Thursday, April 29, 2010

’Mofussilite’ is oldest newspaper collection in Pak Archives

Mussoorie, 19 Dec: Copies of writer and Barrister John Lang’s newspaper, ‘Mofussilite’, and related documents are among the prized possessions of the National Archives of Pakistan (NAP). NAP has a large collection of newspapers and periodicals, but the oldest file is of ‘The Mofussilite’.
It may be recalled that ‘The Mofussilite’ made a humble beginning on 2 August 1845 in Calcutta. In 1846, Lang decided to publish it from Ambala and, later, it was shifted to Meerut and Agra. On 1 March 1859, it again moved from Agra to Meerut.
The Pakistan Archives have the rare 1848 file of The Mofussilite. The NAP is a member of the International Council on Archives and its regional branch is called the South and West Asian Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives (SWARBICA).
The copies of The Mofussilite are available in two places in India - at the National Library (Kolkata) and Nehru Museum & Library (New Delhi). Even the British Library (London) has microfilms of the newspaper’s issues from 2 August to 22 November 1845, and from 1 January, 1847 to 24 May, 1876.
The Pakistan Archives Collection consists of 1530 titles. The oldest file is of The Mofussilite (Agra). The Civil and Military Gazette (1873-1963) is the biggest newspaper file.
The project of microfilming Indian newspapers began in collaboration with the Center for Research Libraries, University of Chicago. Under the project, the microfilming of The Mofussilite was done at the Nehru Memorial Library & Museum (New Delhi). The Nehru Museum has issues of the years 1845, 1858 to 1876 as digital copies of John Lang’s newspaper. The 1846 issues of The Mofussilite are not available in any collection worldwide.
Besides editing and printing The Mofussilite, Lang was involved in writing. John Lang wrote over twenty novels and most of them were published anonymously in India as serials in his newspaper. At least five of his novels were never published as books, but appeared only as serials. The Australian based Mulini Press is in the process of publishing these unknown novels. Some of his works have an Australian setting and others are set in India and England. He also wrote stories and articles on the Indian people with others set in England.