Moulvi Muhammad Baqir was a scholar, a freedom fighter and a journalist based in Delhi.
He was the first journalist executed by the British following the uprising of 1857, also known as India’s first war of independence.
The only son of Maulana Muhammad Akbar, a religious scholar from Delhi, Moulvi Muhammad Baqir was born in 1780.
Having obtained both religious and secular education, Moulvi Baqir was fluent in Arabic, Persian, English, and Urdu.
His love for literature and journalism led him to launch the Dehli Urdu Akhbar in 1837, which was critical of British rule in India. Gurbachan Chandan, a well-known Indian journalist and scholar, said that the Dehli Urdu Akhbar played a vital role in preparing the ground for the 1857 uprising.
When the uprising broke out, Moulvi Baqir devoted himself and his newspaper to the cause of the freedom struggle. He made full use of his newspaper to generate public opinion against British rule and worked to boost the morale of the Indian soldiers.
Moulvi Baqir even renamed his newspaper as Akhbar-uz-Zafar, in tribute to Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was leading the Indian fight against the British.
For four months, Indian soldiers held the fort of Delhi but finally the British managed to enter the capital on September 14. Moulvi Baqir was arrested on the same day.
He was produced before Captain William Hodson on Sept 16, 1857, who ordered his execution. He was shot dead on the same day on the ground outside Delhi Gate.
That’s the story of the first Indian journalist who was martyred for the cause of freedom from British occupation.
