Opinion Makers of British Colonial India

On the site of the Center of the South Asian Studies of University of Cambridge, which also forms the part of the British Library, a log of the microfilms of Newspapers of Colonial India is given.

I have made an extract of the data given there on the Newspaper of the Colonial India. It is reproduced below with some modification.

If one tries to just survey the data, numerous fascinating things emerge. It also raises many questions for further research.

I make some observation on the basis of the following data.

1. The Tribune, which is presently published from Chandigarh, was earlier published from Lahore. In the list of the Cambridge University, it is shown as Tribune, but the one which is published from Chandigarh is called The Tribune. I hope that it is the same paper.

2. Milap, another important newspaper of colonial India, in Urdu, was earlier published from Delhi. It was later published from Jalandhar.

3. Lahore and Delhi were the major publishing centres before partition. But later, Jalandhar emerged as the Publishing centre.

4. Three papers, Kesari, Khalsa Advocate and Khalsa Samachar were published from Amritsar. These were the papers which were in the forefront of the rise of Akali Movement and also the formation of Akali Dal, a regional party of Punjab.

5. In case of Kesari Newspaper, the place of publication has been shown as Kesari, which it seems, is the wrong entry. I do not think that there is any place called Kesari in Maharshatra. If it is so, then I have to check it.

6. There are more numbers of English newspapers. It raises the question that whether all of them were viable publication or not. Some of them like Hindu, Times of India and Hindustan Times have continued up to present day.

7. The library has a copy of the one of the oldest paper namely Calcutta Gazette dated back to 1792.

8. There are nearly 24 titles from nineteenth century. It is other thing, that the library does not have any copy of nineteenth century Amrit Bazar Patrika. Why is so?

9. There are copies of Poona Sarvajanik Sabha also which was in forefront of social reform movement in Bombay Presidency. I do not know whether the organization published any newspaper. It may be probably the souvenirs of Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.

10. Yogaksheman in Hindi was published from Trichur, a non-Hindi area.

11. Nizam Vijay, a Marathi publication was issued from Hyderabad.

12. Indian Nation, in English was published from Patna. Whereas, most of the publication of Bengal Presidency were published from Kolkatta.

13. Indian Hindustan was published from San Francisco, the only paper in the list which was published from outside British India.

14. The publications in Urdu being published from Delhi and Kolkatta were more in number than what was published from Lahore.

15. As mentioned in point 6, another issue rises. It will be of interest to investigate that what was the actual number of readership of English paper. In most of the cases, the time period of publication belongs to same time band. There are nearly 129 publications. It suggests that there was a huge readership. Some of the papers like Hindu and Amrit Bazar Patrika were quite radical in their editorials. It suggests that these paper can be studied for ascertaining the public opinion of that time band.

Any how, the list has attracted me. I have kept it in record for a long time. I have not been able to make any further breakthrough about the outline editions or articles on such papers. I have reproduced the list below. I hope that those engaged in South Asian Studies and Colonial Period studies, will definitely find it interesting data.

