Mirat-ul-Akhbar
Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Mirat-ul-Akhbar was a weekly newspaper in Persian, started by Rammohun Roy in Calcutta in 1822. The name means "mirror of news". Persian was then the language of the educated and of the courts, so the paper reached learned readers in India. It mattered because it showed early Indian reformers using print to discuss public questions, and it also shows the first open stand by an Indian editor for press freedom.
Example
In 1823 the Company brought in new licensing rules. Under them, a newspaper could not be printed without a government licence. Rammohun Roy refused to accept this control, and he stopped Mirat-ul-Akhbar in 1823 as a protest.
Don't confuse with
- Sambad Kaumudi: Rammohun Roy's Bengali weekly from 1821, known for the debate on social reform. Mirat-ul-Akhbar was his Persian paper.
- Jam-i-Jahan Nama: another Persian paper of 1822, but Rammohun Roy did not run it.
Related concepts
- Rammohun Roy
- Sambad Kaumudi
- Samachar Chandrika
- Bombay Samachar
- Rast Goftar
- Deoband Seminary
- Ramcharitmanas