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The Office of Akhbār Nawīs: The Transition from Mughal to British Forms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
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The persistence and yet transformation of the office of akhbār nawīs (‘newswriter’) reflected fundamental aspects of the transition from the Mughal to the British Empires. The Mughals appointed akhbār nawīs to collect and transmit specific kinds of information. This office continued, albeit with new functions, through the decentralizing of political power that characterized eighteenth-century South Asia. The expansion fo hte English East India Company meant constant change in the essential nature of political relations, changes mirrored in this office. Indeed, the Company, and its political Residents, subordinated and redefined this office. Under the British Raj, the concept ‘akhbār nawīs’ stood transformed, like the nature of the information it conveyed.
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References
1 Steingass, F., A Comprehensive Persian–English Dictionary (New Delhi, 1973), p. 446a.Google Scholar
2 Ibid., p. 28a.
3 In this article, I will follow Cohn's point that ‘knowledge’ had to be processed and coded into ‘information.’ Cohn, Bernard S., ‘The Command of Language and the Language of Command’, in Ranajit, Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV (New Delhi, 1985), pp. 276–329.Google Scholar
4 I will use the more common form, nawīs, as both a singular and plural noun throughout this article.
5 This process largely reflected how the Mughals worked in general: building a distinctive patrimonial-bureaucratic empire by synthesizing elements from pan-Islamic institutions, imperial Persian models (especially from the Safawid court, established 1501), their own dynastic traditions from Central Asia, and the administrative forms they found in India. See Blake, Stephen P., ‘The Patrimonial- Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals,’ Journal of Asian Studies 39, 1 (11. 1979): 77–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 It is indicative of the continued respect shown by the many regional rulers in India to the Mughal Emperor, virtually to the end of that dynasty, that only the Mughal Emperor's official court diary held the title siyāha-i huzūr and his imperial diarists the title wāqi 'a nawīs. Many regional rulers used the terms akhbār and akhbār nawīs for the diary and diarists in their courts. I thank Professor Irfan Habib for highlighting this point. Personal communication, 11 (July. 1991.
7 Ā'in 10 of Book Two. We cannot know if Akbar's court diary functioned in exactly this way (since the Mughal archives have apparently not survived before the seventeenth century). Here I follow Blockmann's, H. translation of Abū'l-Fazll'Allāmī, The A'in-i Akbari, 3 vols (New Delhi, 1988), vol. 1, pp. 268–9.Google Scholar
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11 Among the best collections of early Mughal akhbārāt are: the Rajasthan State Archives, Bikaner; National Archives of India, New Delhi (especially the Inayat Jang Collection); National Library, Calcutta (especially the Sarkar Collection); Raghubir Library, Sitamau; and Salar Jang Museum and Andhra Pradesh State Archives, Hyderabad. See Rajasthan State Archives, Descriptive List of the Vakil Reports addressed to the Rulers of Jaipur (Persian), 2 vols (Bikaner, 1967, 1972);Google ScholarSinh, Raghubir, A Hand-list of Important Historical Manuscripts in the Raghubir Library, Sitamau (Sitamau, 1949);Google ScholarSinh, Raghubir, ‘The Persian Akhbarat of 1779–1818 A.D.,’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 16 (12. 1939): 140–9;Google ScholarSingh, Sardar Ganda, ‘The Punjab News in the Akhbar-i-Darbar-i-Mualla (Preserved in the Jaipur Archives),’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission (02. 1948): 61–6;Google ScholarSingh, Sardar Ganda, ‘Persian akhbars in the Alienation Office,’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 16 (12. 1939): 123–8;Google ScholarNayeem, M. A. (ed.), Mughal Documents: Catalogue of Aurangzeb's Reign, vol. 1 (Hyderabad, 1980);Google ScholarTirmizi, S. A. I. (ed.), Calendar of Acquired Documents (1402–1719) (New Delhi, 1982);Google ScholarTirmizi, S. A. I., Indian Historical Vistas (Delhi, 1980); and Muhammad Ziauddin Ahmed, Mughal Archives.Google Scholar For the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, I have examined the following important collections of akhbārāt: IO 2371, IO 2945–9, IO 2991, IO 2993, IO 4087, IO 4340–5, IO 4368, IO 4530, IO 4643, IO 4776, India Office Library [hereinafter cited as IOL]; OR 4608–9, Eur Add 16721, Eur Add 22624, Eur Add 23148–9, Eur Add 24036–8, Eur Add 25020–1, British Museum [hereinafter cited as BM]; ‘Akhbār-i Darbār-i Mu'alla,’ Ellis 38, Royal Asiatic Society; Persia D.15, D.22, MS Hertford College 38, Ousley Add 162, Bodleian Library, Oxford; OR MS 198, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University; Persian MS 129, Persian Miscellaneous, no. 40, OR 45, OR 369, National Archives of India [hereinafter cited as NAI]; Farsiya Akhbar 93, Aligarh Muslim University; Persian MSS Add 197, U.P. Record Office, Allahabad; Farsī Tarikh MS 702, Andhra Pradesh State Archives, Hyderabad; various Akhbārāt, Lucknow University Library, Lucknow.
