Jugantar Patrika was an influential revolutionary newspaper in Bengali that was established by Bhupendranath Datta, Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Abhinash Bhattacharya in Calcutta in the year 1906. It was a political weekly which served as the propaganda organ for the emerging revolutionary organisation Anushilan Samiti that was developing in Bengal during that period. The weekly journal obtained its name, meaning New Era, from a political novel named Jugantar by Shivnath Shastri, a well known Bengali author. The Western Bengal wing of the Anushilan Samiti, which eventually was named as the Jugantar group, acquired its name from the Jugantar Patrika. The journal justified and explained revolutionary hostility against the rule of the British Empire in India as a political tool for national freedom. It also condemned the right and legitimacy of the British rule. The Bengali newspaper was also critical of the Indian National Congress Party and the moderate methods of the party which appeared as support to the British administration.
The target audience of the newspaper Jugantar Patrika was the politically motivated and literate youth of Bengal. The journal was priced at one paisa. Within a short period of time the weekly journal became rather popular, with a readership of 20,000 at a period of time. The renowned Indian freedom fighter Bhupendranath Datta served as the editor of the former Bengali newspaper, until his arrest in the year 1907. He was an Indian revolutionary who followed the method of a more radical approach towards political independence. Bhupendranath Datta was also a well known and noteworthy Sociologist. Jugantar Patrika also published various articles from several noteworthy Bengali revolutionaries such as Aurobindo Ghosh and Barindra Kumar Ghosh. The paper faced prosecution numerous times by the British government of India for publishing subversive and rebellious articles. In 1907, Bhupendranath Dutt was arrested for publishing articles that incited hostility against the British administration and he was imprisoned for a year.
The Bengali political weekly newspaper was compelled to close down in the year 1908, due to lack of adequate finance ruins following the prosecutions. Moreover its position was also threatened after the passage of The Newspapers (Incitement to offences) act in June 1908.
