The Arab Malayalam News Paper Swalahul Ikhvaan and its cultural discourses

Abstract

The study is a content analysis of the four issues of the Malayalam-transliterated version of the Arab-Malayalam newspaper Swalahul Ikhwan, which was published in 1899 and ran for eight years, and an explanation of the newspaper's involvement in the social, cultural and literary fields. The newspaper 'Swalahul-Ikhwan' proved to be the right path in the field of Arab-Malayalam language journalism. The newspaper strived for the upliftment of the Muslim community and the growth of the religion and opened a wide path of reading and knowledge in front of the Mappila Muslim community who were only interested in the Arab-Malayalam language. The newspaper played an important role in the literary, cultural and social development of the Mappila Muslim community. The purpose of the publication was to provide religious and non-religious news for Malayalee Muslims and to introduce religious restrictions and other news of other countries. The newspaper has been able to convert the Kerala Muslims, especially the Malabar Muslims, into a reading community and to form in them a global outlook and an awareness of being a citizen of the world, and above all, a strong awareness of the visions of the world Muslim brotherhood. The newspaper has also played a crucial role in assimilating Urdu and Arabic indigenous and international schools of thought and integrating them into the culture of Malayalam without depending Sanskrit and Tamil main streams. The newspaper has always maintained its resistance and attitude towards the apartheid regime and the political stance of the occupying government. Today, it is understood that the newspaper represents a 'Malabar Prose' with no emphasis on Sanskrit or Tamil, a mixture of Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, and the spoken language and culture of the Malabar Muslims.