Test Your Knowledge on Indian History -Fight for Press Freedom

Ram Mohan Roy was a staunch supporter of free speech and expression and fought for the rights of vernacular press. He also brought out a newspaper in Persian called ‘Miratul- Akhbar’ (the Mirror of News) and a Bengali weekly called ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ (the Moon of Intelligence). In those days, items of news and articles had to be approved by the government before being published. Ram Mohan protested against this control by arguing that newspapers should be free and that the truth should not be suppressed simply because the government did not like it.

Subramania Iyer was born in January 1855 in Tiruvadi in the then Tanjore district. He was the fourth of seven sons of Ganapathi Dikshitar, a pleader in the Munsiff’s Court of Tiruvadi. Subramania Iyer had his early schooling in Tiruvadi and matriculated from St. Peter’s College, Tanjore in 1871. In 1873, he passed his arts examinations in merit and attended a teacher’s training course at Madras from 1874 to 1875. Subramania Iyer taught at the Church of Scotland Mission School at Madras from 1875 to 1877 and at Pachaiyappa’s High School in 1877. In 1877, he cleared his B. A. examinations as a private candidate and was appointed headmaster of the Anglo-Vernacular school, Triplicane in 1879.In order to voice their support for Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer to be appointed to the bench of the Madras High Court, Subramania Iyer founded The Hindu along with M. Veeraraghavachariar, T. T. Rangachariar, P. V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu, on September 20, 1878. Initially, The Hindu was started as a weekly, but later, it was converted into a tri-weekly and then a daily.

Amrita Bazar Patrika was one of the oldest newspapers in India; it is written Bengali [1]. It debuted on 20 February 1868. It was started by Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh, sons of Hari Naryan Ghose, a rich merchant from Magur, in District Jessore, in Bengal Province of British Empire in India. The family had constructed a Bazar and named it after Amrita, wife of Hari Naryan Ghosh. Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh started Amrita Bazar Patrika as a weekly first

The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878 under the Governor Generalship and Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton, for ‘better control” of Indian language newspapers. The purpose of the Act was to control the printing and circulation of seditious material, calculated to produce disaffection against the British Government in India in the minds of the ignorant, uneducated and largely illiterate masses.

In 1879, he founded the newspaper, The Bengalee. In 1883, when Banerjee was arrested for publishing remarks in his paper, in contempt of court, protests and hartals erupted across Bengal, and in Indian cities such as Agra, Faizabad, Amritsar, Lahore and Pune. The INA expanded considerably, and hundreds of delegates from across India came to attend its annual conference in Calcutta. After the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885 in Bombay, Banerjee merged his organization with it owing to their common objectives and memberships. He was elected the Congress President in 1895 at Poona and in 1902 at Ahmedabad.

In 1880, Tilak founded two daily newspapers, the Marathi Kesari (Lion), and The Mahratta, published in English. Within two years, Kesari was attracting more readers than any other language newspaper in India. The editorials vividly portrayed the suffering of the people, and reported on actual events, calling on every Indian to fight for his rights. The language was intended to arouse, in the most timid reader, a passionate thirst for freedom. Tilak used to say to his colleagues, “You are not writing for the university students. Imagine you are talking to a villager. Be sure of your facts. Let your words be clear as daylight.” Tilak criticized the government for its brutality in suppressing freedom of expression, especially the protests of young nationalists against the division of Bengal in 1905; and for denigrating India’s culture, its people, and heritage. He demanded that the British immediately give Indians the right to self-government, and attacked the moderate nationalists who supported Western-style social and political reforms.

In 1894, Tilak transformed household worshipping of Ganesha into Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav and he also made Shiva Jayanti(birth anniversary celebrations of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) as a social festival. It is touted to be an effective demonstration of festival procession.

In 1880, Tilak founded two daily newspapers, the Marathi Kesari (Lion), and The Mahratta, published in English. Within two years, Kesari was attracting more readers than any other language newspaper in India. The editorials vividly portrayed the suffering of the people, and reported on actual events, calling on every Indian to fight for his rights. The language was intended to arouse, in the most timid reader, a passionate thirst for freedom.

The infamous “Gagging Act” of 1857 has been passed following the mutiny. It sought to regulate the establishment of printing presses and to restrain the circulation of printed mater. All presses had to have a license from the government. No distinction was made between publications in English and other regional languages. The Act also held that no licensed press should publish printed material impugning the motives of the British Raj, tending to bring it hatred and contempt and exciting unlawful resistance to its orders. When the British Government found that the Gagging Act was not potent enough to repress all Nationalist sentiments, it went on to create a more forcible law, designed in part by Sir Alexander Arbuthnot and Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. At the time the Vernacular Press Act was passed, there were thirty five vernacular papers in Bengal, including the Amrita Bazar Patrika, the editor of which was one Sisir Kumar Ghose. Sir Ashley Eden summoned him and offered to contribute to his paper regularly, if he allowed what he published to go under scanner by Sir Ashley’s office first. Ghose refused, and remarked that “there ought to be at least one honest journalist in the land.” The Vernacular Press Act might be said to have grown from this incident.