The people and the government: the contemporary relevance of The Svadesabhimani Premium

Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary year of Vakkom Abdul Khader Moulavi (1873-1932), the digitization and English translation of The Svadesabhimani

The sleepy village of Anchathengu (“Five Coconut Palms”), formerly called Anjengo by the British, has attained fame for various reasons. Situated a few kilometeres south of Varkala in Kerala, it was the first trade settlement of the East India Company in the south-west of India, gradually gaining in importance. Anjengo Fort, built by the British, served as an important military centre for suppressing minor revolts and the Attingal rebellion of 1721.

Yet, one transformative incident is missing from the official tale of Anchathengu. On January 19 1905, a new Malayalam language newspaper, The Svadesabhimani (Patriot) began publication from the settlement. Its owner, publisher and managing editor was Vakkom Abdul Khader Moulavi (1873-1932), a hitherto unknown young man of 32 years. The newspaper was started with his own resources and with a modern printing press imported from England.

It is now recognized that this double sided, single page, weekly newspaper, with its provocative name, launched the era of critical journalism in the princely state of Travancore and more broadly in Kerala. In its opening issue, it stated “We will not conceal public grievances for fear of any calamity that may befall us. For certain.” The statement was prescient. Five years later, the princely government banned the newspaper in September 1910, with the confiscation of the press and exile of its then editor, Ramakrishna Pillai. Justifying this action, the first case of press suppression, the Dewan wrote, as reported by the historian Robin Jeffery, “the most serious thing against the Swadeshabhimani has always been the remarkable persistency with which it preached the gospel of government by the people, and the exhortation which it held out to the people of Travancore to unite and demand self-government”. (Dewans Note 1912, as quoted by Jeffery)

The Svadesabhimini (we have retained the original English spelling as it appeared in the newspaper masthead) has achieved an eminent status in the history of Indian journalism. Still, it is often lauded in abstract without being read widely, as it is hitherto been inaccessible except through secondary sources and mainly in Malayalam. This is now being rectified through the digitization of the Malayalam articles as well as through their translation into English. The historical digital collection, though incomplete as several issues are missing, is now available in fully searchable format (www.svadesabhimani.com ). For the first time, the astonishing range of issues covered by the newspaper is available to the general public, a sample of which is reviewed below.

Svadesabhimani focused its attention on exposing the corruption and misdeeds of the Travancore rulers, but it also wrote about the important issues of the period, including education reform, representation in government, debates on social and cultural reform in various castes and the reform of the legislative council. Straddling a period of intense national ferment, instigated in part by the partition of Bengal in 1905, of convulsive international developments such as the defeat of Russia by Japan, the first Russian revolution of 1905 and the anti-colonial awakening in the Muslim and Arab world, the newspaper brought to its audience the picture of a world undergoing transformative changes. In a period of relative political inactivity in Kerala, Svadesabhimani helped to mould the political consciousness of the intelligentsia, sowing the seeds for mass mobilization for democracy and political action.

Scholars have highlighted the role of print and newspapers in developing the public sphere and public action in Kerala. Jeffery notes that theorizing at this level has often “neglected the workings of newspapers, the economics that drove them, the technologies that bind or free them, the personalities that produce them, and the readers to whom they must relate”. The mystique of Svadesabhimani as a trailblazer in Indian journalism has been accompanied by a neglect of these important issues. Indeed, Jeffery himself is guilty of such omissions. In his 2009 article on print, newspapers and politics in Kerala, where he discusses Svadesabhimani at length, Jeffery refers only to the second editor Ramakrishna Pillai. The owner, publisher, managing editor, the man who conceived of the project, formulated its approach and philosophy, invested in it, implemented it and bore the consequences of its suppression – Vakkom Moulavi - finds no mention. Another authoritative commentator and theorist of Kerala society, E.M.S Namboodiripad, the leader of the communist party, also highlights the contributions of the newspaper and its editor, without mentioning the person who was responsible for launching it.

Indeed, the mystery of Vakkom Moulavi’s invisibility in Kerala’s public sphere (until recently) is intriguing. What prompted this young man to invest his inheritance in the risky adventure of establishing a newspaper? What inspired him to choose a title such as this and a slogan about promoting public welfare, when the Swadeshi movement in Bengal was still not yet fully developed? With no formal education, yet educated by tutors in multiple languages and subjects, he was exposed to the writings of the leaders of the anti-caste, social reform movements in Kerala (including contemporaries such as Sree Narayana Guru), of the Indian national movement and of the Islamic modernist thinking centred around Egypt. Print media had become the weapon of choice in the intellectual and political battles for identity, self-determination and progress, not only in India but across many colonies. The patent free Stanhope press, which lowered the cost of printing, and the opening of the Suez canal facilitated the import of presses. According to one report, by 1905, there were 1359 registered newspapers and journals in India (Harper, 2021). These developments undoubtedly shaped the vision and zeal of the young reformer.