KARACHI: Speakers at a seminar stressed the need to challenge the mainstream state-sponsored narrative of Subcontinent history, arguing that it distorts the story of anti-colonial resistance through communal interpretations while ignoring the role of workers, peasants and women.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and the Department of Mass Communication at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) to mark the launch of a new edition of Lail-o-Nahar, a progressive weekly magazine compiled by Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed.

The event was presided over by senior journalist Mahmood Shaam and attended by academics, writers and commentators.

Speaking at the seminar, academic Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan criticised contemporary textbooks for sanitising history and presenting anti-colonial struggles through capitalist and religious narratives.

New edition of Lail-o-Nahar launched

He said progressive and socialist movements had laid the foundations of principled journalism in the Subcontinent by publishing in local languages including Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and English to politically mobilise marginalised communities.

To explain the tradition of journalistic integrity, Dr Khan referred to Maulana Hasrat Mohani’s journal Urdu-i-Moalla. In 1920, the British colonial administration accused the publication of sedition over an anonymous article related to Egypt.

Despite pressure from the authorities, Mohani refused to disclose the identity of the writer. Dr Khan said Mohani became the first journalist in modern Indian history to be sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment and fined for protecting the confidentiality of a source.

Speakers noted that this progressive journalistic tradition continued in Pakistan through Mian Iftikharuddin, who launched The Pakistan Times in February 1947 with Faiz Ahmed Faiz as its first editor. It was followed by the Urdu daily Imroz under Chiragh Hasan Hasrat.

The participants argued that the spirit of colonial censorship laws, including the 1822 Permit System and the “Gagging Act”, still survives through the Press and Publications Ordinance and modern forms of digital censorship.

The seminar also challenged the conventional textbook narrative that presents the freedom movement mainly as a Hindu-Muslim conflict.

Historian Dr Tahira S Khan highlighted what she described as the neglected role of women and ordinary people in anti-colonial resistance. She referred to the “Chapati Movement”, which she described as a silent grassroots communication network used by village watchmen to mobilise rural populations against East India Company rule.

Dr Tahira Khan also discussed the role of Begum Hazrat Mahal, who rejected British offers of pension and estates and instead chose exile and poverty in Nepal after leading resistance forces in Awadh.

She said Rani Lakshmi Bai displayed exceptional administrative abilities, while an unnamed elderly woman in Delhi reportedly dressed in male armour and led a cavalry charge against British troops in September 1857.

In his presidential address, Mahmood Shaam criticised attempts to portray all historical anti-colonial figures as purely religious warriors.

Concluding the seminar, FUUAST Mass Communication Department chairman Dr Irfan Aziz expressed concern over shrinking academic freedom in Pakistan. He said restrictions on critical research had intensified.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2026