Development of Indian Press and Press Legislations

The Indian press did not emerge as a purely commercial enterprise — it was born in the crucible of colonial contestation. From James Augustus Hickey's first newspaper in 1780 to the sweeping repression of the Second World War era, the story of the Indian press is inseparable from the story of Indian nationalism. The colonial state understood this too: every major press law was a direct response to the political challenge posed by a growing vernacular and English-language press that increasingly held colonial power to account.

The press served a function in colonial India that no other institution could replicate. In a country where formal political institutions were either absent or under colonial control, the newspaper was the primary site of public opinion formation, nationalist education, and political mobilisation.

---

---

Censorship of Press Act, 1799 (Lord Wellesley)

Enacted in anticipation of a French invasion of India, this imposed near-wartime press conditions including pre-censorship — meaning all material had to be approved before publication. This was the most extreme early colonial press control.

• Relaxed under Lord Hastings, who held progressive views.
• By 1818, pre-censorship was formally dispensed with.

Licensing Regulations, 1823 (John Adams)

The acting governor-general John Adams, known for reactionary views, enacted these regulations. Key features:

• Starting or using a press without a licence became a penal offence.
• Extended to cover journals, pamphlets, and books.
• Specifically targeted Indian-language newspapers and those edited by Indians.
• Immediate consequence: Raja Rammohan Roy's Mirat-ul-Akbar was forced to cease publication.
• Rammohan Roy had protested against press restrictions as early as 1824.

Press Act of 1835 / Metcalfe Act

Governor-General Metcalfe (1835–36) repealed the oppressive 1823 ordinance and was celebrated as the 'liberator of the Indian press'. The new Act required only that printers/publishers give a precise account of their premises and cease functioning if required by a similar declaration — a regulatory, not prohibitory, framework. The result was a rapid growth of newspapers.

Licensing Act, 1857

The emergency created by the Revolt of 1857 prompted this Act, which added licensing restrictions on top of the existing Metcalfe Act registration requirements. The government reserved the right to stop publication and circulation of any printed matter.

Registration Act, 1867

This replaced the Metcalfe Act of 1835 and was purely regulatory in character — not restrictive:

• Every book/newspaper had to print the name of the printer, publisher, and place of publication.
• A copy had to be submitted to the local government within one month of publication.

---

The early phase of the national movement (c. 1870–1918) relied overwhelmingly on press and propaganda rather than mass agitation. The Indian National Congress in its early years depended solely on the press to propagate its resolutions and proceedings.

Key Nationalist Newspapers and Their Editors

• The Hindu and Swadesamitran — G. Subramaniya Aiyar
• The Bengalee — Surendranath Banerjea
• Voice of India — Dadabhai Naoroji
• Amrita Bazar Patrika — Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh
• Indian Mirror — N.N. Sen
• Kesari (Marathi) and Maharatta (English) — Bal Gangadhar Tilak
• Sudharak — Gopal Ganesh Agarkar
• Hindustan and Advocate — G.P. Verma
• Regional papers: Tribune and Akbhar-i-am (Punjab); Gujarati, Indu Prakash, Dhyan Prakash, Kal (Bombay); Som Prakash, Banganivasi, Sadharani (Bengal)

Character of Nationalist Press

These newspapers were not commercial enterprises — they were instruments of national and public service. Their reach extended beyond cities to remote villages, where local reading circles would gather around a single copy, making each newspaper function as both a political school and a forum of participation. Government Acts and policies were subjected to critical scrutiny; the nationalist press functioned as an institution of opposition.

Navigating Legal Restrictions

Colonial law, especially Section 124A IPC (transportation for life or imprisonment up to 3 years for causing disaffection against the British Government), forced nationalist journalists to develop clever legal strategies:

• Prefacing critical content with expressions of loyalty.
• Quoting critical writings from British socialist or Irish nationalist newspapers — attributing anti-imperial arguments to British writers. This required an intelligent combination of simplicity and subtlety.

---

Context

The background to the VPA was a combustible combination:

• Racial bitterness between rulers and ruled since 1857 — the European press aligned with government, while the vernacular press was consistently critical.
• Massive public anger at Lytton's policies: a devastating famine of 1876–77 coincided with lavish expenditure on the Imperial Delhi Durbar.
• Indian newspapers were exposing the government's inhuman treatment of famine victims.

Provisions

1. The district magistrate could require any vernacular newspaper's printer/publisher to enter into a bond undertaking not to publish material causing disaffection against the government or religious/caste/race antipathy; security could be demanded and forfeited; press equipment seized for repeat offences.
2. The magistrate's action was final — no appeal in any court of law.
3. A vernacular paper could seek exemption by submitting proofs to a government censor.

Assessment

• Nicknamed 'the gagging Act'.
• Worst features: (i) discrimination between English and vernacular press — English papers faced no such restrictions; (ii) no right of judicial appeal.
• Proceedings under VPA: Som Prakash, Bharat Mihir, Dacca Prakash, Samachar.
• Amrita Bazar Patrika famously converted overnight into an English-language newspaper to escape the VPA.
• The pre-censorship clause was later repealed and a Press Commissioner appointed.
• Repealed by Lord Ripon in 1882 after sustained nationalist opposition.

---

Bal Gangadhar Tilak represents the most dramatic intersection of press freedom and nationalist militancy. Through Kesari (Marathi) and Maharatta (English), Tilak systematically built mass anti-imperialist sentiment:

• Ganapati festivals (from 1893) and Shivaji festivals (from 1896) as vehicles of nationalist mobilisation.
• Organised all-Maharashtra campaign for boycott of foreign cloth (1896) against excise duty imposition on cotton.
• No-tax campaign (1896–97) urging farmers to withhold revenue payment if crop had failed.
• 1897 Poona plague: Tilak supported government anti-plague measures but criticised harsh methods (house searches, segregation). Unrest led to the murder of Rand (Plague Committee chairman) by the Chapekar brothers.

First Sedition Trial (1897)

The government used the Rand murder as a pretext. Tilak was charged based on:

• Publication of the poem 'Shivaji's Utterances' in Kesari.
• A speech at the Shivaji festival justifying Afzal Khan's killing by Shivaji. The government portrayed Tilak's historical argument as incitement to kill British officials. Tilak was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months rigorous imprisonment. He immediately became a national hero — awarded the title 'Lokmanya' (respected by the people).

Section 153A (1898)

The government amended Section 124A and added Section 153A — criminalising content bringing the Government of India into contempt or creating hatred between different classes (including vis-à-vis the English). This triggered nationwide protests.

---

Newspaper (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908

Targeted Extremist nationalist activity. Magistrates were empowered to confiscate press property publishing material likely to incite murder or acts of violence.

Tilak was tried again under sedition charges and transported to Mandalay (Burma) for six years. The response was extraordinary: in Bombay, textile workers and railway workshop workers went on strike for days and confronted the Army. Lenin described this as the entrance of the Indian working class onto the political stage.

Indian Press Act, 1910

Revived the worst features of the VPA:

• Local government could demand security at registration.
• Security could be forfeited/newspaper deregistered for offending content.
• Printer required to submit two copies of each issue to local government free of charge.

During and After the First World War

• Defence of India Rules imposed: political agitation and free public criticism suppressed.
• 1921: Press Acts of 1908 and 1910 repealed on the recommendations of a Press Committee chaired by Tej Bahadur Sapru.

Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act, 1931

• Gave sweeping powers to provincial governments to suppress propaganda for the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Amplified in 1932 to include all activities calculated to undermine government authority.

During the Second World War

• Pre-censorship reimposed under Defence of India Rules.
• Amendments to Press Emergency Act and Official Secrets Act.
• At one point, publication of all news related to Congress activity declared illegal.

---

In 1883, Surendranath Banerjea became the first Indian journalist to be imprisoned. His editorial in The Bengalee had criticised a Calcutta High Court judge for insensitivity to the religious sentiments of Bengalis in a judgment. This was treated as contempt of court.

