Satbai Sajan Kheraj

Partners

Fazal Janmohamed Master 1873–1920

Children

Hassanali Fazal Master 1899–1937

Satbai’s old age, coupled with many strenuous years, had made her very tired and at this time she required complete rest. However, due to the burden having fallen upon her, she boldly decided to take over the control of the newspaper. Therefore, from 1st January 1939, the newspaper was published under her name. The whole of her lifetime experience had been full of ups and downs. At a time when she should have been enjoying a quiet retirement under the care of her family, she courageously chose to honour the work of her husband, and subsequently her son, taking on the onerous responsibility for The Samachar.
Satbai had complete faith in God and in submitting to the will of theAlmighty, sheovercamethetragicblowof losing her son at the relatively young age of 38. Due to her past experience, when, it is said, she used to help her husband, the founder of this newspaper, in every way, Sat-bai was able to continue to publish the newspaper. She achieved this with the invaluable assistance of Mr Kashiram Khimdas, who, at the time of Hassanali’s death, was the Head compositor.
Had this committed and honourable lady not taken on the full responsibility for this newspaper, then it would have ceased publication. She appointed Mr Kashiram Khimdas as manager of The Samachar, while Mr Mohamedali A. Rahim who was then acting as Assistant Editor, became the Chief Editor of The Samachar. We have nothing but praise for these two gentlemen who worked faithfully with Mrs Master to her entiresatisfaction. InSeptember 1939, WorldWar II brokeout and, as the war spread, the shortage of newspaper, as well as materials, began to be felt.
The Samachar newspaper was not spared from its disastrous and far reaching effects. As the war continued, the scarcity of paper and essential printing materials forced Sat-bai, Proprietor-in-chief, to reduce the size of the newspaper from 24 pagesto18 pagesandassuppliesbecame evenmoreacute, the paper was reduced further, to a mere 12 pages.
However, mention must be made that in spite of this sudden reduction in page numbers, the popularity of this newspaper remained as great as it had ever been. Due to the continued strenuous efforts of the late Hassanali, the newspaper had, by then, beenrecognisedasthemost influential Ango-Vernacular newspaper in the whole of East Africa.
Aside from the shortage of paper and printing materials, The Samachar had to suffer another difficulty on account of the war. The war greatly hampered trade and, as a result, many firms, both local and overseas, were forced to suspend their advertising campaigns. The valuable revenue and lifeblood of the newspaper, which had been generated by such regularly placed advertisements, was suddenly withdrawn and the newspaper was at risk of being suspended.
A newspaper depends mainly upon advertisements and if this source of income is removed, any publication would find it very difficult to go on publishing. However, in spite of this set-back, The Samachar soldiered on and was able to uphold its tradition with not a single week passing, during the war, when the newspaper was not published.
On 17th August 1944, Satbai, who since the death of Hassanali F. Master had taken over the control of the newspaper, died suddenly and was buried in Zanzibar. With her death, The Samachar was deprived of yet another of its chief architects.