EVOLUTION AND

GROWTH OF PRINT
JOURNALISM IN
INDIA Journalis Mass
m& Communi
cation

Dr. Rahul Kumar

Assistant Professor
 History of Printing
600 AD - Chinese invent printing during the period of Tang
dynasty using WOODEN BLOCKS to print letters.
1300 - BLOCK printing comes to Europe.
1439 - Johannes Gutenberg (Germany) develops printing
technology and invents oil-based ink for it.
1556 - Printing technology comes to India. 1st book printed in
India was in Portuguese in Old Goa.
Johannes Gensfleisch zur
Laden zum Gutenberg was a
German inventor, printer,
publisher, and goldsmith who
introduced printing to Europe
with his mechanical movable-
type printing press.
 History of Printing in
India
 Establishment of printing press by Christian Missionaries.
 Motive was to spread Christianity in India.
 It helped to fight several mal-practices in India.
 East India Company also established heavy printing
machine in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.
 Hickey’s Gazette
 Press was first used for journalistic purposes in India in
1780.
 James Augustus Hickey started a weekly newspaper
Bengal Gazette on 29th January 1780.
Bengal Gazette :-
“A weekly political and commercial newspaper open to all
parties but influenced by none”.
 India Gazette
 This newspaper was established by Hastings as a voice
against Bengal Gazette in 1780.
 Around 200 newspapers established between 1780 to 1857.
 Most of these newspapers were closed down soon.
Newspapers that kept their existence were:

 India Gazette (1780)

 Calcutta Gazette (1784)
 Asiatic Mirror (1788)
 The Calcutta Morning Post (1799)
 The Oriental Star (1793)
 The Calcutta Monthly Journal (1794)
Newspapers came into being form Madras, Delhi and
Bombay:

 Madras Courier (1785)

 The Harkaru (1791)
 Madras Gazette (1795)
 Bombay Herald (1789)
 The Bombay Gazette (1780)
 The Voice of India (1782)
 Real Journalism
 It started with the arrival of James Silk Bukingham.
 He took charge of “Calcutta Journal” as editor in 1818.
 He started effective presentation of different genre of stories.
 Completely away from the cheapness of Hickey’s Gazette.
 His impartial and honest journalism led to popularity of his
newspaper.
 Within 3 years it became first daily of Calcutta.
Continue……
 Some personnel of EIC announced publication of “John Bull in
the East” against “ Calcutta Journal”.
 But his impartial approach was not liked by British
government and he was sent back to Britain in 1823.
 Journalism in initial days were mainly controlled by Christian
Missionaries or EIC, promoting their interests or Christianity.
 Indian Journalism emerged as a mission when some freedom
fighters used journalism as a weapon against the British rule.
 Raja Ram Mohan Roy
 He was basically a social reformer, who contributed
significantly for the elimination of “Sati System” and for
spread of women’s education in India.
 He is also said to be the “Father of Indian Language
Journalism.”
 He published three newspapers:
- Sambad Kaumudi (Bengali) - 1819
- Mirat-ul Akhbar (Persian) - 1823
- Brahminical Magazine (English) - 1821
Continue……
 With the inspiration of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, three more
newspapers continued their publication between 1821-1891.

- The Reformer
- The Enquirer
- - Gyan Anveshan
All these newspapers were the promoters of progressive
Hinduism.
 Other early Indian
Journalists
 Bengal Gazette was the first newspaper published with an
Indian ownership brought by Gangadhar Bhattacharjee in
1816.
 May 30, 1826 - Udant Martand (The Rising Sun) - 1st Hindi
newspaper; started in Calcutta; published by Pt. Jugal
Kishore Shukla.
 “Samachar Chandrika” launched by Bhabani Charan
Bannerjee in 1822.
 49 new newspapers began from Bengal and Bombay between
Pioneer Indian journalists

