History of Indian Journalism

A Short History of Indian Journalism

Process of Journalist Story Publishing

“The over-2000-years  history of the Indian Press, from the time of Hicky to the present day, is the history of a struggle for freedom, which has not yet ended. There have been alternating periods of freedom and of restrictions on freedom amounting to repression. The pioneering works on the Indian Press, like that of Margarita Barns, were stories of arbitrariness and despotism, of reforms and relaxation. The story of the Indian Press is a story of steady expansion but also one of Press laws.”

The first newspaper meant for publication was ‘announced’ in 1776 by William Bolts. He asked those interested to come to his residence to read the news. This ‘newspaper’ had the twin function of informing the British community of news from ‘home’, and of ventilating grievances against the colonial administration.

Hicky’s Gazette

But it was not until James Augustus Hicky dared to start his Bengal Gazette (also called Hicky’s Gazette) in 1780 that the age of Journalism dawned in the country. England had already had a taste of the Spectator papers of Addison and Steele, and of lesser known periodicals as well, and learnt about the power of the periodical essayists, to laugh to scorn the manners and mores of society, and of those in high places.

Political and social corruption was rife among the British sent to rule the country when Hicky, a printer by profession, launched his Gazette ‘in order to purchase freedom for my mind and soul’. He described the Bengal Gazette (later called Hicky’s Gazette) as a ‘weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none’. His venom was aimed at individuals like Mrs. Warren Hastings and their private affairs. He published announcements of marriages and engagements, and of ‘likely’ engagements.⁸ The Gazette was, in essence, no better than a scandal sheet. Barely a year later, Sir Warren Hastings denied all postal facilities to Hicky who hit back with these ringing words:

 ‘Mr. Hicky considers the Liberty of the Press to be essential to the very existence of an Englishman and a free Government. The subject should have full liberty to declare his principles and opinions, and every act which tends to coerce that liberty is tyrannical and injurious to the community’.

In June the following year (1781), Hicky was arrested and thrust into jail, from where he continued writing for the Gazette. He was stopped from ‘bringing out his weekly only when the types used for printing were seized’.

Five newspapers made their appearance in Bengal in six years’ time-all started by Englishmen. Some of these newspapers received Government patronage. The Madras Courier and the Bombay Herald (which later merged with the Bombay Courier) were then launched in the two cities. They were subservient  to the Government, and therefore flourished. The total circulation of all these weeklies was not more than 2,000; yet, the Government issued Press Regulations (1799) making the publication of the name of the printer, editor and proprietor obligatory. The regulation also ordered these to declare themselves to the secretary of the Government ; and to submit all was established with the aid of Government grant and in the North West Provinces, a Hindu and an Urdu periodicals started of under the Government patronage. The Bengali Press with as many as nine Newspaper. Material for prior examination to the same authority. Pre-censorship was to dog the Indian journalist for many years to come.

Indian language Press

The pioneers of Indian language journalism were the Serampore Missionaries with Samachar Darpan and other Bengali  periodicals, and Raja Ram Mohan Roy with his Persian newspaper Miraltool Akbar. The object of Ram Mohan Roy , the social reformer, in starting the paper was  ‘to lay before the public such articles of intelligence as may increase their experience, and tend to their social improvement’ , and to ‘indicate to the rulers a knowledge of the real situation of their subjects , and make the subjects acquainted with the established laws and customs of their rules’. Roy ceased publishing his paper later in protest against the Government’s Press Regulations.

The Bombay Samachar , a Gujarati newspaper, appeared in 1822. It was almost a decade before daily vernacular papers like Mumbai  Vartaman (1830). The Jan-e-Jamshed (1831), and the Bombay Darpan (1850) began publication. In the South, a Tamil, and a Telugu newspaper .

In 1839  had a circulation of around 200 copies each, even as the British Press with 26 newspapers (six of them dailies) grew in strength and power, under the liberal rule of Lord Metcalfe, and later of Lord Auckland.

