Mulk Raj Saraf

Lala Mulk Raj Saraf (8 April 1894 - 21 February 1989) was an Indian journalist and writer, with over seventy years of a distinguished career in journalism and social service. With several firsts to his name, he is most renowned for overcoming all odds to lay the foundation of journalism in Jammu and Kashmir, setting up the first printing press, and publishing the region's first newspaper, Ranbir. For his work in enabling a free press in Jammu and Kashmir, he is known as the "Father of Journalism in Jammu and Kashmir". A freedom fighter, social reformer, and much loved public figure, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976. Saraf established the JDGD Saraf Trust for promoting conscientious journalism in 1985.

He was born on 8 April 1894 in the Samba district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to Dayanand Saraf and Jamuna Devi and graduated from the Government Gandhi Memorial Science College Jammu. Saraf was the author of the first biography published in the Dogri language, Sher-e-Duggar Lala Hans Raj Mahajan Jeevan Katha (1968). He was awarded the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1976.

Mulk Raj Saraf died on 21 February 1989, at the age of 94, in Mumbai at the home of his son, Ved Rahi, a Bollywood personality and film director.