Al-Hilal
Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Al-Hilal ("The Crescent") was an Urdu weekly started in Calcutta in 1912 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. It called on Indian Muslims to join the national movement against British rule. Its bold anti-British tone worried the government. It shows how Urdu print helped bring Muslims into nationalist politics.
Example
The government banned Al-Hilal in 1914 under its press laws. Azad then started a new paper, Al-Balagh, to carry on the same message.
Don't confuse with
- Comrade: an English weekly of Maulana Mohammad Ali from the same period. It also carried a pan-Islamic, anti-British message, but it was a different paper with a different editor.
Related concepts
- Censorship of Press Act 1799
- Licensing Regulations 1823
- Press Act of 1835
- Licensing Act 1857
- Hindu Patriot
- Som Prakash
- Press and Registration of Books Act 1867
- Amrita Bazar Patrika
- Vernacular Press Act
- The Hindu