Abstract

Postal and communication Department and the information system of information existed in organized manner during pre-Mughal period and was specially developed during able though brief period of Sher Shah, but with the establishment of the Mughal rule in India, the system developed to guarantee the flow of information from the Centre to the peripheries and vice versa and also between different centers in a more scientific and organized manner. Sir T. W. Arnold, a well-known historian, opines that the medieval system of supplying information was taken from Abbasids, who had evolved it on the line of Romans and Iranians, and it was introduced in India by the Ghaznavids. Thus, in the term used by Abbasid - Divan-e-Barid, the second part of the word was taken from Latin Veredus. Historians like Abul Fazl, Khwafi Khan, Munshi Kazim have acknowledged using akhbarat or waqai as sources. Even during the Mughal period when the modern newspapers were not published and its earlier form i.e. the waqais were written too has been used as the source of the history of the period. For instance the Waqai -nawis of Mir Jumla, Muhammad Ali Ahmad known as Shahabuddin Talishs diary which was written during Mir Jumlas campaign to Kooch-Bihar and Assam, beside his Waqayas are considered the primary sources of the period, as he elevated the Waqaya-nawisi to the level of the historiography, and left a huge source for historians. He also wrote a book of history titled as Tarikh-e-Ibriya. Nonetheless, as the history writing of every age has its own characteristics and is seen in its historical context, similarly the literature, journalism and art too had its historical relevance and cannot be separated from it.

Keywords: system of information, pre-Mughal period, Akbars period, Divan-e-Barid, Waqaya-nawisi, newsletters, newspapers, journalism.

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