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

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ULRIKE STARK • 83by the British. AA also liked to pose as a spokesman of the Indian-languagepress and frequently took up its cause in its columns. The issue of25 August 1874, for example, carried a complaint about the government’sdouble standards in dealing with the English and Indian-language press,stating that it was “extremely unjust that, while Government grantsspecial indulgences to editors of English newspapers, and exalts them tohigh offices in the public service, it should confer no such favors on theeditors of vernacular newspapers.” 46 No doubt careful sifting of AA willproduce further such examples. A content analysis and assessment of itssocio-political profile and public impact remains to be undertaken.Against the backdrop of Munshi Naval Kishore’s active involvement innational politics, such an investigation will also have to address the intricatequestion as to what extent the political profile of AA was shaped byits proprietor rather than its various editors. In any case, it should be ofgreat interest to see how the leading Urdu daily of northern India waswalking the tightrope between loyalty to the colonial government and theincreasing exigencies of Indian nationalism.What can be safely said at this point is that from around 1890 the circulationof AA was in decline. By the turn of the century the paper hadlost much of its former appeal. According to B≥lmukund Gupta, theinfluential editor of the politically trenchant Hindi journal Bh≥ratmitra,this was due to the paper’s very refusal to engage in nationalist politics. Inresisting modernization and refusing to formulate its own distinct “policy,”the veteran journalist opined, AA had failed to keep up with the tideof the times. Moreover, despite the paper’s monetary resources and itsexcellent staff, the selection of English news items was “nonsensical,” andtheir translations into Urdu “barely intelligible.” Writing in 1905, Guptaconcluded: “[AA] is exactly the same as it was twenty years ago and forthis very reason it has not established a reputation for itself in the newspaperworld during these past twenty years. Most newspaper readerswon’t even know its name.” 47 To this critical observer at the beginning ofthe new century AA no longer met the needs of modern journalism, buthad become a “lakir ka faqir” (“lakµr k≥ faqµr”) and a “besund ka hathi”(“b®-s∑n≈ k≥ h≥t^µ”).46 SVN 1874, p. 355.47 My translation. B≥lmukund Gupta, Gupta-Nibandh≥valµ, eds. JhabarmalSharm≥ and Ban≥rsµd≥s ≤aturvedµ (Delhi: Gaurav G≥th≥ Sagam, 1994), pp.262–3.
84 • THE ANNUAL OF URDU STUDIESPromoting Urdu Literature: Editors and ContributorsThe self-proclaimed aim of AA was to work towards the progress and welfareof India by informing and educating the Indian public through abroad news coverage. Yet at the same time the paper also assumed thefunction of a literary journal. It promoted both poetry and prose writing,covered literary events, announced new publications and provided aforum for literary debate. While the paper attracted the contributions ofsome leading Urdu literati from outside Lucknow, its role in the promotionof Urdu literature and the development of a modern prose style goesspecifically to the credit of a number of eminent intellectuals among itseditors. According to ¿≥birµ, no other Urdu paper of the period boastedsuch an illustrious range of editors as AA. 48 While some of them werealready well-known figures in the world of literature and learning whenthey joined the paper, others used AA as a stepping stone in their futurecareers as publicists and writers.Although we have a fair picture of the various personalities associatedwith the editorship of AA, to establish a definite chronology of the paper’seditors remains problematic. Since there was no formal declaration of theeditor on the front cover of AA and since, according to common practice,editorial pieces generally remained unsigned, their names can only begleaned from references within the paper (a difficult task given the scarcityof extant issues) or from secondary sources. With many contradictingstatements standing in the way, the following account can only betentative. 49Equally, given the scarcity of extant issues for the period1859–1875, for the time being we can only look at the kind of intellectualsthat AA was able to attract. To assess the nature and quality of their contributionand the way in which their writings helped to shape the distinctprofile of AA remains subject to the future availability of source material.The first issues of AA were almost certainly edited by Munshi NavalKishore himself. However, he was soon forced to delegate this time-consumingtask to others. In 1859 Maulvµ H≥dµ ‘Alµ “Ashk” (d. 1865) wasappointed the first formal editor of AA. Born in a family of reputedscholars in the qaΩba of Bijnor, H≥dµ ‘Alµ “Ashk” had been educated at the48¿≥birµ, p. 59.49 The following paragraphs draw largely on ¿≥birµ and on Akbar ƒaidarµ,“Munshµ Navalkishår aur Avad^ Akhb≥r,” Nay≥ Daur, Vol. 35, Nos. 8–9 (1980), pp.20–47.
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