Politics, Public Issues and the Promotion of Urdu Literature: Avadh ...

8) Translations from English newspapers(tarjuma angr®zµ akhb≥r≥t)ULRIKE STARK • 798) Translations from theGovernment Gazette (tarjumagavarnmanª gazaª urd∑)9) Miscellanea (akhb≥r≥t mukhtalif) 9) Special notifications(ishtih≥r≥t ghair-ma‘m∑lµ)10) Local news/Lucknow(låkal akhb≥r≥t)By 1878 telegraph news had moved to the front part of the paper,whereas the advertisement and local news sections had been relegated tothe back. This increased emphasis on rapid coverage of domestic andinternal affairs, while immediately provoked by the wars, also formed partof a wider policy shift in which AA slowly moved away from older conventionsof assembling and presenting news, towards a new kind of “efficient”and professional journalism that was clearly based on Westernmodels.The local section of the paper was comparatively small. It providedinformation on current affairs in Lucknow. Next to news items on crimesor spectacular incidents, it included steady features such as the timetablesof the Oudh Rohilkhand Railway (printed in Urdu and Devanagariscript), 33 legal notices, and the timings of court sessions. It also reportedon a wide array of cultural events, including mush≥‘iras, public lecturesand, most importantly, the activities of local civic associations such as theJalsa-e Tahÿµb or “Lucknow Reform Club” (est. 1868), of which NavalKishore was a prominent member. Among mush≥‘iras, those organized bythe NKP and taking place regularly on its premises were given specialcoverage. Reports on these gatherings, which attracted both well-knownand minor Lucknow poets, at times read like an inventory of local poetictalent. The AA of 1 January 1878, for example, carried the followingnotice:A special gathering of poets took place at the Avad^ Akhb≥r Press onMonday. The occasion was graced by eminent poets among the noblemenof Lucknow. The pattern-line was “sa± tå yeh hai hµ bur≥ håt≥ hai a±±^≥hån≥” (True it is, indeed, that being good is bad). But since, due to thelack of time, the distinguished poets had only been informed one day inadvance, there were very few ghazals that conformed to the pattern-line.33 The railway timetable had become an integral part of suburban newspapercontent in London’s local papers since the 1840s. In introducing this feature theAA obviously acted on official demand.