Censorship and the mutiny

The year of what the British historians term ‘the Sepoy Mutiny’, however, brought back the Press  restriction in the form of the Gagging Act, 1857 Lord Canning argued for them, stating that ‘there are times in the existence of every state in which something of the liberties and rights, which it jealously cherishes and scrupulously guards in ordinary Seacons, must be sacrificed for the public welfare . Such is the State of India at this moment. Such a time has come upon us. The liberty of the Press is no exception.’

The mutiny brought the rule of the East India Company to a close, with the Crown taking over the colony’, with the promise of religious toleration and Press freedom. The main topics of discussion in the English and vernacular Press before and after the Mutiny were sati, caste, widow remarriage, polygamy, crimes, and opposition to the teaching of English in schools and colleges. Bombay’s Gujarati Press in particular, excelled in the defence of the Indian way of life. In 1876 the Vernacular Press Act was promulgated.

During the next two decades The Times of India, the Pioneer, the Madras Mail, and The Amrit Bazar Patrika came into existence –all except the last edited by English men and serving the interest of English educated readers. The English Press played down the inaugural meeting of the Indian national congress on December 28, 1885 in Bombay, but it was reported at length by the vernacular papers such as Kesari (founded by Lokmanya Tilak). The Amrit Bazar Patrika and Kesari soon gained a reputation for opposing Government attempts to suppress nationalist aspirations. The Amrit Bazaar Patrika, for instance, denounced the deposition of the maharaja of Kashmir, and Kesari was foremost in attacking the Age of consent Bill  of  1891 , which sought to prohibit the consummation of marriage before a bride completed the age of 12.The Kesari’s stand was enedorsed by the Amrit Bazar Patrika and Bangabasi of Calcutta on the ground that the Government had no right to interfere with traditional Hindu customs. Tilak charged the Government with disrespect for the liberty and privacy of the Indian people and with negligence in providing relief during the Countrywide famine in 1896 – 97, which resulted in the death of over a million people .

Such savage anti- Government sentiments could not be allowed free play and so Lord Elgin added sections to the Indian Penal Code to enable the Government to deal with promotion of ‘disaffection’ against the Crown; or of enmity and hatred between different classes. Also prohibited was the circulation of any reports with intent to cause mutiny among British troops, intent to cause such fear or alarm among the public as to cause any person to commit an offence against the state, or intent to incite any class or to commit an offence against the state, or intent to incite any class or community. The penalties for offences ranged from life imprisonment   to short imprisonment or fines.

The man who became the most note worthy victim of these new laws was none other than Bal Gangadhar Tilak, editor of Kesari and its English companion,  Mahratha. He was arrested, convicted and jailed for six years, but Kesari continued to build up its reputation and influence as a national daily, as India woke to the 20^th century. Other campaigns of Press freedom who were prosecuted at about the same time wear Aurobindo Ghose of Bande Mataram, B.B. Upadhayaya of Sandhaya of Sandhay and B.N. Dutt of Jugantar.

In 1910, the Indian Press Act clamped further controls on newspaper in the wake of the partition of Bengal and violent attacks by terrorists in Ahmedabad, Ambala and elsewhere. The Act required owners of printing Presses to deposit securities of Rs.500 to Rs. 2,000, which were forfeited if ‘ objectionable matters’ were printed. The threats of seizure of the printing Press, and confiscation of copies sent by post were also included in the Act. The vernacular Press suffered rigorous suppression during this period (1910-1914). The Government  banned  50 works in English and 272 in the vernacular, which included 114 in Marathi, 52 in Urdu and 51 in Bengali.”

