In the 75^th year of India’s independence, let’s remember Maulvi Bakar Ali, who is, perhaps, the only journalist Urdu in India to have sacrificed his life for the freedom of India.

On September 16, Bihar Urdu Media Forum plans to commemorate his martyrdom on his death anniversary and acquaint the younger generation with the story of the courage and patriotism of an Indian journalist whose story is yet to travel across the country.

The soldier’s at Meerut Cantonment has started the revolt of 1857 leading to the prolonged first war of India’s independence, However, its movement was carried forward by writers, poets, and journalists who used their pens to play their role in a manner that unnerved the colonial rulers.

Urdu writer and journalist Syed Ahmed Qadri says that the British were so afraid of Maulvi Bakar Ali's writings that they blew him up with a cannon.

Qadri says that Maulvi Bakar Ali had told his comrades that he was prepared to go to any level for the sake of his country. The power of his writings was more unnerving to the British than the slogans of the revolutionaries.

Born in 1790, Maulvi Bakar Ali belonged to a well-to-do family of Delhi. His father Maulana Mohammad Akbar was an Islamic scholar. Bakar Ali received religious education at home. Later, he studied religion from a well-known scholar of his time, Mian Abdul Razzaq.

In 1825, he completed his studies at Delhi College and became a teacher of Persian in the same college. He also held responsible positions in the government departments for many years, yet his mind was not in it. He was restless to see the suppression of his people by the British rulers.. Finally, following his heart and after taking permission from his father, Bakr Ali resigned from the government.

Maulvi Bakar Ali started Delhi's first and second Urdu newspaper of the Indian subcontinent Delhi Urdu weekly and Jam-e-Jahan Numa from Calcutta on 22 March 1822. The newspaper was the first Urdu newspaper of the Indian subcontinent.

Back then, Sultanul, Sirajul and Sadikul newspapers were being published in the Persian language   in India. Maulvi Bakar Ali launched the Urdu newspaper Press, which survived for almost 21 years.

The newspaper was priced was Rs 2 per month. Apart from this, Maulvi Bakar Ali also published a religious magazine Mazhar-e-Haq in 1843 that continued to be published till 1848.

The house from where Maulvi Bakar Ali published his Dehli Urdu Weekly newspaper was just adjacent to the Dargah Panja Sharif (Kashmere Gate). It still exists. This newspaper also appointed its representatives in different parts of the country.

In the newspaper, Maulvi Bakar Ali had created a platform to expose his thinking and policies of the government.

Although in the early days the Delhi Urdu Weekly did not oppose much of the British rule, but by 1857, Maulvi Bakar Ali had become a sharp critic of the British government. He wrote columns not only on burning social issues but also on the British rule in and around Delhi. He also raised his voice to prepare a public opinion of independence against the policies of and to unite all sections of the society against the British.

The Delhi Urdu newspaper was also a strong advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity at that time. He created solidarity on several occasions by alerting Hindus and Muslims by exposing the tricks of the British to spread communal tension. His rebel pen could not compete with the oppression of the British for a long time.

Maulvi Bakar Ali was arrested on 14 September 1857. He was convicted of treason and inciting the feelings against the British rule, helping the rebels. The British feared him so much that the judicial trial was completed in two days of his arrest.

On 16 September 1857, British officer Major Hudson sentenced him to death. Some historians say that Maulvi Bakar Ali was tied to the mouth of the cannon.

Urdu Media Forum has decided to remember the martyrdom of Maulvi Bakar Ali by meeting on the occasion of Jashn-e-Azadi. Bakar Ali's Urdu contribution will be highlighted in a program organized in Patna on 16th September. Celebrities from Bihar who are associated with Urdu literature and writing are being invited for the lecture.