Monday, May 14, 2012

"Vernacular" Newspapers in Punjab, 1886

April 1886.

[The following scrap is fascinating -- but not entirely legible in the microfilm I've been looking at.]

The Punjab rejoices in sixteen Vernacular newspapers and periodicals, which is rather [more] than a quarter of the number published in Bengal. The Akhbar-i-am, a bi-weekly, with a circulation of 1,880, seems to be the most flourishing vernacular print in the Punjab. Its popularity, however, can hardly be compared with that of newspapers in Bengal; where the Banga[???], for instance, has a circulation of twelve thousand. There are no vernacular dailies in the Punjab; but the Aftab-i-Punjab is published three times a week, and circulates five hundred copies. The vernacular newspaper reader, both in Bengal and the Punjab, apparently presumes a paper published once or twice a week as a daily. the number of printing presses in the Punjab, according to the latest [count] was 134; of which 39 were located in Lahore. 
How many of these have been preserved? 

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