The Hindu Urdu Press Before Partition
SOME TIME ago, I wrote about Som Anand 's book, Baten Lahore Ki . The book, written in 1976, has a chapter on the Press in Lahore during the years leading up to independence. Many of the papers, which used to come out from Lahore "migrated" to India in 1947. Among them was a film magazine , Chitra .
Dharam Vir was its editor, according to Anand, for over fifty years. From Lahore , the magazine was taken to Delhi 's Chandni Chowk . Anand met Dharam Vir in his decrepit office and this is his account of the encounter:
I glanced at his desk. Strewn across there were manuscripts of short stories, photographs due for publication, and a whole lot of old copies of the Nawa- i-Waqt .
"How do you get the Nawa-i-Waqt ?" I asked him.
"By mail, of course," he smiled.
"I surmised as much but how do you pay for it?"
"Why should I pay for it? Hamid Nizami was like a member of my family, and Majid respects this relationship and keeps sending me his paper," Dharam Vir replied.
I knew he was not exaggerating. He must have been a close friend of Hamid Nizami 's. Otherwise who would exchange the Nawa-i-Waqt for a magazine like Chitra ? I was not a little amused by the thought that while the editor of Nawa-i-Waqt was opposed to an exchange of books between India and Pakistan , he was mailing his paper to a Hindu free of cost on the basis of his personal friendship with him.
There is this strange thing about Indo-Pakistan ties. Individually, we love our friends across the border but collectively we have intense hatred for each other. This is what is called the love-hate syndrome in the English language.
Dharam Vir began his journalistic career with Vir Bharat . Lahore had many Urdu language newspapers owned and edited by Hindus . Apart from Vir Bharat , there used to be Milap , Partap and Bandey Matram . On the Muslim side, there was Maulana Zafar Ali Khan 's Zamindar , Inqilab , Ehsan , Shahbaz , and the Nawa-i-Waqt . Milap and Partap come out from Delhi even now.
Maulana Zafar Ali Khan was the founding father of modern journalism in Urdu . He transformed the task of translating (from other languages) into Urdu into an art, and even today no one has come up to the high standards set by him. He enriched Urdu by coining new terms and phrases. He was peerless in taking his opponents to task in impromptu verse.
Once newspapers in Lahore were put under censorship. One day, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan 's editorial in the Zamindar was censored in its entirety. The next morning, the paper carried just the following couplet in the columns reserved for editorials:
Iss meray leader pe heh Fazl-i-Ilahi kis qadar
Shosha shosha nuqta nuqta nazr-i-censor ho gaya
The interesting things is that the censor officer's name was Fazal-e-Ilahi who ordered the same day that calligraphed newspaper matter need no longer be submitted for scrutiny.
Among the Hindu journalists in the forties, the most prominent was Mahashe Krishan of the daily Partap . As far as Hindu-Muslim relations are concerned, the Mahashe's views were the same as those held by other Arya Samajis, but many people think that he had deep understanding of political issues. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan played on popular sentiments; while Mahashe Krishan's editorials were well argued.
It used to be said in those days that if one wanted to enjoy good Urdu , one should read Zamindar , but if one wanted to understand politics, one should read the Partab editorials.
Mahashe Krishan had a close relationship with Kalinath Ray, editor of the Tribune and the two would often meet in the evening. It was seen on several occasions that editorials in the Partap and the Tribune were on the same subject using more or less the same arguments.
Apart from rivalry between Hindu and Muslim newspapers, there was intra-Hindu Press bitterness based largely on personal friction. The owner-editor of Milap was Mahashe Khushal Chand who was an amiable man fond of mixing with people. On the contrary the Partap editor, Mahashe Krishan , thought the world of himself and was wholly humourless.
The Hindu and Muslim papers were a world apart. The Muslim papers used crisper language and pride. And since they used many Arabic words, it was difficult for a semi-literate reader to understand them. But the Hindu journalists were Punjabish in expression and they did not think much of the ahle zaban (a term coined for describing the Urdu speaking people of urban UP) and their usage.
The Hindu Press had no one like Zafar Ali Khan who sold his newspaper on the strength of his incisive wit. However, there was one gentleman who wrote simultaneously for Hindu and Muslim newspapers. What he wrote in one paper, he rebutted in another. His name was Waqar Ambalvi. Dharm Vir used to say that he had never seen a poet who could wrote impromptu poetry at Ambalvi's speed.
As Ambalvi used to come to office, he would give a two-paisa bit to the peon in the stairs to fetch him some cigarettes. But before the peon could return, he would hand in his ten-liner, and on his way back the peon would give him the cigarettes, halfway down the staircase.
This was when he was working for Vir Bharat . Dharam Vir says that one day when Lahore was under curfew, because of the Masjid Shahid Ganj disturbances, Waqar Ambalvi rang him (Dharam Vir) to ask him how to come to the office.
Dharam Virji told him to take a day off. Ambalvi thought for a second and then said: "All right, take down these two lines:
Aaj daftar se ho gaiee chuttee
Hindu -Muslim fasad zindabad.
Poetry was used for advertising purposes in those days. The Bhalla Shoe Company in Anarkali used the following three-liner in Punjabi to good effect:
Basanti hatti Bhallay di
Hindu ho kay boot jay waichay
Mut mari gaiee aye jhalley di
This is what you might call salesmanship through self-mockery.
Sunday , April 12, 1998