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15 Manucci, refers to Emperor, Aurangzeb (1659–1707), Mogul India, vol. 2, p. 309. This role of the imperial wives—assuming the pattern to have been accurately recorded by Manucci and an established practice—indicates the significance given to these newsletters: part of the ‘private’ world of the imperial harem yet recording the ‘public’ events of the Emperor, the Empire, and the world at large.Google Scholar
16 Bernier, Francois, Travels in the Mogul Empire AD 1656–1668, tr. Constable, Archibald, rev. Smith, Vincent A. (New Delhi, 1990), p. 231.Google Scholar
17 Siddiqi, Muhammad Zameeruddin, ‘The Intelligence Services under the Mughals,’ Medieval India: A Miscellany, vol. 2 (London, 1972), p. 54.Google Scholar
18 See Khan, Ali Muhammad, Mirat-i-Ahmedi, Supplement tr. Syed, Nawab Ali and Charles, Norman Siddon (Baroda, 1924), p. 171.Google Scholar
19 The harkārahs worked under the Dārogha-i Harkārah-i Kul or the Dārogha-i Dāk Chaukī, i.e. Superintendent of Posts and Intelligence, who handed their reports unopened to the imperial chief Minister for submission to the Emperor. Other messengers were entitled barīd or qāsid. Further, occasionally military spies and scouts also reported to the Imperial center.
20 Among those who have used this material recently are Ali, M. Athar, Apparatus of Empire (Delhi, 1985)Google Scholar, and Alam, Muzaffar, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab 1707–1748 (Delhi, 1986).Google Scholar
21 Richards, J. F., Mughal Administration in Golconda (Oxford, 1975), p. 233;Google ScholarAlam, , Crisis, pp. 33ff; C. A. Bayly, article this journal.Google Scholar
22 Habib, Irfan, Agrarian System of Mughal India (New York, 1963); personal communication, 12 Aug. 1991.Google Scholar
23 Thus, in 1763 Sher Shākir Khān received an imperial appointment as Waqā'ie Nigār and Bakhshī (paymaster, personnel officer) of Bengal and Bihar, with a salary of Rupees 2,000 per month and a jāgīr of 8,000,000 dams. Since both provinces were nominally governed by the Nawāb of Bengal, but militarily controlled by the East India Company, Sher Shākir Khān was really dependent on the Governor and the Company, rather than the Emperor for his position and salary. He carefully reported himself to the Nawāb and to various officials of the Company, explaining his personal history and seeking their cooperation and support. Persian Correspondence, Translation of Persian Letters Received 1763–1764, no. 9, pp. 14–15, NAI [hereinafter Persian Corr., Trans. Ltrs Recd].
