FINE PRINT

British India, Emergency, Punjab militancy - Pratap faced some of the most turbulent moments in India's history. A new book on the newspaper authored by the father-daughter duo, Chander and Jyotsna Mohan, tells the story of its legacy and the family that steered it.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

Authors Chander Mohan and Jyotsna Mohan

JUST 12 days after its launch, Pratap, an Urdu-language newspaper that had started to protest against British oppression, was censored by the colonial government. Its founder, Mahashay Krishan, was arrested and sent to jail. Although he was released after four months, the ban on the newspaper remained in place for another year.

Launched on April 11, 1919, in Lahore’s Gawalmandi area, Pratap eventually outlived the British Raj and survived the upheavals of Partition and displacement that followed. It stood firm during press restrictions at the time of the Emergency of 1975 and also endured the height of Punjab’s militancy in the 1980s.

The book Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper (HarperCollins), written by father-daughter duo Chander Mohan and Jyotsna Mohan, tells the compelling story of a newspaper shaped by courage and the people who steered it. Chander, Krishan’s grandson, carried forward Pratap’s legacy after his grandfather and father, Virendra. The book, therefore, is as much a biography of the newspaper as it is of the family.

“There was a story to be told about the newspaper, and also about my father [Virendra], who was a peer of Bhagat Singh. The title [‘Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper’] indicates the spirit of defiance — against the British, against the government, against militants,” says Chander, explaining why the family felt a book was needed.