This newspaper was published in India and belonged to an Indian.
Author: Obid Shakurzoda, researcher (Tajikistan)
“Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” was first published 203 years ago — on April 20, 1822, in Calcutta. Initially, this weekly was printed in English, but due to the widespread use of Persian in India and the low readership of the English edition, the publishers were forced after two months to invite Persian-speaking authors to continue its publication.
At that time, Persian was the official language and the language of the intelligentsia and educated classes in India. According to research, March 4, 1784, can be considered the birthdate of the Persian-language press. On that day, the “Calcutta Gazette” was launched at the initiative of an officer of the East India Company named Francis Gladwin, and one of its columns was dedicated to Persian-language publications.
However, the weekly “Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” was entirely in Persian, and by reflecting the most important current events and providing useful and engaging content, it spread beyond India — to the Persian-speaking cities of Kabul, Herat, Tehran, Samarkand, and Bukhara — where it gained numerous readers.
“Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” was published on Fridays, in four pages with two columns. Its publisher and editor-in-chief was Ram Mohan Roy, a scholar, religious reformer, founder of modern education in India, and author of the book Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin on Sufism and religious philosophy in India.
Ram Mohan was fluent in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, and is considered one of the founders of Indian journalism. He collaborated with many newspapers of the time, and his journalistic activity went hand in hand with his religious reform movement, which caused dissatisfaction among conservative circles. Initially, he founded the weekly Sambad Kaumudi (in English and Bengali), but this publication quickly provoked protests from English newspapers, conservative Hindus, and some Christian missionaries. He then decided to launch “Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” in the language of educated Indians — Persian.
In “Mir’at-ul-Akhbar,” the leading section was the editorial, where the ideas and goals of Ram Mohan Roy were presented to readers. In the first issue, he emphasized the importance and high status of the Persian language in India, writing that he turned to this language of wisdom and literature to promote his ideas and launched the newspaper. In his publication, he also addressed issues of religion and social reform, and some issues reached merchants, travelers, and pilgrims and spread beyond India to Khorasan, Transoxiana, and Iran.
Furthermore, “Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” published sharp articles against the English invaders. For instance, a satirical article titled Salisat (“The Trinity”), written on the occasion of the death of the Archbishop of Calcutta in the summer of 1822, provoked the anger of English authorities and religious missionaries against Ram Mohan Roy and his newspaper.
In 1823, the British administration in India implemented a strict law limiting press freedom, known as the “John Adams Act on the Internal Press.” After publishing an article opposing this law, Ram Mohan Roy came under pressure, and the publication of “Mir’at-ul-Akhbar” was discontinued.
