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POLITICS AND BUSINESS IN THE INDIAN NEWSPAPERS OF COLONIAL TANGANYIKA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2011

James R. Brennan
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Abstract

This article examines the history of two Indian newspapers, Tanganyika Opinion and Tanganyika Herald, to demonstrate how business considerations provided both the opportunity for East African Indians to make public arguments and the central limitation on the arguments that could be made. Founded on the inspiration of mass nationalist action through a territorial hartal, the Tanganyika Opinion and later the Herald blazed the trails that articulated ‘Greater India’ among the Anglo-Gujarati reading public in Tanganyika. But growing conservative sentiments within this vulnerable minority, along with rising sectarian division, reduced both the patronage and audience for a singular ‘anti-colonial’ politics by the 1930s and 1940s. Moreover, as a marginal print node along the Indian Ocean littoral, the Opinion and Herald came to rely on an opportunistic mixture of wire services and consular propaganda to keep abreast of regional and international news developments. Ultimately, the shrinking market for Anglo-Gujarati newspapers and rising opportunities in Swahili-language journals had sealed the doom of these and similar Indian newspapers by the time ‘African’ political independence arrived in the early 1960s.

Résumé

Cet article examine l'histoire de deux journaux indiens, le Tanganyika Opinion et le Tanganyika Herald, pour démontrer comment des considérations commerciales ont donné l'opportunité aux Indiens d'Afrique orientale de formuler des arguments publics, et la limitation centrale s'exerçant sur ces arguments. Nés de l'inspiration du mouvement nationaliste de masse par le biais d'un hartal territorial, le Tanganyika Opinion puis plus tard le Herald ont été les premiers à donner expression à la « Grande Inde » auprès du lectorat anglo-gujarati du Tanganyika. Or, la montée des sentiments conservateurs au sein de cette minorité vulnérable, et la montée de la division sectaire, ont réduit le soutien et le lectorat en faveur d'une politique « anticoloniale » singulière au détour des années 1930 et 1940. De plus, en tant que pôle d'impression marginal sur le littoral de l'océan Indien, l’Opinion et le Herald en étaient venus à dépendre des agences de presse et de la propagande consulaire, de manière opportuniste, pour se tenir au courant de l'actualité régionale et internationale. La baisse de la demande des journaux anglo-gujarati et les opportunités croissantes des revues en langue swahili ont fini par sceller le sort de ces journaux et autres journaux indiens similaires, avant même que n'arrive l'indépendance politique de l'Afrique au début des années 1960.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 81 , Issue 1: Print Cultures, Nationalisms and Publics of the Indian Ocean , February 2011 , pp. 42 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2011

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