At the time of the first war of independence, there were many newspapers operational in India. Many of these like Bangadoot of Ram Mohan Roy, Rastiguftar of Dadabhai Naoroji and Gyaneneshun advocated social reforms and thus helped arouse national awakening.
In 1857, Payam-e-Azadi started publication in
Hindi and Urdu, calling upon the people to fight against the British. The paper
was soon confiscated, and anyone found with a copy of the paper was persecuted
for sedition.
The first Hindi daily, Samachar Doorbeen and Sultan-ul-Akhar,
faced trial in 1957 for having published a ‘firman’ by Bahadur Shah Zafar,
urging the people to drive the British out of India. This was followed by the
notorious ‘Gagging Act’ of Lord Canning where restrictions were imposed on newspapers
and periodicals.
Some newspapers played a notable role in the struggle against
the British. The Hindi Patriot established in 1853 by Grish Chandra
Ghosh became popular under the editorship of Harish Chandra Mukherjee. In 1861,
the paper published a play, ‘Neel Darpan’ and launched a movement against the British,
urging the people to stop cultivating the crop for the traders. This resulted
in the formation of a Neel Commission. Later, the paper was taken over by
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. The paper strongly opposed the Government’s excesses
and demanded that Indians be appointed to top government posts. The Indian
Mirror was the other contemporary of this paper which was very popular
among the reading public.
Another newpaper Amrita Bazar Patrika which was
being published from Jessore, was critical of the government, with the result
that its proprietors faced trial and conviction. In 1871, the Patrika moved
to Calcutta and another Act was passed to suppress it and other native journals.
Marathi Press:
Mahadev Govind Ranade, a leading leader of Maharashtra,
used to write in Gyan Prakash as well as the Indu Prakash. Both these
journals helped awaken the conscience of the downtrodden masses.
Another Marathi weekly, Kesari was started by
Tilak from 1 Jan 1881. He along with Agarkar and Chiplunkar started another
weekly journal, Mratha in English. The editor of the ‘Deccan Star’
Nam Joshi also joined them and his paper was incorporated with Maratha.
Tilak and Agarkar were convicted for writings against the
British and the Diwan of Kolhapur. Tilak’s Kesari became one of the
leading media to propagate the message of freedom movement. It also made the
anti-partition movement of Bengal a national issue. In 1908 Tilak opposed the
Sedition ordinance. He was later exiled from the country for six years. Hindi edition
of Kesari was started from Nagpur and Benaras.
Press and the First Session of Congress
The Editors commanded a very high reputation at the
time of the birth of the Indian National Congress. One could measure the extent
of this respect from the fact that those who occupied the frontline seats in
the first ever Congress session held in Bombay in December 1885 included some
of the editors of Indian newspapers.
The first ever resolution at this Session was proposed
by the editor of The Hindu, G. Subramanya Iyer. In this resolution, it
was demanded that the government should appoint a committee to enquire into the
functioning of Indian administration.
The second resolution was also moved by a journalist
from Poona, Chiplunkar in which the Congress was urged to demand for the
abolition of India Council which ruled the country from Britain.
The third resolution was supported by Dadabhai Naoroji
who was a noted journalist of his time.
The fourth resolution was proposed by Dadabhai
Naoroji. There were many Congress Presidents who had either been the editors or
had started the publication of one or the other newspapers. In this context,
particular mention may be made of Ferozeshah Mehta who had started the Bombay
Chronicle and Pandit Madan Malaviya who edited daily, Hindustan. He
also helped the publication of leader from Allahabad. Moti Lal Nehru was the
first Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Lala Lajpat Rai inspired the publication of three
journals, the Punjabi, Bandematram and the People from
Lahore.
During his stay in South Africa, Gandhiji has brought
out Indian Opinion and after settling in India, he started the
publication of Young India; Navjeevan, Harijan, Harijan Sevak and Harijan
Bandhu.
Subash Chandra Bose and C. R. Das were not journalists
but they acquired the papers like Forward and Advance which later
attained national status.
