Nur-e Afshan (the refulgent light)

Periodicals played increasingly an important role, particularly from the nineteenth century, within missionary circles. This paper focuses on the American Presbyterian Periodical, nur-e afshan (the refulgent light). The initial evidence presented here supports the argument that there were changes in its ownership and use over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially edited by the Presbyterian missionary, Wherry, by the turn of the nineteenth century, the periodical reflected the broader change from missionary to native leadership in the Presbyterian Mission. The policy to gradually ‘indigenise’ the periodical went hand in hand with the native Christians replacing the missionaries as lead contributors and consumers. Nur has been dismissively described as a ‘semi-secular’ magazine, which undermines its significance as a forum for native agency and thought in the changing socio-political context of India. Under this agency, the periodical surrendered the traditional triumphalist polemics for a more reflective discourse leading up to India’s independence.