Sabin Iqbal

First published in the Telegraph, 31 October 2021

Last week, the postal department issued a special cover on the unsung heroes of the Indian freedom struggle. Vakkom Abdul Khader Moulavi, widely known as Vakkom Moulavi, was one of the four names from Kerala.

While he rightly deserved the recognition, it would have been more apt if he had been honoured for his pioneering contributions to journalism in the early 20th century.

Today (Sunday) is his 89th death anniversary.

Vakkom Moulavi was a man of many facets. But nearly nine decades after his death, he is remembered more as a religious reformer who led the Islamic renaissance in Kerala than as a fearless journalist who had strong convictions of nationalism and a visionary understanding of the power of journalism.

Who was Vakkom Moulavi?

If you google, you will find him as a socio-religious reformer and Muslim scholar in Kerala. But not much emphasis has been given or written about him being one of the early proponents of journalism as a powerful tool for social reformation.

Born into a wealthy family in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in south Kerala, he was trained in languages and subjects by hand-picked scholars. His wide reading and quest for knowledge helped him shape a national outlook and realise the importance of education for social development. Through foreign publications and books, he was in touch with what was happening around the world, be it matters to do with Islam, science or geopolitics.

Before the age of 30, he had a patriotic heart beating fervently within him. He believed in the critical role of the media in social reformation and in achieving and protecting civil rights and liberty. He questioned the “divinity” of the royal and stood up for the rights of the people as citizens and not as mere “subjects” of a king.

In 1905, at the young age of 32, he launched Swadeshabhimani (The Patriot) as a weekly newspaper. It was not to uplift the Muslim community in and around him but to empower the citizens of Travancore, to make them aware of their rights to freedom and liberty, and to remind the royal rulers and the dewans appointed by the British that of the people of the land were not “subjects” of exploitation and nepotism.

He was championing the democratic rights of his country at a time when the civil rights movement had not gained any momentum across India.

His decision to start the newspaper was not at all a result of an adrenaline rush. Nor was it an emotional decision out of any epiphanic experience. It was taken after careful deliberation and thought.

He imported an automatic flatbed printing press through Pierce Leslie from England more than a century ago at a cost of Rs 12,000, when an acre in Thiruvananthapuram could be bought for Rs 100! If he had to start printing a newspaper from an imported press from England at the age of 32 in 1905, he must have started planning it at least close to five years, which means when he was 27!

That Swadeshabhimani was the first newspaper in Kerala to subscribe to the Reuters news agency shows that young Vakkom Moulavi was abreast of the latest trends in the industry. He named both the printing press and the newspaper Swadeshabhimani as the leitmotif of his activities was patriotism, not business interests.

He knew it well that publishing a newspaper was not a lucrative business. When some of his relatives tried to dissuade him from launching Swadeshabhimani, Vakkom Moulavi said:

“I am not a businessman. What I want to achieve with the newspaper is social service and patriotism. Money is not the ultimate profit I need. I firmly believe that my country will get what I am looking for. That is enough for me.”

In the editorial of the first edition of Swadeshabhimani on January 19, 1905, its editor C.P. Govinda Pillai wrote: “We don’t declare that Swadeshabhimani will perform great things for the Muslim community and other communities, who desire their well-being. Our primary objective is that Swadeshabhimani’s work should promote public welfare and prosperity. To achieve this objective, we will do our utmost. We will not conceal any public grievances fearing dangers that may happen to us.”

Vakkom Moulavi knew it well that it would not be a bed of roses for him or for his paper when he had decided to use journalism for public welfare and prosperity. One of the mission statements of Swadeshabhimani was that the paper would not “conceal any public grievances fearing danger that may happen to us”.

Jose Abraham, author of Islamic Reform and Colonial Discourse on Modernity in India: Socio-political and Religious Thought of Vakkom Moulavi, writes: “When people’s rights and privileges were not respected by state bureaucrats, no one dared to raise voice against it and bring it to the attention of the Maharaja. Moreover, no journals in Travancore were ready to carry out this challenging responsibility. This was the gap that Swadesabhimani promised to fill. Through editorials and columns, people’s rights — where these were challenged or denied — were highlighted even by risking everything and always living up to its ideals. Therefore, taking into consideration the political and social structures of Travancore at the beginning of the twentieth century, Swadeshabhimani was the medium to express public grievances to the government, and indeed to challenge its responsibility.”

