Description

○ Considered the father of Hindi satirical journalism, Babu Bal Mukund Gupta was born in Gudiyani, Rewari, in 1865.
○ Nicknames: Babu Ji, the messiah of Hindi journalism, the father of prose. He was a distinguished writer and a leading journalist.
○ Major works: Shivshambhu ke Chihe (leers) versus Lord Curzon, leers and essays, Khel Tamasha.
○ Babu Bal Mukund Gupta's Shivshambhu ke Chihe satirized the policies of Lord Curzon, comparing his actions to those of Nadir Shah.
○ Babu Bal Mukund Gupta edited several newspapers, including: ■ Hindi newspapers: Hind-Bangvasi, Hindustan, Bharat Pratap, Bharat Mitra (1899-1907)
■ Urdu newspapers: Kohinoor (1889), Akhbar-e-Chunar (1886), Mathura, Jamna
○ The Haryana Sahitya Academy in Panchkula presents the Babu Bal Mukund Gupta Samman, which includes a ₹2.5 lakh honorarium, to individuals who make signicant contributions to Hindi literature.
○ Statues of Babu Bal Mukund Gupta and two other eminent Hindi literary gures, Sant Surdas and Pandit Lakhmichand, have been erected on the premises of the Haryana Sahitya Academy, Panchkula.
○ A Babu Bal Mukund Gupta Chair has been established at Indira Gandhi
University, Meerpur, Rewari.
○ Babu Bal Mukund Gupta engaged in a prolonged debate with Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi regarding the correctness of the word "instability".
○ He died in 1907. Upon his death, Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi wrote, "Only one person used to write good Hindi."