The Ranbir Newspaper: As an advocate of the freedom struggle in Jammu and Kashmir from 1924-1950

Pages: 1533-1535
Firdous Hameed Parey (CAS, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh)

In the early decades of the twentieth century, by the consistent reverberation with the rest of India British laid its effect on the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir due its proximity. Punjab was the hub of political oscillation, these revolution tides can be revealed by its circulation of newspapers. Here in Kashmir there was no proper platform for publication of Press. During the first decades of the 20th century, most of the newspapers were secretly coming from Lahore (Punjab). At that time applying for permission to bring out a newspaper was looked upon as an act against the State. However, a man namely Mulk Raj Saraf known as father of Kashmir Journalism started a newspaper under the name ‘Ranbir’ in 1924. Later as an advocate of the freedom struggle, the paper had its share of troubles time by time under the autocracy of the Dogra rulers. The paper lent full support to the movement to make change in the government from autocracy to democracy. This paper intends to focus on the crucial role played by newspaper ‘Ranbir’ to mobilize society politically; light would be thrown how this newspaper became a speed breaker of antagonistic ethos created in pre-partition era. This paper would be a modest attempt to explore historical analysis how it tried to unite people socio-culturally, politically. The paper provided a suitable platform in order to present the grievances of the people. The present paper would try to examine the role of the newspaper ‘Ranbir’ in the awakening the political consciousness of Kashmiri people.