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mahatma Gandhi, Gangadhar

Bhattacharjee, Bhawani Charan Bannerjee, Dwarkanath Tagore,
Girish Chandra Ghose, Harishchandra Mukharjee,
IshworchandraVidyasagar, Kristo Pal, Manmohan Ghose, Keshub
Chander Sen etc.
 Some centenarian
newspapers in India
 The Times of India (1861)
 Amrit Bazar Patrika (1868)
 Pioneer (1872)
 The Statesman (1875)
 The Hindu (1878)
 Conclusion
 The initial 40 years of Indian Journalism was entirely controlled
by Europeans.
 Calcutta became the centre of all these activities for two
reasons:
- Printing facility
- Administrative centre
 First Hindi newspaper ‘Udant Martand’ also took birth in
calcutta.
Indian Press and Freedom
Struggle
Before 1857 press can be divided into three major
categories:
(1). English and vernacular press that enjoyed full support and
patronage of East India Company:
 Jam-i-Jahan Numa
 Fawaid-al-Nadrin
 Qiran al-Saadayn
 Koh-i Nur
 Qadar al-Akhbar
Continue ……
(2). Those English, Bengali, Persian and other language
newspapers, which were founded by educated Indians, like
Mohan Rai, Dawarka Nath Tegore, Hari Dutt and many others.
 They were mainly focussed on social reforms and were
different from that of Delhi and adjoining areas.
 These nationalist Indians used their press with a complete
understanding of the changing political, economic and cultural
environment.
Continue ……
(3). Urdu newspapers, further divided into two parts:
 Supported by the rulers and Nawabs of Indian States, mostly
to please the newspaper owners.
 Urdu press in the Subcontinent spread over a period of
twenty years from 1837 to 1857. Till 1844 fast growth and
1851 to 1856 fastest growth.
 All the centres where 1857 revolt broke out were also centres
of Urdu press.
 Press and 1857 Revolt
 Rise of Titu Mir, Faraizi Movement, The Santhal Rebellion of
1850s and the 1857’s Sepoy Revolt were indicative of
simmering discontent in India.
 The Persian papers the Durbin, the Sultan-ul-Akhbar and the
Hindoo Patriot of Calcutta asked the nation to prepare for a
revolution.
 Samachar Sudhabarshan, a bilingual daily in Bangla and
Hindi from Calcutta, printed news and views about the
progress of revolt.
 After 1857
 “Som Prakash” (Bangla)- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1858)
 “Dacca Prokash” (1861) – Dhaka
 “The Pioneer” (1865) – Allahabad- George Allen
 “Amrit Bazar Patrika” (1868)- Calcutta
 “The Statesman” (1875)- Robert knight
 “The Times of India” (1861) was started as a paper supporting
the British.
 The Telegaraph was published from Calcutta from 1982.
 “The Hindu” (1887) and “The Tribune” (1880) were also started
during this period.
 “The Hindustan Times” was started later, in 1923.

