant Ambedkar tried to keep it going until 1960. The date of the last issue was not found.