The history of journalism in India goes back to 1790, when an Englishman James Augustus first time started a newspaper Bengal Gazette from Sedampur, a nearby village of Kolkata. The first Urdu newspaper was also started from West Bengal. In 1822 the Persian weekly Jam-e-Jahan first time published in Urdu. Some time it publishes in Urdu, some time in Persian and some time in both the languages. During the earlier days of journalism every newspaper were weeklies or biweeklies none of them was dailies. on January 14, 1850 Munshi Harsukh Rai started weekly Kohinoor. With a circulation of only 350 it was the largest circulated newspaper of that time. The circulation of other newspaper on that time was only 100 to 200.
Urdu Guide was the first daily newspaper, which was started by Maulvi Kabeeruddin from Kolkata in 1858. In the very same year as a second daily Roznamcha-e-Punjab started from Lahore. As a first Urdu daily of Bihar, Dini Bihar started in 1876 from Arah district. Zameendar, which was the best newspaper of that time, was started in 1903 from Lahore. It was the first newspaper, which used the news from erstwhile news agencies. This newspaper highly supported the freedom struggle. That time the circulation of Zameendar was 30,000. Remember this time very few newspapers have this circulation. Before Zameendar, in 1884 Munshi Mehar Baksh started a morning (Naseem-e-Subah) and an evening newspaper (Sham-e-Wisal). Maulvi Saiful Haq started the daily Rahbar-e-Hind from Lahore in 1885. In 1902 Maulvi Sanaullah Khan started the weekly Watan which regularly published for 33 years. Maulana Muhammed Ali Jauhar started Naqueeb-e-Hamdard in 1912. Later it called only Hamdard.In the very same year Maulana Abul Kalam azad started Al-Hilal. After Zameendar it was the largest circulated newspaper .On March 20, 1919 Mahashai Krishn started Partap. Partap was the first newspaper, which started supplements.
Before the freedom following newspapers and magazines were started to support the freedom struggle. Khilafat, Siasat, Ujala, Taj, Roznama-e-Hind, Ajmal, Hilal, Milap, Partap, Tej, Qaumi Awaz, Jung, Anjam, Inqualab, Nawa-e-Waqt, Hindustan, Aftab, Jumhuriat, Nadeem, Iqbal, Asr-e-Jadeed, Azad-e-Hind, Sandesh, Vakeel, Khidmat, Musalman, Azad, Paswan Weer Bharat and Al-Jamiath. Jawaharlal Nehru started Qaumi Awaz from Lucknow in 1945. Later it also started from Patna and Delhi. This time it is publishing only from Delhi and is in very poor condition. After Indias freedom Hafiz Ali Khan Bahadur started weekly Daur-e-Jadeed. Jamat-e-Islami Hind started weekly Dawat. This time it is publishing regularly as BI-weekly. Dawat has a particular readership and it is very popular among its readers due to its views on current issues. Maulana Abdul Waheed Siddiqui started Nai Duniya, which is still publishing under the editorship of his son Shahid Siddiqui. This time it is the famous Urdu weekly in India. Sahara Group Had started monthly Rashtriya Sahara but later it became daily. This time it is the most popular Urdu daily of North India publishing simultaneously from Delhi, Lucknow and Gorakhpur. Recently this group has launched a weekly Aalmi Sahara.
According to the official data of Registrar for Newspapers of India (RNI) in the year 2000 altogether 46655 newspapers and periodicals are registered with them. Among them 5157 are dailies, 337 are bi-weeklies, 16872 are weeklies, 6240 are fortnightlies, 12796 are monthlies, 3273 are quarterlies, 416 are annuals while 1564 are of different categories. In total, Urdu (2803) occupies the third position after Hindi (18903) and English (6830). Out of these 2803 Urdu newspapers and periodicals the dailies are 519, biweeklies are 20, weeklies are 1317, fortnightlies are 361, monthlies are 506, quarterlies are 60, annuals are 3 while 17 are of different categories.
Although this statistics shows that the Urdu press are in very good position. But the truth is something different. They are more in numbers but very less in circulation. Very few Urdu dailies have a circulation of more than 15000. Mostly dailies, weeklies and monthlies are with circulation ranging from 1000 to 5,000. In most cases the number of circulation is exaggerated. The basic motivation behind most of the Urdu newspapers and magazines is to get political benefits. Many newspapers publish only for to get advertisements from DAVP and other agencies of the concerned states. In this age of Internet most of the newspapers and magazines depend on Katib (calligrapher). Many editor of the Urdu Press dont know the basics of Computer. Most of the newspapers and periodicals don't have E-mail address. In most cases 2 to 3 persons manage whole office. Very few Urdu dailies have reporter, mostly depends on UNI or the translation from newspaper of other languages.
The major problem with the Urdu media is that the paid very low amount to their staff. Many staff does something else to fulfill their need. In most cases Urdu newspapers don't pay to the contributors. They don't even send the complimentary copy of the issue, which carries the matter of the contributor. Mostly Urdu periodicals depend on religious, cultural and literary subjects. They hardly include the articles on Science, Engineering, technology, Agriculture, Finance, Economics. This time there are only two magazines devoted to science and technology one is Science ki Duniya publish by CSIR the other is Science by Dr. Aslam Perwez. In most cases Urdu Journalists are not invited in a press conference.
It will be wrong to say that the new generations don't want to read Urdu. They think that Urdu newspaper is not a complete newspaper. The standard of Urdu journalism and the journalist is very low. Why they will spend money on a newspaper which is full of Nazam and Ghazal. English newspaper is cheaper than Urdu. on a very low price English newspaper gives more pages, more news more views, and more important and informative articles.
Current Urdu newspapers or periodicals have no weight and have no impact on society. They never publish any investigative story. Urdu Journalism needs a change of style, contents and standards. Though the number of registered newspapers and magazines are large but only few have remarkable circulation and readership. This time the leading Urdu newspapers and periodicals are Rashtriya sahara (Delhi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur), Qaumi Awaz (Delhi), Urdu Times (Mumbai), Inqualab (Mumbai), Siasat (Hyderabad), Rahnuma-e-deccan(Hyderabad),Munsif (Hyderabad), Qaumi Tanzeem (patna), Nadeem (Bhopal), Salar (Bangalore), Azad Hind (kolkata), Akhbar e-Mashriq (Kolkata), Hind Samachar ( Punjab), Aalmi Sahara (Delhi), Afkar-e-Milli (Delhi),
A.N. Shibli
New Delhi, INDIA
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