John F. Hurst, D. D., "A Native Publishing House in India." 

THE natives of India are rapidly adopting Western methods. In no respect is that fact more apparent than in the publication of books and serials. From the time when Carey landed in Calcutta, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, and set up his printing-press in the little Danish suburb of Serampore, down to the present year, no Christian missionary has exhibited more energy and thrift than the Mohammedan and Hindu natives are now displaying for the propagation of their faiths. The most striking illustration of this remarkable departure for strengthening the trembling fabric of the old religion of India is the great publishing house of Munshi Newal Kishore, in Lucknow. . . .

The kinds of books produced in this conglomerate establishment in the heart of Mohammedan and Hindu India are such as the millions demand. Just as I was making preparations for the translation of Kishore's Hindi catalogue into English, which I found some hesitation on the part of my attendant to furnish me with, I secured one in English through the courtesy of the Rev. Dr. Badley. This, I believe, is the first time Kishore has given full publicity to the Anglo-Indian world of the issues from his press. And a mammoth affair it is, for it is a catalogue of about twenty-five hundred works, all issued from these low sheds. It is in large octavo, and occupies eighty-eight pages in titles alone, and twenty pages in a minute alphabetical index. While the typography is not a model of the printer's art, the arrangement and general character of the work make a thorough catalogue. The scope of the issues is broad, including religious, educational, scientific, and legal books. The chief languages in which they are published are Sanscrit, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Bbrashe, and English. But in addition to these must come many books in the subsidiary dialects.

Source: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 75, Issue 447 (August 1887), pp. 352-56. (Passage excerpted from pp. 352, 354.)