---

• GS Paper I — Modern History: The press legislations form a key dimension of the colonial state's repressive apparatus; the nationalist response demonstrates the role of civil society institutions in sustaining political movements under authoritarian conditions.
• Nationalism and Colonialism: The press was the primary vehicle through which abstract nationalist ideology was converted into mass consciousness, especially during the Moderate phase when mass agitation was not yet the dominant mode.
• Social Change: Nationalist newspapers and associated reading circles (local 'libraries') extended political education to rural India — a form of bottom-up democratisation of public discourse.
• Continuity vs. Change: Colonial press laws (especially sedition under Section 124A IPC) were inherited by independent India and remained operative for decades — a significant continuity of colonial legal architecture.
• Interlinking: Press Development ↔ Moderate Phase of Congress ↔ Bal Gangadhar Tilak ↔ Swadeshi Movement ↔ Civil Liberties ↔ IPC Section 124A
• Modern Relevance: Debates about sedition laws, media freedom, and state surveillance of press in contemporary India directly echo the colonial-era contestations documented in this chapter.

---

1. Hickey's newspaper seized in 1782, not 1872: The text notes seizure in 1872 — but the Bengal Gazette was started in 1780 and seized in 1782. Some editions of Spectrum contain a typographical error (1872). The UPSC-relevant fact is 1780 (founding) and 1782 (seizure).

2. Metcalfe Act = Press Act of 1835, NOT 1823: Metcalfe REPEALED the 1823 Licensing Regulations. He did not enact them. The 1823 regulations were enacted by acting governor-general John Adams. This is a very common confusion in MCQs.

3. 'Liberator of the Indian Press' = Metcalfe: Not Ripon (who repealed VPA), not Hastings (who relaxed pre-censorship). Metcalfe gets this specific title.

4. VPA repealed by Ripon (1882), NOT by Metcalfe: Ripon repealed VPA. Metcalfe repealed the 1823 Licensing Regulations. Keep these two separate — both are 'liberalising' figures but with respect to different Acts.

5. First Indian journalist imprisoned = Surendranath Banerjea (1883): Not Tilak (whose first imprisonment was 1897). Banerjea was imprisoned for criticising a Calcutta High Court judge, not for sedition.

6. Amrita Bazar Patrika became English overnight to escape VPA: This is a famous fact frequently tested — the paper converted from Bengali to English to fall outside the VPA's scope (which applied only to vernacular newspapers).

7. Tilak's 1897 trial was for the poem 'Shivaji's Utterances' + his Shivaji festival speech: Not for any direct call for violence. The government's argument was that his historical defence of Shivaji's killing of Afzal Khan amounted to incitement against British officials.

8. Tilak transported to Mandalay for 6 years under the 1908 Act: The 1897 trial gave him 18 months rigorous imprisonment. The 1908 trial resulted in transportation to Mandalay. Do not confuse the two trials or their punishments.

---

• First newspaper: Bengal Gazette / Calcutta General Advertiser — James Augustus Hickey — 1780
• 1799: Censorship of Press Act (Wellesley) — pre-censorship; relaxed 1818 under Hastings
• 1823: Licensing Regulations (John Adams) — penal offence to run press without licence; Mirat-ul-Akbar forced to close
• 1835: Metcalfe Act — repealed 1823; Metcalfe = 'liberator of Indian press'
• 1867: Registration Act — regulatory only
• 1878: Vernacular Press Act (Lytton) — 'gagging Act'; discrimination against vernacular press; no right of appeal
• Amrita Bazar Patrika → converted to English overnight to escape VPA
• 1882: VPA repealed by Ripon
• 1883: Surendranath Banerjea — first Indian journalist imprisoned (The Bengalee)
• 1897: Tilak first sedition trial — 'Shivaji's Utterances' poem — 18 months rigorous imprisonment — earned title 'Lokmanya'
• 1898: Section 153A added to IPC
• 1908: Newspaper (Incitement to Offences) Act; Tilak transported to Mandalay for 6 years
• 1910: Indian Press Act — revived VPA's worst features
• 1921: Acts of 1908 and 1910 repealed — Tej Bahadur Sapru Committee
• 1931: Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act — suppressed Civil Disobedience propaganda
• WWII: Pre-censorship reimposed; Congress news declared illegal at one point