AKHBAR LUDHIANA, a weekly newspaper in Persian sponsored by the British North-West Frontier Agency at Ludhiana in November 1834. The paper, a four page sheet initially, but doubling its size within two years, started printing at the American Missionary Press, Ludhiana, shifting to the Pashauri Mall Press, Ludhiana, in June 1841. Three years later it ceased publication. It had a small circulation mainly determined by the requirements of the East India Company\'s government. The name of the editor or subscription rates were nowhere mentioned. The Akhbar carried news furnished by English news printers from various parts of the Punjab.
SIKH JOURNALISM, tracing its beginnings to the latter half of the nineteenth century was influenced in its founding and evolution primarily by two factors : institution building in Sikhism with a view to defending itself and restating its principles, and the Sikhs` confrontation with the aggressive Arya Samaj over the question of whether the Sikhs were just another sect within Hinduism. It was a period when the Sikhs faced a crisis of identity occasioned by a strong sense of militancy among the numerous sects and religions and a concomitant set of pressures arising from the demands of modernization.