People have found ingenious ways of
disseminating news in the face of official
censorship. Aslam Farukhi recalls two such
'newsmen'.
In my childhood I had seen just such a
'living gazette' very closely. His name was
Enayet. He was a clerk in the courts and was
popularly known as Enayet Daftary. Every
morning before going to the courts he would
come to our house and give us news of the
war in great detail. Abba Mian would wait
for him to come by and as soon as Enayet
arrived the news would flow. I remember when
the Japanese sunk two big British ships,
"Repulse" and "Prince of Wales", Enayet
narrated the news of the sinking in a
dramatic manner as though he had witnessed
it. Everyone was amazed and I felt as though
Enayet sahib had been there in person. Then
it so happened that three terrible
explosions shook Bombay in 1944. There was
widespread destruction.
Now there was this gentleman by the name of
Motiwala. In the midst of the destruction,
no one knows how, several gold rods fell
into his apartment. This is what is known as
the heavens opening up. Enayet narrated this
event as well so graphically that everyone
was taken aback. But most of the news he
narrated could not be sourced.
I used to sometimes be amazed that here I
would try to read and understand The
Pioneer every day, and read the Urdu
newspaper as well, but could never find the
news that Enayet sahib spoke of. When I
would ask him he would look at me with some
condescension and say that these were news
items from the Hindi Virtaman and
Bharat Akhbar. How would you find them!
...There was another newspaper - a mobile
one - published in Urdu and although its
life span was a few brief days only,
nevertheless it has a historical
significance. The details of this newspaper
are as follows:
There was a gentleman in Delhi by the name
of Munshi Abdul Qadeer. He belonged to a
famous family of scribes...
...when the Delhi police got fed up of
Munshiji's subversive publishing activities,
it ordered all the scribes of Delhi to
refrain from transcribing any newspaper,
pamphlet, magazine, essay or poster
belonging to Munshiji. The police were of
the opinion that this restriction would put
an end to Munshji's rebellious activities.
But Munshiji was very intelligent and
resourceful. After this ban on the scribes
he published a mobile newspaper and
continued to express his hatred for the
British.
Munshiji bought a handcart with bicycle
wheels. He then placed bamboo sticks at the
four ends and joined these pieces together
with a strong rope, to form an enclosure. No
scribes were available to him but Munshiji
himself was well versed in the art having
learnt it formally. So he himself wrote the
entire newspaper on broadsheets, including
headlines, the editorial and articles
condemning the British. He called this
newspaper Chalta Phirta Akhbar
[mobile newspaper]. Munshiji would sit up
writing all night and in the morning the
newspaper would be ready. He placed this on
the cart and on the first day pushed it to
the Jama Masjid and parked it in front of
the entrance.
In no time at all a crowd gathered in front
of the cart. People jostled each other to
read this newspaper. Whoever would pass by
would stop and become engrossed in reading.
Soon the police came to know of this. They
hurried to the spot and quickly snatched the
paper and tore it to bits and went away
feeling happy.
The next morning Munshiji parked his cart on
the other side of Jama Masjid. Like the
previous day a crowd gathered around him to
read the newspaper. The police once again
arrived on cue and destroyed the paper.
When the newspaper was published on the
third day the police not only confiscated
the paper but also dragged the cart away.
Munshiji bought a new cart, but it was
difficult to buy a new cart every day.
Besides the police placed strict guard at
all possible places where the cart could
have been parked. Therefore Munshi Abdul
Qadeer's mobile newspaper, after a brief
glimpse of spring, stopped production.
I had the honour of meeting Munshi Abdul
Qadeer in Karachi. He had come to Pakistan
to meet his sons, the late Allaudin Khalid
(of the Urdu Academy), Salahuddin sahib and
Zaheeruddin sahib. We sat and talked for a
very long time. Munshiji was a nationalist
Muslim and remained steadfast in his beliefs
to the end. He was a gracious and modest
person. One could not imagine on meeting him
that his heart was so filled with fire.
Perhaps old age had calmed him down. I had
read about the mobile newspaper in some book
but now even after much effort I do not
remember the name of the book. I had also
heard the late Allaudin Khalid mention this
newspaper and once in the presence of his
son, Aziz Khalid, I had insisted that he
document the existence of this mobile
newspaper. I had learnt of the name of the
newspaper from him. But in those days he was
very unwell and remained so until he passed
away, otherwise he would have surely written
about this historic legacy...
Translated by
Aquila Ismail
Zamir Niazi is a veteran journalist and a
chronicler of the press in Pakistan.
Aslam Farukhi is former professor of Urdu at
the University of Karachi.
This is the Urdu version of The Press in
Chains. It recounts the tribulations of the
press in Pakistan until 1987. The book
contains some new appendices and this
excerpt has been taken from them.. |
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