World War I introduced still more severe Press laws but there was no let-up in nationalist agitations. Annie Besant’s New India became the mouthpiece of Home Rule advocates , ably supported by the Bombay Chronicle (edited by Benjamin Horniman), Maratha (edited by N.C.Kelkar) and other publications. The Government reacted swiftly by exiling Annie Besant , deporting Horniman and imposing new  securities on offending publications. The Rowlatt Act of 1919 infuriated Indian opinion, which now came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. His Non Co-operation Movement took the Press by storm. Gandhi  was to remain front-page news for years to come. His arrests and imprisonments were covered with relish by the English and  the vernacular Press , whose readership now rose dramatically. The Swaraj Party led by C.R Das, Vallabhbahi Patel and motilal Nehru, launched its own publications –the Banglar Katha in Calcutta. The Swadesh Mitram in the South, and Hindustan Times, Pratap and Basumati in the North.

The Indian Press  Ordinance (1930), like the Press Act of 1910, and five other Ordinances gave added to the Government in dealing with acts of terrorism, and inflammatory literature. The Swadeshi  Movement, covered prominently by the Press, as in The Hindu (Madras) led to the imprisonment of leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, and of editors like S.A. Brelvi of Bombay Chronicle and Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi of Pratap. The Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act of 1931 raised deposit securities and fines, and gave Magistrates the power to issue summary actions. Several other Acts were made law during the thirties, forcing the closure of many Presses and publications.

Meanwhile, The Free Press of India, which began as a news agency, started The Indian Express and Dhenamani in Madras, The Free Press Journal in Bombay, and Gujarati and Marathi Journals. The  News agency collapsed after it forfeited Rs. 20,000 security under the Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act, but its publications continued under different owners, and The Free Press editors Stated a new agency called the United Press of India (U.P.I.)

Then came the Quit India Movement , and World War II, and the Press in India, including the English language Press and that in the Indian Native States played a commendable role in reporting the struggle for  freedom fairly. It opposed communal riots and the partition of the  Country, and when partition did take place in the glorious year of independence, lamented it. Indeed, it could be said that that the Press played no small part in India’s victory to freedom of speech and expression upheld the freedom of the Press. While the obnoxious  Press Acts were repealed or amended, the Official Secrets Act and sections of the Indian code dealing with disaffection, communal hatreat and incitement of armed forces to disloyalty, were retained.

The Nehru Government Passed in October 1951 the Press (Objectionable Matters) Act which was reminiscent of earlier Press laws enacted by the colonial rulers. The ‘objectionable matters’ were quite comprehenaive. So fierce was the opposition to it that in 1956,it was allowed to lapse, and the First Press Commission was formed.

The national and regional Press covered the campaigns of the first national elections of 1951-1952 with professional skill. So were the other events of the Nehru era, like the formation of the linguistic States, the second  and third general elections.  The Chinese attack , and the take-over of Goa. Unlike her father, Mrs. Indira Gandhi had never been at ease with the Press. How much freedom can the Press have in a country like India fighting poverty, backwardness, ignorance, disease and superstitions ?’ asked she in the first year of her regime The national dailies grew strident in their attacks on her Government , especially  on the question of nationalization of banks, privy purses, the Congress split , but joined forces with her during the Bangla Desh war of liberation . The attacks reached their climax in the period prior to the emergency, with open accusations of rampant corruption, and demands for her resignation, followed by the Allahabad High Court’s verdict of her being guilty of corrupt election practices.

See Also :

Print Media and Communication	Freedom of Press - The right to Publish and Privacy
Communication and Print media	Council Guides to Journalistic Ethics
Introduction to Print Media	Censorship in the Press and Media
Developments in Print Media	Media Laws
Contribution of News Papers	Press Ownership and Monopoly
Contribution of Magazines	Media Organisations and News Agencies
Press Commissions and Councils	The Mass Media
The Power of Press	Functions of Mass Media
History of Indian Journalism	Theories of the Press or Media
Press Censorship under the Emergency	Code of Ethics for Journalists
News Values in Journalism	Readership and Popularity of Magazine
Magazine genres-Types of Magazine