Ismaili Journalism

"Journalism in the modern usage is one of the younger professions. The first prototype of the modern newspaper was the series of public announcements, known during the Roman empire as Acta Diurna published daily from 59 B.C., and later in Venice as the Gazette. Similar official reports were made in China, where the earliest newspaper, the Tehing-Pao appeared in Peking in the middle of 8th century. The invention of printing from movable type by Johann Gutenberg in Minz about 1450 revolutionized the spreading of news. Mercurius gallobelgicus (1594) was perhaps the earliest magazine issued from Cologne.

The journal of a community whether a daily, a weekly, a fortnightly or a monthly is its mirror. It is like a sun which not shines everywhere at the same time, but advances slowly but surely dispersing the darkness. Journalistic expression is far from being an appendix to other, generally accepted and well-organized undertaking of the community. It is a vital expression in self-expression, a basic mode of interpreting the ethos of the community on a more articulate and self-conscious level.

In a community, the journal commands a very significant place. The Ismaili journalism has played a very important and contributive role in the affairs of the community. Before the migration of Imam Hasan Ali Shah in India, some learned Ismailis known as the Akhund came from Iran and settled in Kutchh and spread gradually in Sind, Kathiawar and Gujrat. They were economically very poor; therefore, they began to copy the ginans (religious hymns) and the farmans of the Imams and sold them in different jamats. Sometimes, they organized local gathering to communicate latest news of the different jamats. These courier Akhunds had created the spirit of reading and were the early bricks of the modern Ismaili Journalism. In sum, the awakening in the field of journalism arose in India, and gradually, the Ismaili writers began to creep into the field.

The contribution of Alauddin Ghulam Hussain in the field of journalism was highly outstanding. He was working in the Oriental Press in Bombay in 1864. He also started his profession to transcribe the Ismaili literature in Khojki character since 1867. He also established his own printing press in 1880 and received orders from Ibrahim Ismail (d. 1897) of Junagadh every year to print the book of dua and the ginans for making free distribution among the Ismailis.

It is to be noted that between 1900 and 1940, there were numerous unsavoury and harsh allegations from other communities on Ismailism in India, and numerous journals sprouted out to counter and present the facts. Though these journals short-lived, they served to reveal the potency of the Ismaili writing, journalists and poets.

The first monthly Ismaili journal, "Ismaili Sitaro" came out on Sunday, August 21, 1908, published by the Ismaili Religious Library, Khadak, Bombay.