24 Bayly, C. A. among others have made this argument. See his Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, vol. 2. 1 of The New Cambridge Histoiy of India (Cambridge, 1988).Google Scholar
25 The Peshwā's official wakīl (or ‘trusted agent’), an office hereditary to the Maratha family of Hingané, sent back dispatches in Marathi. This wakīl officially represented the Maratha cause before the Mughal Emperor and, more practically, before the many would-be kingmakers who sought to manipulate the still potent symbol of the Emperor for their own purposes. The wakīl reports often referred the Peshwā's administration to the relevant akhbārāt for details of events. A collection of akhbārāt for the 1756–1788 period has remained for us, due to its preservation by the family of hereditary Persian language secretaries to Peshwā. Although this family supervised the Persian language and Islamic conventions of diplomacy, they were themselves Deshastha (Rigvedi) Brahmins (of Vishvamitra Gotra).Google Scholar Much of the information presented below about the Peshwā's news letters comes from Sarkar, Jadunath (ed. and tr.), Persian Records of Maratha History, vol. I Delhi Affairs (1761–1788) (Newsletters from Parasnis Collection) (Bombay, 1953).Google Scholar
26 Since the distance from Delhi to Poona was some 1,300 kilometers, this works out to a modest 60 kilometers per day, an indication that the Marathas did not have a dāk or pre-placed string of messengers but rather relied on an individual messenger or party of messengers to carry the message the whole way. The unsafe traveling conditions of the day would also have delayed the transit of such messengers. To Peshwa, 5 October. 1773, Sarkar, Jadunath, Persian Records, p. 72. The postal system is discussed in Irfan Habib, ‘Postal Communications in Mughal India,’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 46th Session, pp. 236–52.Google Scholar
27 Circa 30 March 1771, Sarkar, Persian Records, p. 32. He appealed repeatedly for funds, including 3 November. 1769 and 19 August. 1788, ibid., pp. 19, 202.
28 Circa 13 December. 1773, ibid., pp. 80–1.
29 19 Aug. 1788, Ibid., p. 202. Later, however, another shift in imperial politics (temporarily) restored Maratha power (under Sindhia) in Delhi.
30 Circa September. 1775, Ibid., p. 88.
31 For a similar process in terms of military recruitment during this period see Kolff, Dirk H. A., Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450–1850 (Cambridge, 1990).Google Scholar
32 Ram's, Sewak letter from Calcutta 26 March 1779, Sarkar, Persian Records, pp. 96–8.Google Scholar
33 5 Feb. 1787, ibid., p. 154.
34 The Persian akhbārāt may have been more formulaic, the Marathi akhbārāt tend toward the more interpretative type. A collection of the Hindwi akhbārāt by a family of Maratha jātī akhbār nawīs for the Jan. 1776–July. 1794 period (with gaps) is publishedGoogle Scholar: Joshi, R.M. (ed.), Poona Akhbars, 3 vols Hyderabad, 1953–1956).Google Scholar See also Joshi, R. M., ‘Two Unpublished akhbars from Poona,’ The indian Archives 10, 1–2 (Jan.– Dec. 1956): 17–19 which presents akhbārāt from 1794–96.Google Scholar
35 Khare, G. H., ‘News-letters of the Medieval Period,’ in Sen, The Indian Press, pp. 146–50.Google Scholar
36 From the Nawab of Arcot, 15 June 1778, Persian Corr., Original Ltrs Recd, vol. 44. The next year, the Marathas again sought to block the flow of newsletters about their movements. Raoji to Nawab of Arcot, 25 February. 1779, Persian Corr., Originals Recd, vol. 31.Google Scholar
37 To Sahab, Nana, circa 20 (June 1783, Sarkar, Persian Records, p. 127.Google Scholar
38 From the Nawab of Arcot, 26 July 1780, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, vol. 16. no. 60, pp. 480–511.Google Scholar
39 News of Poona, 13 Jan. 1780, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
40 For instance, eleven out of twelve messengers from Chimnājī Bhonsle to his father Mahārājā Madhojī Bhonsle were killed and the messages lost into unknown hands. Intelligence of Nagpur, Recd 21 June 1780, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd., vol. 16, no. 53, pp. 417–33.Google Scholar
41 From the Vizier, 10 March 1768, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, 1767–1768, no. 84, pp. 321–2.Google Scholar
42 This instance concerned Nānā Farnavis and his correspondence with Sindhia. News of Poona, 13 Jan. 1780, Persian Corr., Trans of Ltrs Recd, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
43 Browne to Warren Hastings, Governor General 19 August. 1783, no. Browne to James Anderson (Resident Sindia) 26 10. 1784, enclosure in no. 1070Google Scholar, in Bhargava, Dayal (ed.), Indian Records Series: Browne Correspondence (Delhi, 1960), pp. 89, 212.Google Scholar
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45 ‘These are dated ii 76 of the Bengali calendar. ‘Persian Department, Newswriter's Report, 1769–1772 [sic],’ NAI.Google Scholar
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47 For example, one of the more extensive reports of an akhbārāt from the Mughal imperial court, dated 30 Jamadi 1 1180, 7 Julus (the 7th regnal year of Shah Alam, 3 November. 1766) is available in the Persian original in Persian Letters Receipt 1764–69, Serial no. 1, Supplement no. 3, NAI.Google Scholar
