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Taking Stock
The Watershed
By Rizwan Ullah
 If
the time around 1947-48 was a watershed for the Urdu press and the Muslim
role in the West Bengal politics, another watershed came around early
1970s. But the intervening period of about a quarter of a century was full
of significant developments on the national and international planes as
well as in West Bengal, and those that shook the Indian Muslims in
general. Presently we may have a general appraisal of the early stage.
I have already stated in my previous article titled ‘And Quiet flows the
Hooghly’ (MG April 1-15) that the Congress Party had an even and open
playground in West Bengal. The Urdu press having no other choice was
submissively toeing the Congress line. It was like groping in darkness.
However, daily Abshaar, an eveninger, came out in 1953. It represented the
CPI views. Salik Lucknawi and Ibrahim Hosh were co-editors and perhaps
partners. It was an interesting fellowship as the two came from
diametrically opposite classes in the so-called classless society. Salik
Saheb had inherited a well-established company. But both of them were
free-stylers and go-as-you-like sort of persons. Hosh Saheb, having
traversed the uneven course of Urdu journalism for more than a decade had
joined Azad Hind as co-editor with Ahmad Saeed Malihabadi, fell apart in
1953 to join hands with Salik Saheb. Another eveninger Imroze, predated
Abshaar by about there years. It was almost an extension of Asre Jadid,
for it was owned and managed by the same establishment though editors
inter changed from time to time. That’s another interesting story. Al
Haq was another old time eveninger, which was selling better as long as
Israel Ahmad was giving life blood. He had been an Urdu journalist in
Rangoon. He was lucky enough to have reached Calcutta escaping the war
which was engulfing Burma. After about a decade long sojourn in Calcutta
he proceeded to Karachi and Al Haq passed away quietly before the eyes of
its proprietor Maulana Moizuddin.
Incidentally, another gentleman Hasan Saheb also come to Calcutta from
Rangoon. He traversed Burmese forests on foot in the company of the groups
of fleeing Indians. He passed through the scattered skeletons of those who
had fallen on the way. He was a calligrapher in Asre Jadid. But alas! Such
an endurer died in harness, overworked, pitiably under paid, spitting
blood. He was lost in the wilderness of a pitiless society whose business
community being God-fearing prefers to invest more for the prospective
paradise than for those who die working for them.
The concluding years of the decade of 1950’s saw the end of a liberal
and enlightened leadership of the Congress party in West Bengal. It was
the end of the polity in which Syed Badrudduja, a Bengali by birth,
brought up in Aligarian tradition and a staunch Muslim Leaguer, preferred
to stay in Calcutta after the division of the country. He was elected to
the state assembly and the parliament, had the courage to speak
unhesitatingly, was offered speakership of the West Bengal assembly by Dr
BC Roy which he refused to accept. As for Muslims in general, an era of
unsettled transition was drawing to a close. Muslim press in Calcutta was
served by a single news agency PTI, and some features in Urdu were
supplied by small time feature agencies. Reports and stories related to
the widespread communal disturbances in various parts of the country and
problems of the Muslim migrants from India to the Eastern and Western
wings of Pakistan were elaborately covered. International developments
resulting from the newly found friendship with the Soviet Union and Bhai
Bhaism with China and this camaraderie leading to the discovery of an
aligned brand of non-alignment found due place, especially so, for Pundit
Nehru had trapped two big Muslim Bhais in the non-alignment net –
President Suikarno of Indonesia and President Nasser of Egypt. Other
developments in the Muslim world such as revolution in Egypt and end of
monarchy there, failure of similar attempts in Iran, Arab-Israel wars and
other related developments were widely covered and prominently displayed.
The Muslim press was free to comment favourably on such developments. And
of course a lot of cold war propaganda material freely and abundantly
supplied from both sides could be generously used.
The Kashmir issue was a running sore but it boiled up in 1953 when Sheikh
Mohammad Abdullah was dismissed from the premiership and was arrested. It
was shocking for the nationalist Muslims. In Calcutta KB Sheikh Mohammad
Jan was ideologically close to him. He was furious with Basant Kumar
Chaterji, the news editor of Asre Jadid who had quoted Pundit Nehru in a
banner headline to say that Sheikh Abdullah was a traitor. Chaterji was
summarily dismissed like many others preceding and following him in the
Urdu press. It is a sad commentary indeed. He found his way to daily
Pratap, Delhi.
Another development which stirred the Urdu press was the First Press
Commission’s report in 1954 and the recommendations of the Wage Board
for working journalists constituted as suggested by the Press Commission.
It was the seeding of a confrontation between the profession of journalism
and the business of journalism. It was for the first time that Urdu
journalists realized that they too were human and as such must have some
rights. But that realization could not lead them anywhere. However, the
Indian Journalists Association of West Bengal, a trade union body, jumped
into the fray as it was an opportunity to have a finger in the pie of the
Urdu press. It also provided an opportunity for petty officials from
various bureaus and government departments for occasional visits to the
newspaper managements, of course for a fee. It is a long story full of
internal and external strifes to be told later.
Tailpiece
* Ibrahim Hosh received one rupee for a poem regarding Mohammadan
Sporting Club in 1934 onwards.
* Salik Lucknawi received ten rupees for a column in Amrita Bazar Patrika
for reports on Muslim politics in 1938 onwards.
* I received one rupee for translating the Statesman editorial for Asre
Jadid in 1951 onwards for over a decade. q |
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