History of Muslim Press in Sub-Continent – Part Five

History of Muslim Press in Sub-Continent – Part Five

Continued from the previous part …

In the 25^th session of All-India Muslim League organized in Allahabad, Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal presented the idea of two nation theory which states that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and it is very hard for both of these nations
to live together in a same society. Muslims have a completely separate code of conduct for life which is totally opposite to the Hindus, so it is better that Muslims and Hindus should separate and India should be divided in two parts or may be more.

Muslim press played a significant role in India to spread this message in the Muslims of India. It was very important for the Muslims to be united under one platform and one agenda because there was a school of thought amongst the Muslims which was against
the separation from Hindus and the division of India. But the Muslim press did a great job in uniting the Muslims and convincing them that they are not left with any other option apart from demanding a separate country for themselves.

Some of the leading journalists of their time, Mohammad Ali Johar, Zafar Ali Khan and Hasrat Mohani were extremely influential amongst the Muslims of India and they did play a huge part in creating political awareness in the country. That era was known for
the ‘militant journalism’ because the Muslims press had to face a lot of trouble in the presence of British atrocities.

Some of the leading Muslim owned newspapers which played huge part in the making of Pakistan are as follows:

Jang started its publications from Delhi in 1938. Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman was the founder of this daily newspaper and Mir Javaid was the chairman at that time. The basic goal of Jang was to update the Indian Muslims about the latest happening in the political
scene and All Pakistan Muslim League. Jang played a crucial role in the Pakistan movement. Jang believed and practiced freedom of expression.  Good Urdu composing was the quality of this newspaper even at the time when there were not much facilities available
for the Muslim journalists. Jang also provided International News to its readers.

Nawa-i-Waqt was launched on 23^rd March 1940 which apparently is the day when the Pakistan Resolution took place in Lahore. Hameed Nizami was the founder of Naw-i-Waqt. It is also one of the pioneers in Urdu reporting with Jang.

The Pakistan Times was launched on 4^{th of} February, 1947. It was an English daily and had more significance as it was launched by Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It catered the educated class of Indian Muslim.

Dawn was launched in 1940, again by Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Mr. Pothan Joseph was its first editor and later on in 1945 Mr. Altaf Hussain became the editor of Dawn. The basic motto of Dawn was to represent the Muslims of India and their point of
view about the partition.

To be continued …

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Dec 11 2011. Filed under Pakistan, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry