History
Ad-Savvy Reformer
If advertising can be defined as ‘strategic marketing communications,’
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan can be described as one of the best advertising
practitioners of the 19th century.
The 90-year period starting from the 1857 mutiny against the British ruler in India till the 1947 partition of British India, holds great significance in the history of advertising in the subcontinent. In those days, print advertising of goods or services gradually evolved into a common practice and advertisements were printed in various newspapers, magazines and periodicals in Urdu, English and other languages.
Considering the rapidly evolving socio-political and economic backdrop of the 19th and mid-20th centuries, one must appreciate the farsightedness that characterized the mission and life-long struggle led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a social and educational reformer. In place of luring the Muslims to adapt to Western civilization as well as its social fabric blindfolded, Sir Syed emphasised the acquisition of western education since it was based on scientific lines and stressed the need to update the conventional education system of India as per modern requirements.
If advertising can be defined as ‘strategic marketing communications,’ Sir Syed Ahmed Khan can be described as one of the best advertising practitioners of the 19th century. After the 1857 mutiny in particular, Sir Syed embarked on a promotional spree to promote scientific education among the Indian Muslims as a ‘product’ or a saleable commodity, with the manifest intent of bringing in social change and rectifying social behaviour towards knowledge acquisition and reasoning. Making the best of his talents and ability, Syed Ahmed heavily resorted to public relations, took out-of-the-box communication initiatives and exploited almost all marketing channels available in the middle of the 19th century to sell his modern education ideology as a ‘product’. His promotional approach included, but not excluded, the establishment of schools and societies and holding a series of dialogues along these lines, as well as producing supporting literature in the form of journals, books and periodicals.
The publication of the book ‘Asar-Al-Sanadid’ (‘The Remnant Signs of Ancient Heroes’) in 1847 brought Sir Syed Ahmed huge acclaim from literary circles. However, ‘Asar-Al-Sanadid’, together with the rest of his literary contributions, had a dominantly journalistic approach and had negligible literary flavour. He appears to be more a journalist than a man of letters and sometimes even his journalistic side is overshadowed by an advertiser lurking behind him. Interestingly, Sir Syed Ahmed had always been the first person to understand, dissect and explain in writing the causes of the Muslim revolts against the British East India Company, or simply British India.
From writing ‘Tarikh-e-Sarkashi-E-Bijnor’ to publishing ‘Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind,’ he always had a rough and ready communication campaign on hand and took no time in publishing a comprehensive fact-finding report, which was well-researched and duly supplemented by undeniable proofs and supporting documents. Doing so, he emerged as a seasoned advertising practitioner who mostly attracted public attention towards his products and their salient features, while paying less regard to language usage, grammar and sentence structures.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s promotional spree peaked with the establishment of the Madrassah Muradabad in 1859, a Persian school where English was a compulsory subject. Running with the hare and hunting with the hound, Sir Syed founded “Anjuman-I-Taraqqi-I-Urdu” for the protection of the Urdu language. During his tenure (1862-1864) as a Munsif (sub-judge) of the East India Company, Syed Ahmed was transferred to Ghazipur in 1862, where he established the Victoria School and Madrassah Ghazipur and also founded the Scientific Society which soon started publishing the Aligarh Institute Gazette.
In the same vein, Sir Syed wrote a philosophical commentary on the Bible, titled “Tabyin-ul-Kalam,” pointing out the similarities between Islam and Christianity. This was followed by the establishment of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh and the formation of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference. Right after the completion of his fruitful tour of England in December in 1870, Sir Syed formed ‘Anjuman-i-Taraqi-i-Muslamanan-i-Hind.’ Between 1871 and 1897, he published ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Ikhlaq,’ a bi-monthly aimed at the socio-cultural reformation of the Muslims of India. Written in plain language, it criticized the conservative Muslim lifestyle and persuaded Muslims to adapt a modern way of life.
In 1863, Sir Syed Ahmed wrote and circulated a paper titled ‘Iltamas Bakhidmat Sakinan-e-Hindustan-o-Arbab-e-Tariqqi-o-Taleem Ahl-e-Hind’ (A Request to the People of India, the Country’s Literati and Its Propagators of Knowledge and Education).’ The paper recommended setting up a majlis (bureau) for the translation of English classics and scientific works into Urdu. The recommendation soon proved to be a well-calculated preamble to actually forming the Scientific Society in Ghazipur that formally kick-started the translation of English books into Urdu.
Sir Syed Ahmed published the Urdu journal ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq’ and a weekly ‘Akhbar Scientific Society’ in the same style and format as followed by the ‘Spectator’ and ‘Tatler’, the two popular English journals of the 19th century aimed at social reformation and enlightenment. In both his Urdu publications, Sir Syed maintained almost the same layout with the same number of columns and page size. He even employed the same advertising format as the one in the British journals, since he believed that Urdu newspapers and magazines, if published along the same lines, would help in increasing social awareness, character-building and reconditioning the minds of the subcontinent’s people.
The masthead of ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq’ carried the slogan ‘Mohammadan Social Reformer’ in English, while the magazine’s title page was divided into two equal columns for the placement of advertisements under the heading ‘Announcement.’ Placed on the right, the ad detailed the magazine’s pricing mechanism and how its gross profits would be utilized, while the advertisement on the left was meant for paid subscribers of the magazine.
For instance, one advertisement appearing on the title page of ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq’ stated, “Copies of Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq published in the last two years are available here and can be purchased at the price mentioned below.” Similarly, the title page of ‘Akhbar Scientific Society’, which appeared in December, 1871, is of great interest. A bi-lingual publication, the gazette was a weekly journal in the beginning but it soon started appearing every three days. Interestingly, one page of the gazette was divided into two columns with Urdu text on the left and English on the right.
Designed like the ‘Spectator’ and ‘Tatler’, the masthead of the ‘Akhbar Scientific Society’ also carried the English slogan ‘The Aligurh Institute Gazette,’ followed by a two-line paragraph written in both English and Urdu, which said, “To permit the liberty of the press is the part of a wise government; to preserve it is the part of a free people.” Just like ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq’, the rest of the title page of the Akhbar was divided into two equal columns for placement of Urdu and English advertisements under the heading ‘Notice.’
Most advertisements that appeared in ‘Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq’ and ‘Akhbar Scientific Society,’ were about new books and modern agricultural and farming techniques. Throughout his publishing career, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan can be seen as an ad-savvy reformer who maintained the quality of advertisements even at the cost of losing money. The other newspapers and journals (e.g. the Awadh Punch) that appeared in Syed Ahmed’s era, were more commercial ventures and were open to all kinds of advertisements in pursuit of higher revenues and profits.
The writer holds a doctorate in Urdu Advertising and is associated with Spectrum Y&R Communication (Pvt) Ltd. as an Associate Creative Director. He can be reached at sharf15@gmail.com |
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