The History of Indian Press

The History of Indian Press

1. Portuguese Introduced ‘Press’ in India.
2. the first book was published in India in 1557. (Goa)
3. In 1684, East India company established a Printing Press in Mumbai.
4. James Augustus Hickey in 1780 started the “Bengal Gazette or Calcutta general advertiser, the first newspaper in India. Which was seized in 1782 because of its outspoken criticism of the government.
5. Raja Ram Mohan Roy published “Sambad Kaumudi” (Bengali) in 1821. ‘Mirat ul-Akhbar’ (Persian) in 1822.
6. Raja Ram Mohan Roy is called the founder of the modern press.
7. In 1853, Harish Chandra Mukherjee & Girish Chandra Ghosh published ‘Hindu Patriots’ from Calcutta.

Important Journals / News Papers

1. India Gazette (1787) – Henry Vivian Derozio
2. Madras Courier (1784) – First Paper from Madras
3. Bombay Herald (1789) – First Paper from Bombay
4. Indian Herald (1795) – R. William & Humphreys
5. Calcutta Journal (1818) – J. S. Buckingham
6. Jam-I-Jahan Numa (1822) – First Urdu newspaper
7. East Indian (19th century) – Henry Vivian Derozio.
8. Bombay times (1838) – Called ‘Times of India’ after 1865.
9. Foundation laid by Robert knight started by Thomas Bennett.
10. Rast goftar (1858) – Dada bhai narogi
11. Kesari & Maratha (English) (1881) – Tilak
12. Yugantar (1906) – Barindra Kumar ghosh & Bhupendra dutta.
13. Sandhya (1906) – Brahma Bandhav Upadhyay.
14. Indian Sociologist, London (Shyamji Krishna Verma)
15. Bande Matram (Paris) – Madam Bhikaji Kama
16. Talvar (Berlin) – Virendra nath chattopadhyay
17. Free Hindustan (Vancouvert) – Taraknath das
18. Gadar (Sen Fransicco) – Gadar party, Lala Hardayal
19. Bombay chronicle (1913) – Firozshah mehta
20. Spmaprakasha (1858) – Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan (First Bengali political paper)
21. Indian mirror (1862) – Devendra Nath Tagore (First Indian daily paper in English).
22. Bangalee (1862) – Girish Chandra Nath Ghosh. (taken over by S. N. Mukherjee in 1879)
23. Madras mail (1868) – First evening paper in India.
24. Amrita Bazar (1868) – Sisir Kumar Ghosh & Motilal Ghosh (In Bengali & later an English daily)
25. Bangadarshan (1873) – Bankim Chandra Chatterji
26. Indian statesman (1875) – Robert knight (Later on ‘statesman’)
27. The Hindu (1878) – G. S. Aiyar, Viraraghava Chari & Subbarao
28. Tribune (1881) – Dayal Singh Majeethia
29. The Hindustan times (1920) – K. M. Pannikar
30. The Milap (1923) – M. K. Chand (Leader – Madan Mohan Malviya)
31. Karmyogi – Arvindo Ghosh
32. Free Hindustan – Taraknath Das – Against the Vernacular act.
33. New India, common wheal – Annie Besant
34. Satpatra series – Gopal Hari Deshmukh
35. Din mitra – mukund rao patil
36. Kudi Arasu – periyar
37. Ghulamgiri – Jyotiba phule
38. Mahatma, Dinbandhu – Bhaskar rao jadhav
39. Darpan – Bal shastri Jambekar
40. Bahiskrat bharat (1926) – Santosh Singh
41. Kranti (1927) – S.S. Mirajkar, K. N. Jogelkar, S. V ghate
42. Bandi jivan – Sachindra nath Sanyal.
43. National Herald (1938) – J. L. Nehru
44. Al-Hilal – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
45. Comrade – Mohammad Ali
46. Young India, Harijan – Mahatma Gandhi
47. Nation – Gopal Krishna Gokhale
48. Bengali – Surendra nath Banerjee
49. Somprakash – Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.
50. Udant Martand (1826) – Jugal Kishore, Kanpur – First Hindi News paper
51. Pioneer (1865) – Julian Robbinson 
52. Navjeevan (1919) – Mahatma Gandhi
53. Socialist (1922) – S.A. Dange
54. Bharat Mitra (1941) – Bal mukund gupt, Hindi
55. Hindu Patriote – Christodas Pal
56. Somprakash (1859) – Inswarchand Vidyasagar
57. Kavi vachan sudha (1867) – Bhartendu Harichandra
58. Hindi pradip (1877) – Balkrishna Bhatt

Censorship on Press 

The censorship of Press act 1799

Wellesley Introduced

According to this Act “name of editor, printer & proprietor” published on newspaper.

Lord Hastings Abolished this Act in 1818.

The Licensing regulation act 1823

John Adam Introduced

Miralul Akhbar (Raja Ram Mohan Roy) seized by this act.

Metcalf Abolished this act in 1835,

Licensing Act 1857

Due to an emergency caused by 1857 revolt this act imposed licensing restrictions. The government reserved the right to stop publication & circulation of any book or newspaper.

Registration act 1867

This replaced Metcalf's act of 1835 & was of a regulatory, not restrictive nature, As per the act. Every book was required to print the name of the printer & publisher & the place of the publication.

The Vernacular Press act 1878

Introduced by Litten.

According to this act “The DM was empowered to call upon the printer & Publisher of any vernacular newspaper to enter into a bond with the government undertaking not to cause disaffection against the government. No appeal could be made in the court of law.

The act came to be nicknamed “The gagging act”.

Under this act, Proceeding was instituted against “som Prakash / Bharat Mihir, Dacca Prakash & Samachar.

Rippen Abolished this Act. – 1882

Newspaper (Incitement to offenses) Act 1908

Introduced Lord Minto – II

Aimed against extremists nationalist activities, the act empowers the magistrate to confiscate press property which published objectionable material.

The Indian Press act 1910

This act revised the burst feature of vernacular press act.

Local government was empowered to demand a security at registration from the publisher & de-register if it was an offending newspaper.

Abolished on recommendation of “Tej bahadur Saproo” committee

The Indian Press (emergency power) Act 1931

This act gave sweeping powers to provincial governments to suppress propaganda for civil disobedience movement.

In Favour of censor :- Wellesley, Lord Minto-II, Lord Adams, Lord Canning, Lord Litten. Lord Elphinstone, Sir Thomas Munro.

In Favour of Freedom of Press: - Lord Hastings, Charles Metcalf, Macauley, ripen.

 Important News Agencies

Associated Press of India – 1905

Free Press news service – 1927

United Press of India – 1934 

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