City college celebrates 200 years of Urdu journalism

Tamil Nadu had six newspapers before independence but now has just a handful of journalists

Urdu journalism was vibrant in Tamil Nadu before Independence with around six newspapers available in Chennai for readers, many of them hand-written. The Department of Urdu and Arabic of New College recently celebrated Urdu journalism’s 200th anniversary with competitions for college students.

Asjad Nawaz, chief editor of Salaar, an Urdu daily, published from Bengaluru, who participated in a function at the college to distribute prizes to the winners of the contest recalled that the first Hindi newspaper was published four years after the first Urdu newspaper. Salaar counts among its readers people in Ambur in Tamil Nadu.

Urdu was born out of necessity. During the nascent stages of Indian freedom struggle Indians needed to communicate without the British’ knowledge. “At that time in India, Persian had existed. Mussalman, Hindus and Sikh adopted Urdu, as the British had learnt Hindi and Persian but could not learn Urdu, a mix of Hindi, Arabic and Persian,” he said.

Interestingly since inception most of the newspapers published in the language are owned by Hindus, he added. Quami Aawaz (Voice of the Nation) was started by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 and it is now offered on the online platform.

“It has been a long journey. For Urdu journalists. Not all Urdu newspaper owners were against everything British either. Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq, established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, (who later established the Aligarh University) called upon readers to accept the developmental works of the British.

India has several national Urdu newspapers, including the 100-year-old The Inquilab, published by the Jagran Prakashan Limited, the largest circulating daily and the Roznama Rashtriya Sahara,currently published and owned by the Sahara India Pariwar.

Akbar Zahid, the Tamil Nadu correspondent of Rashtriya Sahara cut his teeth in journalism in Mussalman, a Chennai-based daily. “I started my career in 1975,” said Mr. Zahid who rues that Tamil Nadu which had a vibrant Urdu journalism community now has just a handful of Urdu reporters.

MEASI Urdu Academy’s chairman A. Mohamed Ashraf said Urdu journalism had its foothold in modern technology too.