History of Muslim Press in Sub-Continent – Part One

History of Muslim Press in Sub-Continent – Part One

Before we discuss the role of Muslim press in India and its importance in shaping the public opinion before the partition, it is imperative that we take a brief look at the history of Muslims, their Invasions in India, the fall of Mughal Empire, British
Raj and financial and social condition of Muslims in the 19^th century as all of this has a relevance with the political happenings that occurred later on.

Muslims have a very proud history in South Asia and especially in India.  The first Muslim foray into India was the invasion of Sindh in 712 A.D lead by Mohammad Bin Qasim who defeated Raja Dahir. After that, Muslims never looked back and invaded India to
spread Islam. Muslim rule in India lasted for approximately a thousand years. Countless number of Hindu’s and people from other religions converted to Islam.  Some of the great Muslim rulers of India include Mahmud Ghaznavi, Mohammad Ghouri, Qutub –ud-din
Aibak, Ghiyas-ud-din Balban, Tipu Sultan and the Mughal emperors like Babar, Aurangzeb,  Jehangir, Akbar, etc. and the last Mughal emperor was Bahadur Shah Zafar II, who probably was not as strong as some of the previous Muslim rulers. Bahadur Shah Zafar II
took part in the Sepoy Mutiny, 1857 and after its failure he was imprisoned. He died in 1862 and with him the Mughal rule came to an end and that resulted in the end of Muslim dominance in India.

East India Company started trading in India since 1612 and they gradually strengthened their roots in the economy of India and across South Asia. Slowly but gradually, East India Company became so strong in India that they started to influence the rulers
and the governance in India. After the 1857 revolt, British officially took control of India and the time period between 1857 till the partition of India in 1947 is called the British Raj.

The situation of Muslims was quite pathetic in the 19^th century. Muslims were quite backward as far as the education is concerned and as a result they started to decline in every field of life.

To be continued …

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Dec 3 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry