Development of Press during British Rule

Development of Press during British Rule

"Freedom of Press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy"

Development of Press in India 

• Beginning of printing press in India was initiated by Portuguese in Goa in 1557. It published literary works.
• The first newspaper published in India was Bengal Gazette by James Augustus Hickey in 1780.
• Right from the beginning Britishers tried to curb the freedom of press in India. 
• In 1799, Lord Wellesley enacted 'Press Censorship Act'. As per the act no newspaper can publish any article without the prior consent of the British government.
• In 1823. John Adams enacted 'Press Regulation Act'. He maintained that in case of any article published against the British will lead to confiscation of press and its property.
• The Indian press was relieved by all the restriction by Charles Metcalf in 1835 and he came to be known as 'Liberator of the Indian Press'.
• All the relaxation given to Indian press was abolished by Viceroy Lytton who enacted 'Vernacular Press Act of 1878'. As per the provisions of the act, district magistrate was given power to review the functioning of all the vernacular press within his jurisdiction. He was allowed to cease the property and articles of the press. Due to this discriminatory provision it was also known as 'Gagging Act of the Press'. 
• To evade confiscation, Amrit Bazar Patrika (AVP) overnight shifted to English language from Bengali.
• In 1883, Surendra Nath Banerjee became the first Indian Journalist to be imprisoned on charge of Sedition. He criticised a judge of Calcutta High Court in his editorial Bangalee. Later on many other nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, etc were also imprisoned on charge of sedition.
• Finally in 1882, Lord Ripon repealed the Vernacular Press Act. (Lord Ripon is also known as Father of decentralisation in modern India).
• In order to check the Swadeshi and boycott movement, Britishers enacted two acts.
• Newspaper incitement to offence act, 1908
• Indian press act, 1910
• Both the acts were fully operational even during the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Finally, due to the persuasion of Tez Bahadur Sapru, they were repealed in 1925.
• During Civil Disobedience Movement, Press Emergency Act 1931 was enacted to restrict nationalist ideas.
• After independence, 'Press objectionable matter Act, 1951' was passed. All Indian newspaper editors protested against it. As such a committee was constituted under G.S. Rajyadhyaksha. On its recommendation, the act was repealed and freedom of press was restored..

Newspapers and Journals during British period

1. Bengal Gazette
• Year of establishment - 1780
• Place - Calcutta
• Name of founder/editor - James Augustus Hickey
2. India Gazette
• Year of establishment - 1787
• Place - Calcutta
• Editors - Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was associated with it.
3. Madras Courier
• First newspaper from Madras.
• Year of establishment - 1784
• Place - Madras
4. Bombay Herald
• First newspaper from Bombay.
• Year of establishment - 1789
• Place - Bombay
5. Indian Herald
• Year of establishment - 1795
• Place - Madras
6. Digdarshana
• First Bengali Monthly
• Year of establishment - 1818
• Place - Calcutta
7. Bengal Gazette
• First Bengali newspaper
• Year of establishment - 1818
• Place - Calcutta
8. Samvad Kaumudi
• Year of establishment - 1821
• Editor/founder - Raja Ram Mohan Roy
• It is a weekly journal in Bengali.
9. Mirat-ul-Akbar
• Year of establishment - 1822
• Place - Calcutta
• Editor/founder - Raja Ram Mohan Roy
• It was the first Journal in Persian language.
10. Bang-Dutta
• Year of establishment - 1822
• Place - Calcutta
• Editors - Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore and others
• It was a weekly published in four languages - Hindi, English, Bengali and Persian.
11. Bombay Samachar
• First newspaper in Gujarati.
• Year of establishment - 1822
• Place - Bombay
12. Bombay Times 
• From 1861 onwards, it came to be known as Times of India
• Year of establishment - 1838
• Place - Bombay
13. Rast Goftar
• It was a Gujarati fortnightly.
• Year of establishment - 1851
• Editor/founder - Dada Bhai Naoroji
14. Hindu Patriot
• Year of establishment - 1853
• Place - Calcutta
• Editors - Grishchandra Ghosh (Later Harish Chandra Mukherjee became its editor cum owner).
15. Somaprakash
• It was the first Bengali political paper.
• Year of establishment - 1858
• Place - Calcutta
• Editor - Dwarkanath Vidyabhushan
16. Indian Mirror
• It was first fortnightly Indian English newspaper.
• Year of establishment - Early 1862
• Place - Calcutta
• Editor - Devendra Nath Tagore
17. Bengalee (and Amrita Bazar Patrika)
• First vernacular papers.
• Year of establishment - 1862
• Place - Calcutta
• Editors - Girish Chandra Ghosh (taken over by Surendra Nath Banerjee in 1879).
18. Bangadarshana
• Year of establishment - 1873
• Place - Calcutta
• Editor - Bankimchandra Chaterjee
19. The Hindu
• It was started as an English weekly.
• Year of establishment - 1878
• Place - Madras
20. Kesari
• It was a Marathi daily newspaper.
• Year of establishment - 1881
• Place - Bombay
• Editor/founder - Bal Gangadhar Tilak
21. Maharatta
• It was an English weekly.
• Year of establishment - 1881
• Place - Bombay
• Editor/founder - Bal Gangadhar Tilak
22. Paridasak
• Year of establishment - 1886
• Editor - Bipin Chandra Pal
23. Yugantar
• Year of establishment - 1906
• Place - Bengal
• Editors/founders - Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Bhupendra Nath Dutta
24. Bande Mataram (Vande Mataram)
• Place - Paris
• Founder - Madam Bhikaji Cama
25. Ghadar
• Place - San Francisco
• It was associated with Gadhar Party.
26. National Herald 
• Year of establishment - 1938
• Founder - Jawahar Lal Nehru
27. Indian Opinion
• Year of establishment - 1903
• Place - South Africa
• Founder - Mahatma Gandhi
28. Young India
• Year - from 1919 till 1931
• Mahatma Gandhi was associated with it.
29. Harijan
• Year of establishment - 1933
• Founder - Mahatma Gandhi
• It was an English weekly newspaper. It was also published in Hindi and Gujarati.
30. Swaraj
• Subash Chandra Bose Started this newspaper.

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