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The Indian Press 1870–1880: A Small World of Journalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Uma Das Gupta
Uma Das Gupta
Affiliation:
Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan
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Extract

A Unianimous decision of the Viceroy's Council was taken on 14 March 1878 to establish a check over the vernacular press in India. This was Act IX of 1878, an act for ‘the better control of publications in Oriental languages’. It was to control ‘seditious writing’ in the vernacular newspapers everywhere in the country, except the south. Too much was being written in these newspapers of the ‘injustice and tyranny’ of the British government, ‘its utter want of consideration towards its native subjects, and the insolence and pride of Englishmen in India’.One hundred and fifty-nine extracts from vernacular newspapers of the North-Western Provinces, Punjab, Bengal and Bombay were produced before the Supreme Council as evidence of existing sedition. Surprised at its own importance, the vernacular press staggered into the eighties of the nineteenth century. The crucial demand for ajudicial trial in case of an accusation of sedition against an editor was never conceded by the government, although in October 1878 the act was modified in minor respects. The important thing was that the government from an almost complete unawareness had come to be so preoccupied with the vernacular press. What was the nature of the vernacular press in India in the 1870s and how wide was its range?

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 213 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 For the extracts of the vernacular papers submitted to the Supreme Council see Home (Judicial) Proceedings, National Archives of India, New Delhi [N.A.I.], April 1878, Pt B, No. 23, Appendix [hereafter, Home Judicial]; also, Dacosta, J., ‘Remarks on the Vernacular Press Laws of India’, pp. 6–16, in Political Tracts relating to India and China (London, 1878).Google Scholar

2 By this amendment the submission of proofs before publication was no longer insisted upon, although the bail-bond remained. Home (Legislative) Proceedings, N.A.I., October 1878, Pt B, No. 167; also Cranbrook to Lytton, 30 May and 4 June 1878, Lytton Papers, Vol. 516/3, MSS Eur. E 218, India Office Library, London.Google Scholar

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69 A list of subscribers in 1871 is available at the Bombay Samachar, Bombay. I am grateful to Mr Cama, the present managing director of the Samachar, for access to such information.

70 Administrative Report for North Western Provinces, 1874–1875, pp. 197–8.Google Scholar

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