In this podcast, Sumit and Vasundhara begin their exploration of the history of Indian journalism, going back to the 1700s, joined by Mughal history scholar and expert, Aparajita Das. In the first episode, "Competitive Terrains of Information," they examine the information ecosystem that existed during the reign of the Mughal Empire in India. They find that even before printing presses existed in India, there was a well-developed information gathering and dissemination network, which slowly died out as the British colonized India. As new printing technologies developed along with shifts in political dominance, information-bearing communities were marginalized and their traditions and histories were lost.
Sources used in this episode:
Hayden Bellennoit: "Between qanungos and clerks: the cultural and service worlds of Hindustan's pensmen, c. 1750–1850" in Modern Asian Studies, Volume 48 / Issue 04 / July 2014, pp 872 -910.
Jadunath Sarkar: The Mughal Administration (Six Lectures), Patna University Readership Lectures, 1920.
Tabrez Ahmed Niyazi: "Internet Vernacularization, Mobilization, and Journalism" in Shakuntala Rao (ed) Indian Journalism in a New Era -Changes, Challenges and Perspectives, OUP.
Margrit Pernau: "The Dehli Urdu Akhbar:Between Persian Akhbarat and English Newspapers", Annual of Urdu Studies vol. 18 (2003).
Michael H Fisher: "The Office of Akhbār Nawīs: The Transition from Mughal to British Forms" in Modern Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 45 - 82.
Christopher Alan Bayly: Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870. No. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Music
The following tracks were used in this episode and were taken from the YouTube Audio Library. They do not require attribution under the YouTube Audio Library License. However, we will credit the artists for their work.
"East West" by John Patitucci
"Stealth" by Aakash Gandhi
"Low Noon" by John Patitucci
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Reality Scribes has been conceptualised, scripted, narrated and produced by Sumit Chaturvedi and Vasundhara Sirnate.