Titles of South Asian Newspapers

Serial No.	Title	Place of publication	Language	Details of holdings
1	Advance	Calcutta	English	1930-31
2	Advocate	Lucknow	English	1917
3	Aj	Banares	Hindi	1920-51
4	Akashvani	Lahore	Hindi	1922-23
5	Al Balagh	Calcutta	Urdu	1915-16
6	Al Hilal	Calcutta	Urdu	1912-17
7	Aligarh Institute Gazette	Aligarh	Urdu and English	1886-97, 1901-36
8	Aljamiat	Delhi	Urdu	1926-39, 1948-53
9	Amrita Bazar Patrika	Calcutta	English	1905-42
10	Andhra Patrika	Madras	Telugu	1914-30, 1932-40
11	Arya	Lahore	Hindi	1926, 1933-37, 1945, 1948-49, 1952-54, 1957-59
12	Arya Musafir	Lahore	Urdu	1898-1915, 1934
13	Bangladesh Observer	Dhaka	English	1987, 1992-93
14	Benares Recorder	Benares	English	1846-47
15	Bharat Dharma	Kashi	Hindi	1924
16	Bharat Jiwan	Banaras	Hindi	1884-1911
17	Bharat Weekly	Allahabad	Hindi	1928-30
18	Bombay Chronicle	Bombay	English	1913-59
19	Bombay Sentinel	Bombay	English	1934-59
20	Bulwuntnamah			1875
21	Calcutta Gazette	Calcutta	English	1792-93
22	Calcutta Samachar	Calcutta	Hindi	1914-25
23	Commonweal	Adyar	English	1914-20
24	Comrade	Delhi	English	1911-14, 1925
25	Congress Socialist	Bombay	English	1934-38
26	Dawn	Delhi/Karachi	English	1941-47, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1966-86
27	Deccan Times	Madras	English	1945-49
28	Democrat	Allahabad	English	1922
29	Devnagar	Calcutta	Hindi	1907-09
30	Din Bandhu			1893-1912
31	Din Mitra			1910-18, 1925-32
32	Dnyan Prakash	Pune	Marathi	1914-50
33	Dnyanodaya	Pune	Marathi	1845-60, 1862-69, 1871-74, 1876-1906
34	Eastern Times	Lahore	English	1942-48
35	Economic Weekly	Bombay	English	1949-50
36	Enquiry		English	Nos1-2
37	Forward (New Forward/Liberty)	Calcutta	English	1923-29, 1933-35
38	Frontier	Calcutta	English	1968-78
39	Gujarat Mitra & Gujarat Darpan	Surat	Gujarati	1894-1949
40	Hamdard	Delhi	Urdu	1913-15, 1924-28
41	Hans	Kashi		1933-43
42	Harijan	Ahmedabad	English	1933-56
43	Hindi Pradipa	Allahabad	English	1877-1908
44	Hindu	Madras	English	1883-1937, 1968-72
45	Hindu Outlook	New Delhi	English	1938-61
46	Hindu Sansar	Delhi	Hindi	1925-30
47	Hindustan Times	New Delhi	English	1924-51, 1978, 1991
48	Hitavada	Nagpur	English	1913-31
49	Hunkar	Patna	Hindi	1944-49
50	Independent	Allahabad	English	Feb. 1919 - Dec. 1921
51	Independent Hindustan	San Francisco	English	1920-21
52	Independent India	Bombay	English	1937-49
53	Indian Election - Manifesto Collection		English	1967
54	Indian Mirror	Calcutta	English	Jan. 1880, May 1880, Oct. 1880, July 1881, Jan 1882, Sept, 1882, Jan. 1883, March 1883, May 1883, Jan. 1884
55	Indian Nation	Patna	English	1931-35
56	Indian National Herald and Sunday Edition	Bombay	English	1926-29
57	Indian Opinion		English	1903-1914
58	Indian People	Allahabad	English	1903-09
59	Indian Social Reformer	Bombay	English	1908-49
60	Indian Spectator	Bombay	English	1883-1901
61	Indu Prakash	Bombay	Marathi-English	1883-95
62	Jagriti			1917-24
63	Janata			1932-38
64	Janata Weekly		New Delhi	1946-80
65	Janmnabhumi	Masulipatam		1919-26
66	Justice	Madras	English	1928-29, 1944-47
67	Jyoti	Delhi		1923-30
68	Kaivari			1929-30
69	Karmayogin	Calcutta	English	1909-10
70	Kesari	Marathi	1881-1920
71	Khalsa Advocate	Amritsar	English	1903-30
72	Khalsa Samachar	Amritsar	Punjabi	1899-1930
73	Kirti	Amritsar		1926-30, 1933-36
74	Krishna Patrika	Machilipatnam	Telugu	1902-44
75	Lahore Chronicle	Lahore	English	1858-59
76	Leader	Allahabad	English	1909-29, 1939, 1950-51
77	Madras Mail, The Mail and Weekly Mail	Madras	English	1889, 1931-49, 1972-75
78	Maharashtra	Nagpur	Marathi	1914-35
79	Maharatta	Pune	English	1881-1950
80	Marwari Agarwal	Calcutta	Hindi	1921-25
81	Marx Panthi	Calcutta	Bengali	1934
82	Marxist Miscellany	Bombay	English	1945-46
83	Mathrubhumi	Calicut	Malayalam	1923-40
84	Milap	Delhi	Urdu	1923-48
85	Mithavadi	Calicut	Malayalam	1913-20
86	Morning News, Dacca	Dacca	English	1968-71
87	Muslim			1937-44
88	National Front	Bombay	English	1938-40
89	National Herald	Lucknow	English	1938-50
90	Native Opinion	Bombay	Marathi-English	1867-89
91	Navakal	Bombay		1928-33
92	New Age	Delhi	English	1936-39, 1953-60
93	New India	Madras	English	1914-28
94	Nizam Vijay	Hyderabad	Marathi	1921-39
95	Pakistan Times	Lahore	English	1950-51
96	Pakistani Newspapers Selected Issues		English	1970-71
97	Panjabee	Lahore	English	3 Oct. 1904 - 28 Dec 1907; 1 July 1909 - 30 Dec. 1909
98	The People	Lahore	English	1925-29, 1931-34
99	People's Age	Bombay	English	1945-48
100	People's War	Bombay	English	1944-45
101	Poona Sarvajnik Sabha	Poona	English	1878-95
102	Rangoon Gazette	Rangoon	English	1901, 1911, 1939, 1941
103	Rashtravir			1921-35
104	Sainik	Agra	Hindi	1936-37
105	Sangharsh	Lucknow	Hindi	1937-52
106	Sapru Correspondence
107	Searchlight	Patna	English	1918-48
108	Seminar		English
109	Servant of India	Pune	English	1918-23
110	Servant of India Society (Reports)	Pune	English	1905-79
111	Servants of the People Society		English
112	Sholapur Samachar	Sholapur		1929-39
113	Statesman	Calcutta	English	1936-51
114	Statesman Weekly	Calcutta	English	1979
115	Subodh Patrika	Bombay	Marathi-English	1899-1940
116	Swadeshamitran	Madras	Tamil	1905-22
117	Tej			1931
118	Times of India	Bombay	English	1878-79, 1889-1914
119	Tribune	Lahore	English	1881-1977
120	Varad Samachar	Akola	Marathi	1868-1898, 1901-18
121	Vartman	Kanpur	Hindi	1925-48
122	Vijay Maratha	Poona		1921-31
123	Workers Weekly	Bombay	English	1930
124	Working People's Daily	Rangoon	English	1969
125	Yogaksheman	Trichur	Hindi	1920-30
126	Yogaksheman (Weekly)	Trichur	Hindi	1935-37
127	Young India	Ahmedabad	English	1919-31
128	Zamana	Kanpur	Urdu	1906-08, 1910-44
129	Zulqarnain	Badaun	Urdu	1903-56

The original list can be accessed here.


Later Edited Inclusion dated August 18, 2006:
There are nearly nine publications from Madras or Madras Presidency Area. There are only two publications in Telugu in the list. I have another post on the publication in Telugu which may be of interest to research scholars. It is about V. Ramaswamy Sastrulu which had been taken from a site of Telugu enthusiast. However it has changed its format since my last visit. Fortunately, the blogger administrator has retained the original article under the title "He Left His Imprint on Telugu Printing".