The Comrade

The Comrade was a weekly English-language newspaper that was published and edited by Maulana Mohammad Ali between 1911 and 1914.

Mohammad Ali was a forceful orator and writer, contributing articles to various newspapers including The Times, The Observer and The Manchester Guardian before he launched The Comrade. Produced on expensive paper, The Comrade quickly gained circulation and influence becoming famous even internationally, securing subscribers in several foreign countries. The paper, launched from Calcutta, shifted to Delhi, the newly announced capital of the Raj, in 1912 where the first issue of the Delhi edition appeared on October 12. In 1913, in order to reach out to the Muslim masses he started an Urdu daily, the Hamdard.

Mohammad Ali was a member and senior leader of the Muslim League and The Comrade often voiced that party's political line. Ali wrote a series of articles in his paper criticising the annulment of the Partition of Bengal in 1911 and criticised papers such as The Tribune, Surendranath Banerjee's The Bengalee and others that were opposed to the League and the Aligarh school of politics. In its inaugural edition of January 14, 1911, the paper outlined “the frank recognition of yawning differences that divide” Hindus and Muslims. Nevertheless, The Comrade advocated Hindu-Muslim entente, and called on both communities to work together for the national cause.

Ali aimed to create national and global networks of support for Muslim causes through The Comrade. It carried several articles that highlighted the plight of Muslims globally during important international events of the time such as the Balkan Wars, the occupation of Egypt by the British and Turkey’s role in the First World War. The articles and editorials were particularly scathing of a perceived British hostility to the Muslim world in general and to Turkey in particular. In his Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru observed thus about Ali and his journalistic stance in The Comrade: "The annulment of the Partition of Bengal in 1911 had given him a shock and his faith in the bona fides of the British Government had been shaken. The Balkan Wars moved him and he wrote passionately in favour of Turkey and the Islamic tradition it represented. Progressively he grew more anti-British and the entry of Turkey in World War I completed the process"

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