Indian Press During British Rule

Politically conscious Indians have been drawn to modem civil rights, particularly press freedom, almost since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Raja Rammohan Roy had protested against a regulation restricting press freedom as early as 1824. He wrote to the Supreme Court in a memorandum that every good ruler "will be anxious to afford every individual the quickest means of bringing to his notice whatever may require his interference." The only effective means of securing this important object is to use unrestricted freedom of publication.'

 

•    The national movement had not yet resorted to mass agitation through thousands of small and large maidan meetings, nor had political work consisted of active mobilisation of people in mass struggles during the period 1870 to 1918. 

 

•    Politicization, political propaganda and education, as well as the formation and propagation of nationalist ideology, remained the main political tasks.

 

•    The press was the primary tool for accomplishing this goal, which was to arouse, train, mobilise, and consolidate nationalist public opinion.

 

•    During these years, the National Congress' work was largely accomplished through the press. The Congress lacked its own organisation to carry out political work. Its resolutions and actions had to be publicised in newspapers. 

 

•    Surprisingly, journalists made up nearly a third of the Congress's founding fathers in 1885. During these years, powerful newspapers emerged, led by distinguished and fearless journalists. 

 

•    The Hindu and Swadesamitran were edited by G. Subramaniya Iyer, Kesari and Mahratta were edited by B.G. Tilak, Bengalee was edited by Surendranath Banerjea, Amrita Bazar Patrika was edited by Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, Sudharak was edited by G.K. Gokhale, Indian Mirror was edited by N.N. Sen, Voice of India was edited by Dad In fact, in India, it was rare to find a major political leader who did not own a newspaper or was not writing for one in some capacity.

 

•    The Press's influence extended far beyond its literate readers. It wasn't just limited to cities and large towns, either. A newspaper would reach far-flung villages, where it would be read by dozens of people. 

 

•    Library movements sprang up all over the country over time. A community's "library" would be built around a single newspaper. The capital equipment would be a table, a bench or two, or a charpoy. 

 

•    Every piece of news or editorial comment would be read, heard, and discussed thoroughly. Not only did the newspaper become a political educator, but reading and discussing it also became a form of political participation.

 

•    Newspapers were not business enterprises back then, and neither were editors and journalists. Newspapers were published as a public service or as a national publication. They were frequently funded through philanthropy. 

 

•    A journalist's job often required significant self-sacrifice as a political worker and agitator. Of course, starting a newspaper was not prohibitively expensive, though the editor had to live on a shoestring budget or rely on a secondary source of income. The Amrita Bazar Patrika was founded in 1868 with the purchase of printing equipment for Rs. 32. Surendranath Banerjea, meanwhile, bought the Bengalee's goodwill for Rs. 10 and the press for Rs. 1600 in 1879.

 

•    Almost all of the day's major political debates were conducted through the press. It also served as an institution for opposing the government. 

 

•    Almost every act and policy of the government was harshly criticised, often with great care and extensive knowledge to back it up. The Indian Press' motto was "oppose, oppose, oppose." 

 

•    Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, wrote in March 1886 about the role of the nationalist press: ‘Day after day, hundreds of Sharp-witted babus pour forth their indignation against their English oppressors in very pungent and effective diatribe.' In May, he said, 'In this way, there can be no doubt that those who read these pamphlets are instilled with a sincere conviction that we are all enemies of mankind in general, and of India in particular.'

 

•    Arousing political consciousness, instilling nationalism, exposing colonial rule, and ‘preaching disloyalty' was no easy task, as Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code had been in effect since 1870, punishing “whoever attempts to excite feelings of disloyalty to the Government established by law in British India” with life imprisonment or any term of imprisonment. Furthermore, this clause was later supplemented with even more draconian measures.

 

•    To stay out of trouble with the law, Indian journalists devised a number of clever strategies and developed a distinct writing style. Because writings of people whose loyalty to the government was undoubted were exempt under Section 124A, they invariably prefaced their vitriolic writings with effusive expressions of loyalty to the government and the Queen. 

 

•    Another strategy was to publish anti-imperialist extracts from London-based socialist and Irish newspapers, as well as letters from radical British citizens, knowing that the Indian government would not be able to discriminate against Indians by acting against them without also acting against the offending Britishers. 

 

•    The extract from the British newspaper was sometimes taken without quotation marks or acknowledgement of the source, luring the British-Indian bureaucracy into thinking about or taking action that would have to be abandoned once the true source of the comment was discovered.

 

•    A sympathetic treatment of Russian anti-Tsarism terrorist activities, for example, would be published in such a way that the reader would immediately draw a parallel between the Indian government and the Revolutionary Terrorists of Bengal and Maharashtra. It was later discovered by the officials that it was an extract from the Times of London or another British newspaper.

 

•    The radical expose would frequently take the form of well-wisher advice and warnings to the government, as if the writer's main goal was to save the authorities from their own follies! This was a style of writing that B.G. Tilak and Motilal Ghosh excelled at. 

 

•    Irony, sarcasm, banter, mock-seriousness, and burlesque were used by some of the more daring writers.

 

•    In all cases, nationalist journalists, particularly those working for Indian language newspapers, faced a difficult task, as they had to balance simplicity with subtlety: simplicity was required to educate a semiliterate public, while subtlety was required to convey the true meaning without breaking the law. 

 

•    They excelled at the task, often inventing new ways to express themselves in the languages in which they were willing to participate, including, surprisingly, English. 

 

•    When the government attacked or attempted to curtail press freedom, the national movement zealously defended it from the start. In fact, the fight for press freedom became inextricably linked to the fight for freedom.

 

In the 1870s, Indian newspapers began to gain traction. They became harsh critics of Lord Lytton's administration, particularly for its inhumane treatment of the victims of the 1876-77 famine. As a result, the government decided to go on strike against Indian language newspapers, which had a wider readership than the middle class. 

 

•    It targeted only Indian language newspapers, was drafted in secret and passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in a single sitting. 

 

•    The Act allowed the government to seize a newspaper's printing press, paper, and other materials if it was suspected of publishing seditious materials and had disobeyed an official warning.

 

•    The Act was vehemently opposed by Indian nationalists. 

 

•    The first large demonstration on a public issue was held in Calcutta on this issue, when a large meeting was held in the Town Hall. The Act was also opposed by a number of public bodies and the media. 

 

•    As a result, it was repealed by Lord Ripon in 1881. A very amusing and dramatic incident highlighted the way in which Indian newspapers cleverly fought such measures. 

 

•    The Amrita Bazar Patrika, which was published in both Bengali and English at the time, was specifically targeted by the Act. The goal was to take immediate action against it. However, when the officials awoke the morning after the Act was passed, they discovered that the Patrika had cheated them; the editors had converted it into an English newspaper overnight!