48 For example, a letter to Mir Qasim Nawab dated 21 March 1761. Trans. of Persian Ltrs Issued 1761, no. 186, pp. 61–2.
49 To Murli Dhar Raja, Persian Corr., Trans. Recd, and Issued 1770, no. 21, p. 173.
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51 Corr, Persian., Trans. of Recd and Issued 1770, no. 48, pp. 15–16.Google Scholar
52 Corr, Persian., Trans. of Recd, and Issued 1770, no. 52, pp. 184–5.Google Scholar
53 From Mubarakuddaula, , 28 08. 1773, in Calendar of Persian Correspondence, vol. 4, no. 447, pp. 82–3.Google Scholar
54 The next year, the Nawāb and guardian repeated their complaints. From Nawab Mubarakuddaula, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, vol. 11, no. 186, p. 356; From Munni Begum, ibid., vol. 11, no. 185, p. 356.
55 E.g. To Vizier, , November. 1767, Persian Corr., Copy of Ltrs Issued 1766–1767, no. 70, p. 30.Google Scholar
56 Among those whom the Company first requested to send news were Rāy, Shitāb (Nā'ib Nāim of Bihar, who was asked ‘as a friend’), Rājā Balwānt Singh of Banaras, and the imperial courtier Najaf Khān. 9 December. 1767, Persian Corr., Trans. of Issues 1766–67, no. 222, pp. 109–10; 21 April 1770, Persian Corr., Copy of Issues 1770, no. 66, p. 48; to Najaf Khan, 13 February. 1772, Persian Corr., Copies of Issues 1770–72, no. 213, p. 84.Google Scholar
57 Persian Corr., Ltrs Recd, passim.
58 E.g. From the Nawab of Arcot 28 December. 1775, Persian Corr., Copies of Ltrs Recd, vol. 4, no. 16, pp. 21–3. In sending such news reports to Calcutta, the Nawāb may have been trying to ingratiate himself with the Governor General so as to overrule the Governor of Madras, an explicit opponent of the Nawāb.Google Scholar
59 From the Nawab of Arcot, 3 September. 1777, Persian Corr., Copies of Ltrs Recd, vol. 9, no. 21, pp. 30–2.Google Scholar
60 From the Nawab, of Arcot, 28 March 1779 in Calendar of Persian Correspondence, vol. 5, no. 1414.Google Scholar
61 To the Vizier, , 12 November. 1784, Persian Corr., Trans. of Issues, vol. 30, no. 72, pp. 151–5.Google Scholar
62 Harper to Smith, 20 September. 1767, in Foreign Department Select Committee Proceedings, 3 August. 1768, IOL.Google Scholar
63 Minute of Richard Smith and Minute of H. Verelst 3 August. 1768, Foreign Department Select Committee Proceedings, 3 August. 1768, IOL.Google Scholar
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67 For example, Lāl, Lāla Jawāhar reported to the Company from Rohilkhand from before the Rohilla war (1774) and then for the next dozen years from the Rohilla capital, Rampur. Resident [Rsdt] Lucknow to Governor General [Gov. Gen.] 21 February. 1795, Foreign Political Consultations, 6 March 1795, IOL [hereinafter, FPC]; Rsdt Lucknow to Chief Secretary to Government [Secy to Govt] 28 May 1809, FPC 13 June 1809, no. 46.Google Scholar
68 This was his second ‘petition’ to the Governor General, the first having elicited no response. From Khan, Ghulam Muhammad, 24 May 1782, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, vol. 19, no. 25, pp. 55–7.Google Scholar
