Munshi Naval Kishore

Munshi Naval Kishore was the first major printer and publisher in India. He is widely attributed to preserving the
Indian heritage especially Urdu literature by printing thousands of books at a critical historical juncture.

The first printing press in India was established in 1779 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Although the press founded in
1801 for Fort William College, also in Calcutta, did publish many Urdu books but the scope was limited and
Indian masses were not adequately served. This void was filled by Munshi Naval Kishore.

Munshi Naval Kishore (also spelled as ‘Newal’) was born on January 3, 1836, in either Aligarh or the neighboring
Mathura district in today’s Uttar Pradesh. His father, Pandit Jamuna Prasad Bhargave, was a zamindaar (land
owner) of Aligarh. His grandfather was a treasurer of Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.

Kishore started his education by learning Arabic and Persian in his ancestral village. He later went to Agra
College. He started his professional career with a prestigious Urdu newspaper of Agra called ‘Safeer’. By the age
of 17, he was already a known writer. Then he left for Lahore to join another Urdu newspaper ‘Kohinoor’. This
was all before the tragic events of 1857.

The events following first War of Independence in 1857 resulted in riots, massacre, pillage, deposition of the last
Mughal Emperor of India and ultimate humiliation of Indian psyche. Kishore realized that Indians would also lose
their cultural heritage if any action is not taken at that time.

Munshi Naval Kishore established ‘Newal Kishore Press and Book Depot’ in Lucknow in 1858. He started an Urdu
newspaper called “Audh Ukhbar”. This newspaper was the the first truly national newspaper of India. Urdu
intellectuals like Ratan Nath Sarshaar, Abdul Haleem Sharar and other contributed to this newspaper. “Audh
Ukhbar” published works of people like Mirza Ghalib and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Despite being a Hindu, he printed copies of Quran and books of Muslim religious texts in Urdu. He published
both Sunni and Shia works of Hadith, Fiqh and other Islamic sciences. His books included Sunnan ibn-e-Maja,
Sunnan Abi-Dawood, Tareekh-e-Tabri, Works of Mujaddid Alif-as-Saani, Imam Ghazali, Alamah Majlisi, Diwan-e-
Hazrat Ali, etc.

He foresaw that the tradition of Dastaango (story-tellers) was dying in India so he asked Dastaango to pen down
the stories for printing. His greatest feat in this regard was the publication of 46 volumes of Dastaan Ameer
Humza. Other works included Fasana-e-Ajaib , Alif Laila, Araish-e-Mehfil, Diwan-e-Ameer Khusro, Diwan-e-
Ghalib, and also Urdu dictionaries.

He even paid for translation of Western Scientific work into Urdu Language. Many of these texts are still in use
as references by contemporary Unani (Yunani) physicians.

In all he published more than 5000 books in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Pashto, Persian,
Sanskrit and Urdu languages. But most of these books were in Urdu and many on Islam.

He befriended many prominent Muslims of his time including Mirza Ghalib and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Mirza
Ghalib in his letters speaks highly of Munshi Kishore and acknowledges the contributions of his press towards
Urdu.

Famous Hyderabadi scholar Allama Sayyid Shamsullah Qadri, who is also considered to be the First Researcher
of Deccaniyat, had many of his works published through Munshi Naval Kishore.

Munshi Naval Kishore died suddenly on February 19 1895 at the age of 59.

Following couplets by Al-Haaj Omar Ansaari are a befitting tribute to the great benefactor of Urdu.
By: Rizwan Hasnie
(member UMDA – Urdu Markaz Dallas Area)