After the formation of INC The Statesman and Friend of India and the
Amrita Bazar Patrika openly supported it.
 Lokmanya Tilak: The icon of
fearless journalism
Tilak and Agarkar, the two friends completed their education and felt
that they should do something in education field and they started
new English school.
Later they started two newspapers one “Maratha” in English and
“Kesri” in Marathi.
Characteristics of Tilak’s journalism:
 Journalism putting forth rational thoughts.
 Journalism exposing suppression by the Government.
 Tilak believed in journalism to form public opinion.
 Tilak's journalism was based in his belief in God.
 Gandhi Ji and the Press
 Today, when contemporary media is using all fair and foul means to
gain popularity and trying to make celebrities as icon, it is worth to
revisit Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of journalism.
 Gandhi was probably the greatest journalist of all time. He
published no advertisement still his newspapers never ran in loss.
 He gained considerable experience in South Africa where he had
taken over editorship of “Indian Opinion” in 1904.
 Continue ……
 Gandhi Ji talked about three objects of journalism:
1. Understand the popular feeling and give expression to it.
2. Arouse certain desirable sentiments among the people.
3. Fearlessly expose popular defects.
 The two journals 'Young India' and 'Navjivan' were used by him
to ventilate his views and to educate the public on Satyagraha.
 In 1933, Gandhi Ji started “Harijan” (English), “Harijanbandhu”
(Gujarati), “Harijansevak” (Hindi). These newspapers were the
vehicles of his crusade against untouchability and poverty in rural
Role of Journalism according
to Gandhi Ji
 It is wrong to use a newspaper as a means of earning a living.
 Newspapers are meant primarily to educate the people.
 They make the latter familiar with contemporary history.
 It needs a sense of responsibility.
 If newspapers realized that it was their duty to educate the people,
they should wait to check a report before publishing it.
 Gandhi Ji’s code of
Journalism
In 'Young India' Gandhi Ji wrote:
 I may not write in anger or malice
 I may not write idly.
 I may not write merely to excite passion.
 I have to work hard for choice of topics and vocabulary.
 It have to peek into myself and to make discoveries of my
weaknesses.
 Struggle against
repressive measures
 In 1799, Lord Wellesley brought the Censorship of Press
Act, 1799. The idea was to stop the French from publishing
anything which could harm British in any way. Wellesley
issued guidelines for papers published from Calcutta which
required every printer to publish its name at the bottom of
first page and pre-censorship.
 Licensing Regulations, 1823 : In 1823, John Adams the
acting Governor General made press law more stringent.
Obtaining licence became mandatory.
 Metcalf - The Liberator
Sir Charles Metcalf (governor-general from 1835 to
1836) said:
 There is no use of having strict law.
 He favoured diffusion of knowledge.
 No discrimination between English and language press.
 Free press is not dangerous to the Indian Empire.
 To prevent people from thinking and feeling is impossible.
 Free press will act like a “safety valve”.
Continue ……
 This act is also called “the liberator of the Indian press”.
 Metcalf law only asked publisher for a declaration of their
address.
 The punishment of 5000 plus 2 years imprisonment was
constituted against non-filing of the declaration.
 Licensing Act, 1857
 Due to the emergency caused by the 1857 revolt, this Act
imposed licensing restrictions in addition to the already
existing registration procedure laid down by Metcalfe Act.
 The Government reserved the right to stop publication and
circulation of any book, newspaper or printed matter.
 Registration Act, 1867
 This replaced Metcalfe’s Act of 1835 and was of a regulatory,
not restrictive, nature.
 As per the Act, (i) every book/newspaper was required to
print the name of the printer and the publisher and the place
of the publication; and (ii) a copy was to be submitted to the
local government within one month of the publication of a
book.
 Vernacular Press Act,
It was
1878
constituted for ‘better control’ of the vernacular press and
effectively punished and repressed seditious writing. The provisions of
the Act are given below:
 The district magistrate was empowered to call upon the printer and
publisher of any vernacular newspaper to enter into a bond with the
Government undertaking not to cause disaffection against the
government or antipathy between persons of different religions,
caste, race through published material; the printer and publisher
could also be required to deposit security which could be seized if
 Continue ……
 The magistrate’s action was final and no appeal could be made in a
court of law.
 A vernacular newspaper could get an exemption from the operation
of the Act by submitting proof to a government censor.
 The Act came to be nicknamed “the gagging Act”.
 The worst features of this Act were—(i) discriminator between
English and vernacular press, (ii) no right of appeal.
 Newspaper (Incitement
to Offences) Act, 1908
 Aimed against Extremist nationalist activity, the Act empowered the
magistrates to confiscate press property which published
objectionable material likely to cause incitement to murder/ acts of
violence.
 Indian Press Act, 1910
 This Act revived the worst features of the VPA—local government
was empowered to demand a security at registration from the
printer/publisher and forfeit/deregister if it was an offending
newspaper, and the printer of a newspaper was required to
submit two copies of each issue to local government free of
charge.
 Tilak as the leader of militant nationalists was tried on charges of
sedition and transported to Mandalay (Burma) for six years.
 Indian Press (Emergency
Powers) Act, 1931
 This Act gave sweeping powers to provincial governments to
suppress propaganda for Civil Disobedience Movement.
 It was further amplified in 1932 to include all activities calculated
to undermine government authority.
 After Independence

Press Enquiry Committee, 1947:

 The Committee was set up to examine press laws in the light of

fundamental rights formulated by the Constituent Assembly. It
recommended repeal of Indian Emergency Powers Act, 1931,
amendments in Press and Registration of Books Act, modifications
in Sections 124-A and 156-A of IPC, among others.
 After Independence

Press (Objectionable Matters) Act, 1951:

 The Act was passed along with amendment to Article 19 (2) of the
Constitution. The Act empowered the government to demand and
forfeit security for publication of “objectionable matter”.
Aggrieved owners and printers were given right to demand trial
by jury. It remained in force till 1956.
THANK YOU