69 From Abdullah, Qazi Muhammad, 27 May 1773, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, vol. 11, no. 116, p. 87.Google Scholar
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71 Coote, Eyre to Governor General in Council 16 January. 1781, Foreign Secret Consultations, 23 February. 1782, no. 7, IOL [hereinafter FSC].Google Scholar
72 Sulivan, Richard Joseph, An Analysis of the Political History of India: In Which is Considered the Present Situation of the East and the Connection of Its Several Powers with the Empire of Great Britain, 2nd enlarged edn (London, 1784), pp. 307–8.Google Scholar
73 Rsdt Delhi to Secy to Govt, 13 Oct. 1813, FPC, 1 June 1816, no. 13. These views are repeated in Minuf Sir C. T. Metcalfe, 14 December. 1829, FPC 19 December. 1829, no. 22.Google Scholar
74 For an extensive history of the Residency system see Fisher, Michael H., Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System, 1764–1857 (New Delhi, 1991).Google Scholar
75 Gov. Gen. in Council to Court of Directors 22 Feb. 1785, Fort William-India House Correspondence, vol. 15, ed. Philips, C. H. and Misra, B. B. (Delhi, 1963), p. 375.Google Scholar
76 These instructions were to the political Resident in Awadh. Bengal Secret Consultation 4 Oct. 1773, in Personnel Records, 12: 401, IOL.Google Scholar
77 Gov. Gen. to Commercial Resident Poona 13 Oct. 1773, Bengal Secret Consultation 13 Oct. 1773, no. 9, IOL.Google Scholar
78 Soon after Richard Sulivan wrote this, he himself began a brief and controversial career as a Resident at Arcot and then Hyderabad. Sulivan, An Analysis, p. 31.Google Scholar
79 Gov. Gen. to Rsdt Lucknow, 23 Oct. 1782, FSC 21 April 1783, no. 14; Gov. Gen. to Rsdt Lucknow 1 Sep. 1795, Eur MS Addl 13522, BM.Google Scholar
80 For an example of the Gov. Gen.'s instructions for the Resident to gather such information, see Gov. Gen. to Rsdt Lucknow, 23 (October 1782, FSC 21 April 1783, no. 14. Residents continued to fulfill this function. One of the last such tours during the period covered in this article came in 1849–1850 as the Resident in Awadh surveyed that state extensively, preliminary to the Company's decision to annex it.Google Scholar See Sleeman, William Henry, A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, 2 vols (London, 1858).Google Scholar See also Rsdt (Lucknow) to Secy to Govt, 21 June 1849, India Political and Foreign Consultations 1 Sept. 1849, no. 78, IOL.
81 These dāks covered nearly 200 kilometers per day. E.g. Gov. Gen. to Porcher, Messrs, Redhead and Gardiner, 4 September. 1789, Malet Collection, F.149, IOL; Gov. Gen. to Rsdt (Hyderabad) 26 January. 1797, Political Consultations 27 January. 1797, no. 77, Eur MS Addl 13583, Correspondence with Kennaway and Kirkpatrick, 1793–1798, BM.Google Scholar
82 E.g. From Vizier, 21 October. 1767, Persian Corr., Trans. of Ltrs Recd, 1767–1768, no. 390, pp. 209–11.Google Scholar
