Shams Ur Rehman Alavi
Once it was unthinkable that an Urdu daily would be published from a city in a state like Sikkim.
But today Urdu papers are being published from Gangtok (Sikkim) and Guwahati (Assam).
Taasir is a newspaper that is published from ten cities that include Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Ranchi, Howrah, Bangalore and even down South, Chennai.
This is a new trend as multi-edition Urdu newspapers are now publishing from cities that were not considered 'Urdu cities'. Roznama Sahara has nine editions and the other major newspaper is Inquilab that has even more editions.
Inquilab focuses more on UP and Bihar. Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, its editions are in Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Aligarh, Bareilli, Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Kanpur in UP. The other editions include Patna, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur. In all, it has 13 editions.
It is an interesting aspect that major Urdu papers are now getting published from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. That not just Allahabad, Banaras, Aligarh and Gorakhpur or Meerut, but Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Saharanpur have Urdu paper(s), is quite heartening.
Earlier, In Dinon was probably the first paper that was published from many big and small cities across the country.
Today, it has these editions--It is now published from New Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Patna, Mumbai and Bangalore.
There are umpteen papers in states and are published from different sets of cities. For example, Saeban is published from Delhi and the two major state capitals, Patna and Bhopal.
Qaumi Muqaam is published from Allahabad, Chitrakoot, Mirzapur, Raipur and Lucknow. Urdu Action from Burhanpur and Bhopal. Similarly, there are several papers with editions in Jharkhand-Bihar and West Bengal, the Eastern part of India.
And, papers that are published from different cities in Karnataka apart from Hyderabad like Salar and Siasat. Salar is published from Bengaluru, Hubli and Kalaburgi (Gulbarga). Siasat too has an edition in Bangalore.
However, reaching cities down South and North East is important. The papers also need to publish from Western part of the country, particularly, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Konkan belt, though Mumbai is a big centre.
READ: List and links of Urdu daily, weekly newspapers in India
[Shams Ur Rehman Alavi, is a journalist for more than two decades. He had started his career with National Mail in the nineties. Later, he worked as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times, also as an Assistant Editor with DB Post, subsequently Metro Editor with Absolute India, Contributing Editor with The Huffington Post. He has written for First Post, The Wire, Newsd & several other major publications.]
[Shams Ur Rehman Alavi, is a journalist for more than two decades. He had started his career with National Mail in the nineties. Later, he worked as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times, also as an Assistant Editor with DB Post, subsequently Metro Editor with Absolute India, Contributing Editor with The Huffington Post. He has written for First Post, The Wire, Newsd & several other major publications.]
