Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Contrary to popular perception, Urdu is not the language of Muslims. It was a lashkari (soldier) language (the word ‘Urdu’ comes from the Turkish word ‘ordu’ meaning ‘camp’ or ‘army’), nourished during the period of Mughal emperor Shahjahahn. It had words from Persian and local languages. The purpose was to make communication easy among soldiers who were from different places: Arab, Turk and locals. Based on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh in the Indian subcontinent, Urdu developed under local Persian, Arabic, and Turkic influence over the course of almost 900 years. It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527), and continued to develop under the Mughal Empire (1526–1858) .

Urdu is written from right to left just like Arabic and Persian. Urdu has 39 basic letters and 13 extra characters, all together 52 and most of these letters are from Arabic and a small quantity from Persian. It has almost all the 'sounds' available in any other language spoken in the world.

The Persian newspapers of West Bengal were fore-runners of the Urdu press. After the decline of Persian as an official language, Urdu gained prominence.

The first newspaper of Urdu language was Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, founded by Harihar Dutta in 1822 in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He was the son of Tara Chand Dutta, eminent Bengali journalist and one of the founders of Bengali weekly Sambad Koumudi. Editor of this three page weekly paper was Sadasukhlal . After English and Bengali, it was the third language newspaper in India. It continued to be published till 1888.

On 14 January 1850, Munshi Harsukh Rai started the weekly Kohinoor, which had a remarkably high (for those times) circulation of 350 copies. In 1858, Manbir Kabiruddin started the Urdu Guide, the first Urdu daily, from Calcutta. Another important paper founded that year was Roznamha-e-Punjab from Lahore. Oudh Akhbar by Munshi Nawal Kishore was the first Urdu newspaper from Lucknow, also begun in 1858.

There was extensive growth in Urdu journalism from the 1850s till Independence in 1947.

The first Urdu newspapers of Delhi were Fawaid-ul-Nazarin and Kiran-us-Sadai, founded by Rama Chandra in 1852. The Urdu press in Delhi became highly critical of the British government. The best example of them is the Urdu Akhbar, edited by Syed Hasan, which highlighted many civic issues like drainage, sanitation, adulteration of food, and corruption.

In 1877, Maulvi Nasir Ali, one of the founders of Anjuman Islamia- the Islamic intellectual and political movement- founded 3 newspapers- Nusrat-ul-Akhbar, Nusrat-ul-Islam and Mihir-e-Darakhshan. All three focused on current civil and political affairs and were valuable aids of Muslim empowerment. In 1877, Oudh Punch, the first humour magazine in Urdu was started by Sajjid Hussain. The first women’s journal in Urdu was Akhbar-un-Nisa.

Darul Sultanat, one of the most important newspapers of 19th century was published in 1881 by Shaikh Ahsanullah Sandagiri Dehlawi from Kolkata. Mathura Prasad Savmar was its editor. It started as a weekly. Later it was made bi-weekly and then tri-weekly.

Urdu journalism took on a strongly nationalistic note towards the turn of the 20th century. Zameendar, was started in Lahore in 1903. It was the first Urdu newspaper to subscribe to news agencies. Zameendar was intensely nationalistic, which boosted its circulation to over 30,000 copies. In 1902, Maulvi Sanaullah Khan started the weekly Watan, meaning motherland. Watan was intensely nationalistic and continued for 33 years. Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar started Naqeeb-e-Hamdard in 1912. Another powerful political periodical was the Madina, edited by Hamidul Ansari.

The greatest Urdu periodical that time was Al Hilal, started by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. A weekly, Al-Hilal created political and religious consciousness among the muslims. It was one of first Urdu newspapers which put equal importance on content and presentation including the layout and design. It was designed on the pattern of Egyptian newspapers. But its greatest asset was the content. It addressed the readers in a new language and style of expression.
In 1919, the Pratap was started in Lahore by Mahshe Krishnan. It vigorously supported Gandhi’s policies and the Indian National Congress. It was a victim of government harassment and suspended publication several times. It had great influence among the Urdu reading Hindus of Punjab and Delhi.

In 1923, Swami Shraddhanand founded the Tej with Lala Deshbandhu Gupta as editor. It had a wide circulation in Rajasthan, U.P. and Delhi. It was confiscated several times by the government and banned in a number of princely states. In the same year, 1923, the Arya Samaj started the Milap, a daily in Lahore. It was known for its powerful nationalistic editorials. Jawaharlal Nehru founded Qaumi Awaaz in 1945.

Urdu journalism suffered heavily, during and after Partition. Riots in Lahore lead to mobs raiding the office of Milap and burning machines and newsprint. Its Managing Editor, Ranbir was stabbed and the paper was closed for six weeks. It then shifted to Delhi. Due to the unrest, the Pratap also shifted to Delhi.

At the time of partition there were 415 Urdu newspapers including all daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly magazines. After partition 345 of them remained in India as owners of 70 newspapers migrated to Pakistan. As per the RNI report of 1957, there were 513 Urdu newspapers and the combined circulation was 7.48 lakh. Fifty years later the number of Urdu dailies alone was 3168 and the combined circulation of all Urdu newspapers was 1.7 crore as per RNI report 2007.
Some of the Urdu newspapers after partition in India are Dawat, now a bi-weekly, started by the Jamat-e-Islami Hind. Maulana Abdul Waheed Siddiqui started Nai Duniya, a popular Urdu weekly, which was later by his son Shaheed Siddiqui. The Sahara Group started a weekly-Aalmi Sahara. There are more number of urdu newspapers published in Hyderabad including The Siasat Daily, The Munsif Daily, Indian Etemaad and Rehnuama E Deccan. In fact till 2006 Andhra Pradesh had the maximum number of registered Urdu newspapers (506) among all the states of India. Mumbai also have several Urdu publications including The Inquilab daily and Urdu Times. West Bengal, especially Kolkata also has a sizable number of Urdu publications. In 2005 there were five Urdu dailies in Kolkata: Azad Hind, Rozana Hind, Akhbaar -e- Mashrique, Aabshaar and Akkas.

After 1980s there was a gradual decline in the number of publications and readership of Urdu newspapers. Several publications ceased publication. For example, in West Bengal Shan-e-Millat, Imroze, Asre-Jadeed, Ghazi and Iqra were closed.

However, in the first decade of the new millennium, a resurgence of sort was marked in Urdu media, with a number of new newspapers and television channels making their entry. The big media houses made their presence felt in Urdu media.

The major Urdu newspapers and television channels that are run by major media houses are Rashtria Sahara (launched by Sahara Group in 2006), Inquilab (Jagran group took over this Mumbai based Urdu newspaper in 2010), Azad Hind, Hind Samachar, ETV-Urdu, Aalami Sahara and Zee Salam. In 2011 Hyderabad based newspaper ‘Munsif’ launched its news channel whereas Mumbai based ‘Urdu Times’ will launch its print editions from Delhi and Lucknow shortly.

Hyderabad based Siyasat was the first Urdu newspaper to start a web edition in late 90s. Several other Urdu publications presently have their web editions.

Not many Urdu publications have appeared from Orissa, though the state has a sizable Urdu knowing population. In late eighties Eastern Media, publisher of Sambad started a Urdu weekly Sahara. It closed publication within one year.

[Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee; Professor, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC); Sanchar Marg, Dhenkanal 759 001, Orissa; [email protected], www.mrinalchatterjee.in]

Sourece: http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=29406