83 Browne, James, Rsdt Delhi to Gov. Gen. 5 February. 1784, no. 58 in Bhargava, Browne Correspondence, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar
84 From Delhi to the Peshwa 17 March 1784 in Sarkar, Persian Records, p. 140.Google Scholar
85 LtDavidson, James to Department Persian Translation, 16 August. 1791, Foreign Miscellaneous Series, vol. 52, Nagpore Residency, 19 April 1792, IOL.Google Scholar
86 Rsd Poona to Gov. Gen. 21 Feb. 1795, FPC 23 March 1795, no. 11.Google Scholar
87 Rsdt Nagpore to Chief Secy to Govt, 8 May 1812, FPC 29 May 1812, no. 3; Envoy Goa to Rsdt Poona, 11 April 1816, FPC 11 May 1816, no. 41.Google Scholar
88 Humble Petition of Loll, Motee, 4 January. 1833, FPC 12 April 1833, no. 12.Google Scholar
89 E.g. Rsdt Mysore to Secy to Gov. Gen., 5 June 1834, FPC 19 July 1834, no. 83; Mooftee Kulleem to Gov. Bombay, 7 Jan. 1843, FPC 25 April 1845, no. 5.Google Scholar
90 Rsdt Delhi to Secy to Govt, 9 July 1815, FPC 26 July 1815, no. 62.Google Scholar
91 Rsdt Delhi to Secy to Govt, 13 Aug. 1813, FPC 3 Sep. 1813, no. 28.Google Scholar
92 Office of Persian Translator to Newswriter Hyderabad, 19 May 1790, FPC 21 May 1790, no. 5; Petition of Fyz Ali, Newswriter, n.d., FPC 30 December. 1800, no. 64.Google Scholar
93 Rsdt Lucknow to Gov. Gen., 21 Feb. 1795, FPC 6 March 1795.Google Scholar
94 Rsdt Nagpore to Chief Secy to Govt, 8 May1812, FPC 29 May 1812, no. 3.Google Scholar
95 For a discussion of this bureaucratizing process see Fisher, Indirect Rule, ch. 8.Google Scholar
96 These were in Alwar, Amritsar, Bhurtpur, Bokhara, Candahar, Herat, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kabul, Khoollum, Kishngarh, Kurauli, Lucknow, Machere, Multan, Nadown, Patiaia, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and at the encampments of six rulers. FPC, passim.Google Scholar
97 Rsdt Lucknow to Chief Secy to Govt, 28 May 1809, FPC 13 June 1809, no. 46; Rsdt Delhi to Chief Secy to Govt, 5 Aug. 1809, FPC 22 Aug. 1809, no. 22; Envoy Cabul to Chief Secy to Govt, 18 May 1810, FPC 9 June 1810, no. 13.Google Scholar
98 Lee-Warner, William, The Native States of India (London, 1910), p. 220.Google Scholar
99 Aitchison, C. U., A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sanads, 14 vols (Calcutta, 1909), passim.Google Scholar
100 Eur MS Addl 13585, Secy to Govt to Resident Hyderabad (Kirkpatrick) 25 Aug. 1803, BM.Google Scholar
101 Secy to Govt to Acting Rsdt Nagpur, 15 Oct. 1813, FPC 15 Oct. 1813, nos 3, 4; Aitchison, , A Collection, 2: 519–27.Google Scholar
102 See Singh, Sardar Ganda, ‘akhbarat-i-Lahaur-o-Multan,’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 21 (12. 1944): 43–6.Google Scholar Singh surmises from internal evidence that these akhbārāt from Aug. 1848 to Jan. 1849 for Ahmadpur, Bahawalpur, Lahore, Multan, and elsewhere were written for the Mahārājā of Patiala. They were found among other discarded papers from a collection of a Munshī in Multan. Their language is sympathetic to the English and hostile to the Sikhs opposing the English.
