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Nabajug one-page evening daily published from Kolkata. Launched on 12 July 1920 from 6 Turn Street, Kolkata, it was a liberal, secular and mass-oriented newspaper. Its price was one paisa. Its owner-cum-director was ak fazlul huq (Sher-e-Bangla). kazi nazrul islam and comrade muzaffar ahmed were the editors. The name of the director was inscribed in the newspaper, but not that of the editors.
AK Fazlul Huq planned to publish a newspaper in support
of his krishak
praja party. Nazrul Islam, Muzaffar Ahmed and some like-minded
persons were contemplating of publishing a paper to mobilise protest against
British imperialism. Accordingly, three to four meetings were arranged
at the residence of Fazlul Huq. The outcome was a paper eventually named
Nabajug by Nazrul Islam. Nazrul Islam's fiery, anti-British editorials
animated all classes of people, regardless of caste and creed. His editorials
combined poetry and journalism and rendered the paper so popular that
occasionally it was printed twice a day. Nabajug incurred the wrath
of the government by speaking of freedom and public awakening. It was
warned by the government twice or thrice. When these warnings seemed to
have no effect, it was banned, and its security money of Rs 1000 forfeited.
A deposit of Rs 2000 as security money helped restart the paper. However,
a dispute arose between Fazlul Huq and the editors. Nazrul Islam and Muzaffar
Ahmed resigned, and the newspaper was closed down again. In 1942 Nabajug
was again published under the initiative of Fazlul Huq, then Chief Minister
of Bengal. Nazrul Islam assumed the role of editor. When the poet fell
ill, Maulana Ahmed Ali of Khulna took over as editor. Nabajug continued
to be published for two years and then ceased publication for good. Nazrul's
book Jugabani (1922) is a compilation of some of his editorials
and essays published in Nabajug. This book too was proscribed for
some time. [Ali Nawaz] |
