Harking Back: Lahore’s father-son duo with rare achievements

If you walk through Miani Sahib, Lahore’s oldest graveyard that was once the world’s largest set in 5,000 acres, to one edge are the graves of a family rightly still respected as among the city’s most learned.

Our interest is in two members of this family - a father and his son - who rose to fame by sheer hard work and a rare respect for the knowledge and history of our land. Just a word about Miani Sahib. Almost 450 years ago Sher Shah Suri allotted 5,000 acres for a graveyard for Lahore and the surrounding areas. Slowly over time the powerful have reduced it to a tenth of that. The land-grab, call it grave-robbing, still continues. But back to the father and his learned son who lie in peace next to one another, unknown to most.

The father set up Lahore’s first printing press and produced the first newspaper. The son wrote outstanding books on the history of the Punjab, and of Lahore, and of Multan, as also that of Agra, the likes of which still command respect in academic circles the world over. But first let us dwell on the father, or better still on Syed Muhammad Azeem. Born over 200 years ago in 1815 in Delhi, he went through the traditional education route and then decided that the future lay in modern education. At the age of 15 he was proficient enough in English that the Delhi College granted him the title of ‘munshi’, then a most honourable one.

He joined the Delhi Gazette Press as a compositor, and very soon won a contract to also supply printing materials. Being a frugal sensible person his savings soon allowed him to think of bigger things. He got to know of a printing press being sold in Agra. It struck him that as the British had wrestled control of Lahore and that the final defeat of the Sikhs was at hand, he purchased the press and moved to Lahore. Here he found a huge vacated ‘palace’ called Naulakha, opposite today’s railway station, for sale and purchased it on very favourable terms in 1848, a year before the Lahore Darbar finally fell.

He named the press house the ‘Lahore Chronicle Press’. Once the British had consolidated their hold on Lahore, he launched the very first weekly newspaper titled ‘The Lahore Chronicle’. After a few years it became a daily English-language newspaper, and soon added a Persian section.

At a very early stage Syed Muhammad Azeem decided to corporatise and inducted other shareholders. This allowed his press to be among the most modern and largest in Lahore. But this also led him to sell off his shares and set up an even more modern press by the name of Punjabi Press in accordance with the wishes of the Punjab Commissioner, Sir Robert Montgomery. He moved to Sultananwali Haveli in the main Wazir Khan square, which was owned by Dewan Shankar Nath.

In the meantime his original Lahore Chronicle Press moved to a posh building on The Mall and it continued to print Lahore’s premier English language newspaper, ‘The Civil and Military Gazette’, which closed in 1963. But Syed Muhammad Azeem started his own publication in 1856 by the name of ‘Punjabi’ in the Urdu language. During the 1857 Uprising his newspaper got the latest news from all over the sub-continent. So popular had it become of its ‘Breaking News’ that people purchased advanced copies and sold them in the black market. This newspaper continued to be published till 1890.

But what captures the imagination is the simplicity of the man. All his life he slept on a wooden ‘takht’ in summer and on the floor in winter. He was a reasonably good sportsman being a very good swimmer and well known as a good shot. Known for his philanthropy, for he was also a reasonable chemist and formulated medicines for the poor, which he distributed free. In his press he printed thousands of books which were provided to the education department for free distribution among the poor. Also on the 16th of every month he would distribute free ‘dal’ and ‘roti’ in Lahore.

The British took an immense liking to Syed Muhammad Azeem and conferred on him the status of a ‘Vice Regal Courtier’, which allowed him to visit royalty as and when the occasion arose. He arranged poetry and ‘naat’ sessions at his house. But the most amazing contribution of the man was his collection of rare Shia relics, which even the Nawab Nawazish Ali Qizilbash would often come to view as part of his pilgrimage. During Muharram he arranged ‘soze’ and ‘noha’ sessions at his house as well as arrange the ‘mehndi’ procession. However, as he was a Sunni he did not permit ‘maatam’ (chest-beating).

This amazing man fell ill in December 1884 and died in the Gurdaspur house of his son Syed Muhammad Latif on the 27th of January 1885. His mortal remains were brought back to Lahore and he was buried in the family graveyard in Miani Sahib, bringing to an end an amazing life.

So while Syed Muhammad Azeem brought to Lahore the first printed newspapers, as well as among the first printed books, his son Syed Muhammad Latif made a name for scholarship and can be rightly considered among the first modern era historian. Born in Delhi in 1845, S.M. Latif, as he is known today, started his life in education by learning Persian and Arabic. He attended a number of leading educational centres run by well-known scholars.

His father insisted that he should not start life without knowing, and be able to speak, English, French, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, and also Sanskrit and Hindi. Much later in life he was able to read and understand rare manuscripts and documents unlike any of his contemporaries. He married early in the family of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

This led him to support Sir Syed, especially when the ulema unleashed their campaign against him. He wrote regular columns in his newspaper ‘Punjabi’ and this made him a prolific writer. In 1870 his first book of poetry ‘Diwan-e-Latif’ was published and much appreciated.

S.M. Latif was inclined towards law and in 1868 was appointed a Translator in the Punjab Chief Court, now known as the Lahore High Court. His pay in those days was one hundred rupees a month, which was exceptionally high for its time. Very soon the judges of the court were so impressed by his legal knowledge and ability to draft legal documents that he was made a Reader of the court. This was the first major step in him being appointed an Extra Assistant Judicial Commission, which led him to serve as District and Sessions Judge in a few districts of the Punjab.

As Syed Muhammad Latif travelled across, he was able to read rare manuscripts and documents few had managed to see. This in 1888 resulted in him writing his famous book ‘The History of Punjab with a Description of Lahore’. In academic circles S.M. Latif had arrived and his book was made compulsory reading for all British officers serving in the Punjab.

This success led him to write his second major work, that being ‘History of Agra’ in 1889. He followed this two years later with another major book ‘Ancient History of Multan.’ That very year his first book was republished in the form of two books, they being ‘The History of the Punjab’ and a much expanded ‘The History of Lahore’.

Such excellence brought with it a lot of awards and honours. He was given the title of ‘Khan Bahadar’, and later of ‘Shamsul Ulema’. He was made a Fellow of the Punjab University, and went on to become a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and also the Royal Geographical Society of London. He wrote for a number of British as well as European newspapers.