103 Envoy to King of Oude to Secy to Govt of India, Foreign Department, 31 Aug. 1844, FPC 5 Oct. 1844, no. 155.Google Scholar
104 Sleeman, , Journey, vol. 1, pp. 67–70.Google Scholar
105 Indeed, many of the collections of akhbārāt which survive today were sponsored and preserved by Residents (see note 11 above). For example, in 1828, Captain James Tod (Political Agent for the Western Rajput States) presented the Royal Asiatic Society with a magnificent collection of copies of Mughal imperial akhbār for the courts of Aurangzeb and Bahadur Shah. Although it is clear that Tod did not fully understand exactly what he was presenting, it illustrated the British interest in the Mughal heritage.Google ScholarAsiatic Journal and Monthly Register 26 (1828): 335 reports the gift and Tod's appraisal of it.Google ScholarSome collections reflect British efforts to process these akhbārāt into information useable to them. For example Eur Add 22624, BM are selections from akhbārāt for 1830 written for the Resident Delhi by Jāwlānāth, Munshī. There are occasional English notes in the margins which may reflect British efforts to understand them.Google Scholar
106 Singh describes a large collection of Persian akhbārs of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries from many dozen courts sent to the Resident at Poona which apparently remained unread until Singh first unsealed them in 1939. Singh, ‘The Persian akhbars.’Google Scholar
107 Fayrer, Joseph, Recollections of My Life (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 87. He gives an akhbār in translation, pp. 94–6.Google Scholar
108 I have analyzed 943 akhbārāt from the 1787–1836 period for the Awadh court;Google Scholar see my A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British, and the Mughals (Delhi, 1987), Appendix 3 for a partial translation of the akhbār of 20 June 1839. For sources, see note 11 above.Google Scholar
109 Minute of Macaulay, T. B., 2 September. 1836 quoted in Sanial, ‘The Newspapers,’ p. 454.Google Scholar
110 The Gov. Gen.'s Minute (8 Aug. 1836) stated: ‘The circulation of news continues to take place amongst the Natives as it always did. Princes and others who can afford it have their news-writers, or employ people established in that line where they think it sufficient importance to seek intelligence.’ Quoted in Sanial, ‘The Newspapers,’ pp. 453–4.Google Scholar
111 Karkaria, R. P., ‘Beginnings of the Newspaper Press in India,’ East and West 1, 1 (11. 1901–05 1902): 546–62.Google Scholar
112 The first was Hickey's Bengal Gazette, available at the National Library, Calcutta, British Museum Newspaper Library, Colindale, or on microfilm, Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi. By 1857Google Scholar, over 200 English language newspapers and journals had come into existence (most only briefly). The Company's Government discussed issues of control over these newspapers (including censorship, the regulation of presses, the distribution of newspapers, and private versus Government ownership of newspapers) in Home Public Consultations, passim, NAI. Excellent studies of the early printed newspapers in India include: Barns, Margarita, The Indian Press (London, 1940);Google ScholarBarns, Chanda Mrinal, History of the English Press in Bengal, 1780 to 1857 (Calcutta, 1987);Google ScholarKesavan, B. S., History of Printing and Publishing in India, 2 vols (New Delhi, 1985, 1988);Google ScholarNair, P. Thankappan, A History of the Calcutta Press: The Beginnings (Calcutta, 1987);Google ScholarNatarajan, Swaminath, A History of the Press in India (Bombay, 1962);Google ScholarPriolkar, Anant Kakba, The Printing Press in India (Bombay, 1958);Google ScholarSankhdher, B. M., Press, Politics and Public Opinion (New Delhi, 1984); S. P. Sen, The Indian Press.Google Scholar
113 In an 1843 survey, for example, the Reverend James Long found only 125 Indian subscribers for the 5 leading English language newspapers of the day. Friend of India, 19 April 1851, cited in Chanda, History, p. xxi. Mookerjee Hurish, Hurish Chunder, a leading Bengali journalist of this period wrote in the Hindoo Patriot (3 May 1855) confirming this lack of Indian interest: ‘The English newspapers represent neither the opinions nor the interests of the vast mass of the Indian population.… Hence they are totally devoid of any influence over any section of the [Indian] community.’ Cited in Chanda, History, p. xxii. Nevertheless, some English language papers republished extracts from the Persian or Indian language printed newspapers, in order to provide their readers with a selected sample of ‘native opinion,’ not to disseminate information or opinion among ‘natives.’Google Scholar
