The Rise of the Nationalist Press

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The Rise of the Nationalist Press
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• From its very beginnings , the Indian press had
  been the vicious target of the British rulers who
  employed every means to crush it
• The British were willing to tolerate the Indian
  owned and edited English press up to a point, but
  they believed the language press to be dangerous
  for the perpetuation of their rule

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• Their argument was that the educated Indians who
  read the English newspapers were less likely to
  be misled
• And would better appreciate the benefits of the
  British rule than the masses who read and were
  influenced by the language press
• Their repressive legislation was directed more
  towards the language press and the most famous
  example is the Vernacular Press Act of 1878

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VERNACULAR PRESS ACT, 1878

• Most controversial law against the Press
• Lord Lytton- provoked by the writings of the
  Bengali Press
• Assumed office when a serious discussion was
  going on about the need for action against the
  native Press

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• Law initially called An Act for better control
  of publication in oriental languages- 1878
• The Act empowered any magistrate or a
  commissioner of police to call upon a printer of
  a newspaper to furnish a bond / undertaking not
  to publish certain kind of material, to demand
  security and to forfeit it if it was thought fit,
  and to confiscate any printed matter deemed
  objectionable.

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• The Act provided for submitting to police all the
  proof sheets of contents of papers before
  publication.
• What was seditious news, was to be determined by
  the police, and not by the judiciary.
• Under this Act many of the papers were fined,
  their editors jailed.

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• Governent could issue search warrants enter
  premises of any Press take action without going
  to court
• The law required all native proprietors to
  furnish a bond of Rs 10,000 while registering
  newspapers, which was subject to forfeiture if an
  offence was committed
• The law was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon

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• No printer or publisher against whom such an
  action had been taken could resort to a court of
  law

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Native Press accused of

• publishing false stories, seditious literature
• Attacking government on various issues
• Writing about alleged racial discrimination
• Criticizing government regarding the issue of
  trials, punishments crime
• Questioning administration about job
  opportunities for Indians
• Writing about the haughtiness over bearing
  conduct of the Europeans

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The Initial Phases of

• Hindi Journalism
• Concerned solely with social religious matters
• Not much involvement in political affairs
• Singular attention to ridding society of social
  evils like untouchability, lack of education
  especially girl education, sati, dowry, child
  marriage, widow remarriage etc

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• Hindi press transformed to political and
  nationalistic Press with a demand for self
  governance when
• Racial discrimination became rampant
• Grievances of people against the rulers
  multiplied

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The beginnings

• 1826, 1st Hindi NP- weekly started in Calcutta,
  Oodunt Martand
• Editor- Jooghul Kishore (Jugal Kishor)
• Pioneer of Hindi journalism in India
• Faced many difficulties in running it
• Needed postal facilities to dispatch it outside
  Bengal, but denied by the Government
• Also refused postal concessions

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• Unable to face high postal rates
• Closed down the paper within an year after 79
  issues

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Urdu journalism

• Urdu, listed among the 15 national languages in
  the VIII Schedule of the Constitution
• Spoken by six per cent of the population
• It is the official language in Jammu and Kashmir
  and the second official language in Andhra
  Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

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• The first Urdu newspaper was Jam -i Jahan
  Numa, published from Calcutta in April 1822
• Editor was Sadasukh Lal
• The Urdu press by and large gave a picture of the
  issues that were warmly contested in Hindu
  society, of the grievances of the people, of the
  disadvantage of having a foreign language as the
  language of the courts of the atrocities of the
  indigo planters and the blunders of young
  magistrates

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• The government was very harsh on Urdu newspapers,
  since many of them had supported the Sepoy Mutiny
  of 1857
• The severity of the repression in the wake of the
  Mutiny was such that the Urdu press had virtually
  disappeared in the process
• Soon after the Mutiny was crushed, 12 journals
  came out, and all of them were run by non
  Muslims, particularly Hindus

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Marathi Journalism

• Marathi journalism grew out of a tradition of
  writing with great literary flourish, commonly
  practiced by educated gentry in the eighteenth
  century
• Commonplace events like births and weddings lent
  itself to such treatment
• Illustrative of this trend is an exhaustive
  account of the Battle of Panipat (1761) where the
  Maratha forces faced a great debacle

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• The murder of Narayanrao Peshwa in 1773 formed
  the subject of a Bakhar sent to the Patwardhans
  of Miraj by their representative in Pune
• They resemble in an amazing manner the special
  reports sent by special correspondents to modern
  day newspapers

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• Bal Shastri Jambhekar (1812 1846) founded the
  Darpan in 1832
• Pioneer of Marathi journalism
• He holds the distinction of being the first
  Indian professor at the Elphistone College in
  Bombay

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• Darpan was a fortnightly, a Marathi English
  bilingual, started on January 6
• By May it had become a weekly with eight pages
  per issue
• The first issue outlined the objective of the
  paper to inspire more Indians to take to western
  education and to provide a forum to people to
  express their views on projects for the well
  being of the people and the prosperity of the
  nation

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• The paper discussed several issues of public
  concern, including religious controversies
• The Darpan ceased publication in 1840
• During its short tenure, it maintained very high
  standards of journalism in every sense

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The Bengali press

• Since the headquarters of the East India Company
  was in Kolkatta and all the big commercial houses
  were in that city, it was but natural that
  Kolkatta should have more newspapers than any
  other city

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• Christian missionary activities and particularly
  the launch of their publications in Bengali
  prompted the publication of a number of Bengali
  papers to defend the Hindu religion and customs
• The social reform movements of Raja Ram Mohan Roy
  and Ishwar Chandra VidyaSagar deemed it necessary
  to have their own journals to propagate their
  cause

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• The Governor General, Lord Bentincks abolition
  of Sati stirred the conservative and orthodox
  elements in Hindu society, who launched
  publications to espouse their cause
• The first two Bengali newspapers were launched in
  1818 Dig Darshan and Samachar Darpan
• Both were missionary journals, but they made
  readers aware of the possibilities of running
  newspapers in Bengali

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• The Press was still in its crudest form
• Shoddy printing and poor layout
• Samachar Darpan was started by missionaries
  (Carey and Marshman) at Serampore
• Began as a monthly, but owing to popularity,
  became a weekly

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• It carried both Indian as well as foreign news
  and district news, apart from missionary matter,
• Became a bilingual in 1829- Bengali and English
• Ran both in parallel columns
• Survived a few crises, but finally closed down in
  1852

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• The Samachar Darpan proved to be the forerunner
  of the modern day Bengali newspaper, when to
  cover social and non- political news it appointed
  60 correspondents in all major towns of Bengal
• The Governor General Hastings gave the Samachar
  Darpan postal concessions, which was a fourth of
  the normal charges

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