“Fear, crookedness and greed will not build a country” — Vakkom Moulavi printed the line under the masthead of Swadeshabhimani, and practised such a brand of journalism that no one had till then dared to do in India, let alone Travancore. Influential nationalist newspapers like the Leader (1909) from Allahabad and the Bombay Chronicle (1910) from Bombay were published only after Swadeshabhimani was suppressed, the press confiscated and its editor Ramakrishna Pillai was sent into exile through royal decree.

When Vakkom Moulavi teamed up with Ramakrishna Pillai, who was the second editor of Swadeshabhimani, both brave, passionate, honest and committed to their causes and profession, it was the beginning of an unparalleled professional association. The way and to the extent Vakkom Moulavi gave professional freedom to his editor, Ramakrishna Pillai, was unheard of in the history of journalism even today.

To make Swadeshabhimani a spearhead in political journalism, Vakkom Moulavi did not have to depend on anyone else. He himself was good enough to edit and lead publications with strong socio-religious messages as it was evident in the cases of his other publications – Muslim, Deepika and Al Islam.

M.A. Shakoor, senior assistant editor of the Dawn and later London correspondent of the Pakistan Times and one of Vakkom Moulavi’s nephews, wrote: “The dual task of running The Patriot (Swadeshabhimani) and leading the Muslim reformist movement at the same time soon proved unmanageable, and Maulavi Abdul Qadir (Vakkom Moulavi) looked for an editor for The Patriot who would measure up to the high standard of integrity, courage and political principles he had set for his journal.

“He was lucky to have found such a man in a young graduate called Ramakrishna Pillai who had just then been sacked by his own uncle from the editorship of his weekly journal because of his views and uncompromising adherence to principles. A personal interview and discussion of matters of principle convinced Maulavi Abdul Qadir that he had found just the man he wanted. Ramakrishna Pillai was equally lucky to have found just the right man to work with.

“Maulavi Abdul Qadir placed implicit faith in Ramakrishna Pillai’s integrity, patriotism, and political ideals, which were identical to his own. Not once throughout the stormy life of the journal did Maulavi Abdul Qadir find the need to interfere in the editorial policy of his journal to keep it on course he had charted for it. This political collaboration which began in 1906 between two young radical democrats forms a glorious chapter in the political history of Kerala.”

When the king of Travancore, on the recommendations of the dewan, suppressed Swadeshabhimani, confiscated the press and sent the editor into exile, Vakkom Moulavi refused to apologise for what he stood for and reportedly said that he did not want the press without the editor. Although it incurred huge financial loss to him, the setback did not deter his journalistic activities.

He went on to publish Deepika and Al Islam in his efforts to “clean up” the Muslim community which was steeped in superstitions, and to argue his case for the need to educate Muslim women.

In his own right and by the merit of his sharp and incisive writing, Vakkom Moulavi was a shining example of a journalist and a media entrepreneur, whose knees did not jerk nor did his spine bend in servitude to the powers-that-be but had the cold-blooded courage to fight rampant bureaucratic corruption, and to stand up for the democratic rights of the people. Moreover, he did not fire from anyone else’s shoulder but his own, and spent almost all his wealth for the sake of his society and community.

Vakkom Moulavi’s sense of patriotism and his unselfish journalistic efforts to propagate nationalism and the people’s right to freedom and liberty a century ago should not be brushed under the carpet at any pretext. Nor should his clear-eyed understanding of the role and place of cultural and community identities in the unique socio-political mosaic of India.

It will be a gross injustice to Vakkom Moulavi and his visionary journalistic attempts if we do not tell his story in right earnest — that he was not just a generous newspaper owner but was himself a fearless journalist, well-read and with felicity of language and moral honesty and intent to spend even his last penny for its cause.

When he died at the relatively young age of 59 on October 31, 1932, he was in debt, having spent all his money for the society and community.

Sabin Iqbal is a senior journalist based in Bangalore. He is a grandson of Vakkom Moulavi.