114 The Bengal Herald, begun in 1829, was one of the first of these. Chanda, English Press, pp. 490–1 lists all 30 from Calcutta, between 1829 and 1855.Google Scholar
115 The Company's Government had far less authority over newspapers published by Indians, by people of mixed ancestry, or even by Europeans born in India, than over newspapers published by the European-born, since only the latter could be deported for violating Government regulations. Minute of Gov. Gen., 7 Oct. 1822 and Minute of Bayley, 10 October. 1822, Home Public Consultations, 17 Oct. 1822, no. 6.Google Scholar See also Boyce, Merill Tilghman, British Policy and the Evolution of the Vernacular Press in India, 1835–1878 (Delhi, 1988).Google Scholar
116 Baptist missionaries in Serampore (a Danish enclave outside the English East India Company's jurisdiction) published a Bengali language newspaper, first entitled Dig-Durshan, then Samachar Durpan. See Chanda, English Press, pp. 292–4 for a list of 19 such newspapers.Google Scholar
117 Barns asserts that in 1816 Gangadhar Bhattacharya began the brief-lived Bengal Gazette but this newspaper is not mentioned in Nair or Chanda. Barns, Indian Press, p. 87. The 1820s saw the birth of a number of Indian language newspapers including Sambad Kaumudi, in Calcutta, and Bombay Samachar, in Bombay. See Natarajan, A History, p. 27.Google Scholar
118 An English merchant house in Calcutta published this Persian newspaper. Minute of Bayley 10 October. 1822, Home Public Consultation 7 October. 1822, NAI. See a partial collection in NAI.Google Scholar See also Sanial, S. C., ‘The First Persian Newspapers in India,’ Islamic Culture 8 (01. 1934): 105–14. Barns asserts that printed Persian newspapers existed at the end of the eighteenth century but that no specimens survive. Barns, Indian Press, p. 111.Google Scholar
119 For a survey of Urdu printed newspapers see Sabri, Imdad, Urdu ke Akhbār nawīs, 2 vols (Delhi, 1973).Google Scholar
120 This paper (and others), however, were very critical of other Indian courts, especially Awadh. I, along with other scholars, have analyzed the printed Delhi Urdu akhbar. See Lal, K. Sajan, ‘The Delhi Urdu akhbar and Its Importance,’ Islamic Culture 24, 1 (01. 1950): 16–44;Google ScholarFaruqi, Khwaja Ahmad, Delhi Urdu Akhbār (Delhi, 1972);Google ScholarQureshi, Ishtiaq Husain, ‘A Year in Pre-Mutiny Delhi (1837 A.C.),’ Islamic Culture 17 (1943): 282–97. See Delhi Urdu akhbar, partial collection in NAI.Google Scholar
121 E.g. Jam-i Jehan Nama, no. 133, 29 December. 1824, NAI. The Delhi Urdu akhbar refers to ‘akhbar’ as sources from dozens of cities and courts in India and elsewhere. Delhi Urdu akhbar, 1840, passim, NAI.Google Scholar
122 For further studies of Persian, Urdu, and Hindi printed newspapers see Barrier, N. Gerald and Wallace, Paul, The Punjab Press, 1880–1905 (South Asia Series Occasional Paper No. 14) (East Lansing, 1970);Google ScholarLal, K. Sajan, ‘A few news-papers of the pre-Mutiny period,’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 19 (12. 1942): 128–32;Google ScholarLal, Kasim Ali Sajan, ‘Two Urdu Newspapers of Madras in Pre-Mutiny Days,’ Islamic Culture 18 (07 1944): 313–22;Google ScholarQureshi, I. H., ‘Two newspapers of pre-Mutiny Delhi,’ Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 18 (1942): 258–60;Google ScholarSankhdher, B. M., ‘Oodunt Martund: The First Hindi Newspaper of India,’ Modern Review 118, 3 (09. 1965): 231–4;Google ScholarAslam, Siddiqi, ‘The First Urdu Newspaper,’ Islamic Culture 21, 2 (04 1947): 160–6.Google Scholar
123 See ‘Persian Newspaper and Translation,’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 5 (1839): 355–71 for a Persian newspaper lithographed in Tehran for Muharram 1253 (April–6 May 1837). This had much the same format as a court akhbār and was even headed ‘Akhbār wa Waqā'i”.Google Scholar
124 See Raja Ram Mohun Roy: His Life, Writings and Speeches (Madras, 1925);Google ScholarBanerji, Brajendra Nath, ‘Rammohun Roy as Journalist,’ Modern Review 96, 4 (04 1931): 408–15, 507–15 (August. 1931): 138–9.Google Scholar
125 ‘Appeal to the King in Council against Press Regulations’ cited in Barns, Indian Press, pp. 124–5.Google Scholar
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