Durga Das was a legendary journalist of India who did signal service to the national cause through his vocation. Born on 23rd November, 1900 in Jalandhar District, Punjab, Das started taking interest in journalism from a relatively young age. His interest in news and news reporting also drew him towards the national movement.
Das was educated in Jalandhar and in Lahore, Pakistan. He became a Parliamentary reporter in Delhi where he covered the sessions of the Imperial Legislative Council. He was the first Indian to report the proceedings to British papers along with other European correspondents.
As a reporter with a British-owned Indian News Agency and later as the editor of New Delhi’s Hindustan Times, Das observed and recorded the most crucial events in Indian history, covering a span of 50 years from the beginning of India’s freedom movement against British rule to the regime of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
In 1938, Das joined The Statesman, a Calcutta newspaper and six years later, became joint editor of The Hindustan Times. In 1957, he became the newspaper’s chief editor, returning three years later to establish his own syndicate news agency.
Surviving members in his family are his wife, Rattan Devi, two daughters, Savitri and Rani, and two sons, Inder Jit and Vikrama Jit. Inder Jit is the editor of States, a political weekly founded by his father.
Das knew intimately some of the nation’s most prominent figures—the viceroys from Lord Chelmsford to Lord Mountbatten and politicians from Tilak and Gandhi to Jinnah, Nehru, Shastri and Mrs. Gandhi. In his autobiographical political history of India entitled “India, From Curzon to Nehru and After,” he revealed interesting personal aspects of the leaders he met.
In his book, Das gave a comprehensive account of Nehru’s regime, including how he felt betrayed by China and how he groomed his daughter to succeed him. He also edited 10 volumes of correspondence between Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who was Nehru’s controversial Home Minister in the early independent years.
The material for the book, according to Das, is based on his 20 million words of straight reporting, features, analysis and comments, besides half a million of words in the form of notes in shorthand.
His destiny of Journalistic career for nearly 55 years, besides being a busiest newsman in Delhi, also saw him undertake foreign travel over twenty times across the world which provided him an opportunity of holding dialogues with top world personalities, among them five British Prime Ministers, three US Presidents, three Prime Ministers of Japan, two Chancellors of West Germany, two Chairmen of the Soviet Union and Presidents Tito and Nasser.
As a journalist, Durga Das was fair and objective in reporting, informative and analytical in writing, constructive in editorial comment, and a supporter of the voice of dissent as a political columnist. For him, journalism was an opportunity to serve the motherland. Professional honors came to him in various forms. These included positions like the Chairman of the Press Gallery Committee of the Indian Parliament, President of All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference, founder-President of the Press Club of India and member of the Press Council. Durga Das is very well known for his famous publishing known as ‘India and the World’ (1958).
His love for profession found culmination when he found the Durga Das Ratan Devi Trust in 1969 to give five annual Durga Ratan Awards for excellence in Journalism.
Durga Das was a journalist who witnessed and reported on many key events and spoke to many key players on the Indian political scene over many decades. At his time of his death, he was the chief of the Indian News and Feature Alliance, a widely circulated syndicate service he founded.
