Early history
The paper was the successor to a daily founded by Surendranath Banerjea who had died in 1925. This evening daily was called The Bengalee. It was bought by the founders of The Star of India who started publishing on the same premises in Calcutta on 17 August 1932. Watson describes it as 'the first daily paper championing the Muslim cause and printed in English ... to appear in the city'. [2] It was similar in importance to such famous Muslim predecessor newspapers as Aligarh Institute Gazette, The Moslem Chronicle, Comrade, Zamindar and Mussalman but was always disregarded by both research and authorities as it was both too 'Calcuttan' for the Bengali Muslims and too 'Bengali' for the Northern and Western Muslims.
However, it rarely covered issues related to the Pakistan Movement. [3] It was more interested in entertainment, light news and even modern consuming, a typical emanation from the owners' interests as they all belonged to the local Muslim Chamber of Commerce, for example the Ispahani family, Ross Masood and Ghaznavi. It later included a weekly in Bengali called Muhammadi, a daily in Bengali, called Azad, and an Urdu weekly called Zamana all headed by Akram Khan. It appears also to have had strong links with the Muslim Bengali press in Dhaka in the 1930s or 1940s. [4] Jinnah's Delhi Dawn was deeply inspired by The Star of India's professionalism.
The Star of India represented nearly 10% of the readership in Calcutta at its peak. It had six extremely different editors: Horace Franks: 1932–36, Lawrence Atkinson: 1936–41, Pothan Joseph: 1941–42, Mahmud Husain: 1942–44, Usman Ahmad Ansari: 1944–48, Rezaur Rahman Khan: 1948–49. Pothan Joseph edited the paper in the 1940s. Following the Lahore Resolution, he reoriented The Star's editorial stance to favour a separate Muslim nation.
A number of significant figures in early Pakistan and the Pakistan Movement contributed to the paper, including Abul Hassan Ispahani, Mirza Ahmad Ispahani, and Adamjee Haji Dawood. [4] Nawab Khwaja Habibullah, Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin, H. S. Suhrawardy, Mahmudabad also contributed. Altaf Husain published under the pseudonym 'A Mofussil Muslim'; Raghib Assan, an associate of Muhammad Iqbal, frequently wrote for the paper. [8] [9] In 1933, the paper published an article titled 'Grievances of Bengal Muslims', which was cited by S. C. Mitra to Harry Graham Haig in a question time session of the Central Legislative Assembly. [10] AF Rahman, Abul Hashim, MF Rahman, Abul Mansur Ahmad also wrote famous articles, and Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah published an award-winning poem in the paper at age 18.
The paper was moved by the Haroon family to Karachi in 1949 and began publishing there—as the Dawn 's evening edition—in August 1949 and was renamed The Star. In 1954, Julian Huxley debated the Soviet biologist Nuzdin, a supporter of the views of Trofim Lysenko, in Karachi. Star staff assisted Huxley in his preparations for the debate. [12] The paper folded in 2005. [13]
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a Pakistani barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the Prime Minister of Bengal from 1946 to 1947 in British India. In Pakistan, Suhrawardy is revered as one of the country's founding statesmen. In Bangladesh, Suhrawardy is remembered as the mentor of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In India, he is seen as a controversial figure; some hold him responsible for the 1946 Calcutta Killings, for which he is often referred as the "Butcher of Bengal” in West Bengal. In India he is also remembered for his performance as the Minister for Civil Supply during the Bengal famine of 1943.
Altaf Hussain Hali, also known as Maulana Khawaja Hali, was an Urdu poet and writer.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched in British India in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in Pakistan, and also serves as the country's newspaper of record. Dawn is the flagship publication of the Dawn Media Group, which also owns local radio station CityFM89 as well as the marketing and media magazine Aurora.
Tajuddin Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician and statesman. He led the Provisional Government of Bangladesh as its prime minister during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and is regarded as one of the most instrumental figures in the birth of Bangladesh.
Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq, popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Pakistani Bengali lawyer and politician who presented the Lahore Resolution which had the objective of creating an independent Pakistan. He also served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal during the British Raj.
Maulana Azad College is a public institute of liberal arts, commerce and science in India, located in central Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The college is fully government-administered. It is located near the junction of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road and SN Banerjee Road, popularly called "Lotus crossing".
Altaf Husain was an educationist, journalist, and Pakistan Movement activist. He is noted as one of the pioneers of print journalism in Pakistan and was the founding editor and the first editor-in-chief of English-language newspaper, Dawn, which he edited for almost twenty years.
The Ispahani family, also known as the House of Ispahani, are a Perso-Bengali business family. In Bangladesh, they own and manage M. M. Ispahani Limited, one of the country's leading conglomerates. Originally hailing from Isfahan, Iran, the family have been settled in the Indian subcontinent for more than two centuries.
Aslam Farrukhi was an Urdu author, literary critic, linguist, scholar, and radio scriptwriter from Pakistan. He is also known for writing children's books. He remained associated as a professor and chairman with the Department of Urdu, University of Karachi, for many years.
The Nawab of Dhaka, originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of nawab, similar to the British peerage, was conferred upon the head of the family by Queen Victoria as a recognition of the first Nawab's loyalty and contribution to the social welfare activities.
Bengalis in Pakistan are ethnic Bengali people who had lived in either West Pakistan or East Pakistan prior to 1971 or live in present-day Pakistan. Most Pakistani Bengalis, are bilingual speaking both Urdu and Bengali and are mainly settled in Karachi. Bengalis that arrived in Pakistan before 1971 have now assimilated with the Urdu-speaking people in Karachi.
The East Pakistan Renaissance Society was a political organisation formed to articulate and promote culturally and intellectually the idea for a separate Muslim state for Indian Muslims and specifically for the Muslims of Bengal. The organisation's founders and leaders included Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, the society president, Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury and Mujibur Rahman Khan.
Abdul Majeed Khwaja was an Indian lawyer, educationist, social reformer and freedom fighter from Aligarh. In 1920, he along with others founded Jamia Millia Islamia and later served its vice chancellor and chancellor.
The Usmani family of Deoband are the descendants of the third Rashidun Caliph, Uthman, based primarily in the town of Deoband in India. The notable people of this family include Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Mahmud Hasan Deobandi, Azizur Rahman Usmani and Shabbir Ahmad Usmani.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