Jawaharlal Nehru founded the National Herald.
Revolutionary Movement and the Press
As far as the revolutionary movement is concerned, it
did not begin with guns and bombs but it started with the publication of
newspapers. The first to be mentioned in this context is Yugantar
publication which was started by Barindra Kumar Ghosh who edited it also.
When the Ghadar party was organized in America, Lala
Hardayal started publication of the journal ‘Ghadar’. Within one year,
millions of copies of this journal were published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi,
Gujarati, Marathi and English and sent to India and to all parts of the world
where Indians were residing. In the beginning the copies of the journal were
concealed in parcels of foreign cloth sent to Delhi. It was also planned to
smuggle the printing press into India for this purpose. But then the war broke
out and it became almost impossible to import printing machinery from abroad.
Lala Hardayal was arrested in America and deported to India. One of his
followers Pandit Ramchandra started publishing Hindustan Ghadar in
English. With the U.S. joining the war, the Ghadar party workers were arrested
by the American Government. When the trial was on, one of the rivals of Pandit
Ramchandra managed to obtain a gun and shoot himself in the jail. The death of
Ramchandra led to the closure of this paper.
In 1905 Shyamji Krishna Verma started publication of a
journal Indian Sociologist from London. It used to publish reports of
political activities taking place at the India House in London. In 1909 two
printers of this journal were convicted. Shyamji Krishna Verma left England for
Paris from where he started the publication of the journal. Later on, he had to
leave for Geneva. He continued to bring out the journal from there for two or
three years more.
In Paris, Lala Hardayal, in collaboration with Madam
Cama and Sardar Singhraoji Rana brought our Vandematram and Talwar.
After Yugantar, it was Vandematram that played a significant role
in the freedom struggle. This journal was established by Subodha Chandra Malik,
C. R. Das and Bipin Chandra Pal on August 6, 1906. its editor, Aurobindo Ghosh,
the editor of Sandhya B. Upadhyay and editor of Yugantar B.N.Dutt had to a face
a trial for espousing the cause of freedom.
As far as the Hindi papers were concerned, they looked
to government for support for some time. Bhartendu Harish Chandra was the first
to start a journal Kavi Vachan Sudha in 1868. Its policy was to give
vent to the miseries of the people of India. When the Prince of Wales visited
India, a poem was published in his honor. The British authorities were given to
understand that the poem could also mean that the Prince of Wales should get a
shoe-beating. The government aid to journals like Kavi Vachan Sudha was
stopped on account of publishing what was objectionable from the government
point of view. Bhartendu Harish Chandra resigned from his post of an honorary
Magistrate. His two friends, Pratap Narain Mishra and Bal Krishna started
publication of two important political journals. Two friends, Pratap Narain
Mishra and Bal Krishna Bhatt started publication of two important political
journals Pradeep from Allahabad, and Brahman from Kanpur. The
Pradeep was ordered to be closed down in 1910 for espousing the cause of
freedom.
The Bharat-Mitra was a famous Hindi journal of
Calcutta which started its publication on May 17, 1878 as a fortnightly. It
contributed a lot in propagating the cause of freedom movement. The journal
exposed the British conspiracy to usurp Kashmir.
Several other papers published from Calcutta which
played an important role in freedom struggle included Ambika Prasad Vajpayee’s Swantrantra,
Ramanand Chatterjee’s Modern Review in English, Pravasi Patra’ in
Bengali and Vishal Bharat in Hindi.
One of the foremost Hindi journalist who has earned a
name for his patriotism was Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi. In 1913, he brought out
weekly Pratap from Kanpur. He made the supreme sacrifice in 1931 in the
cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. Krishna Dutt Paliwal brought out Sainik
from Agra which became a staunch propagator of nationalism in Western U.P.
The noted Congress leader, Swami Sharadhanand, started
the publication of Hindi journal Vir Arjun and Urdu journal Tej.
After the assassination of Swami Sharadhanand, Vidyavachaspathi and Lala
Deshbandhu Gupta continued the publication of these journals. They were
themselves prominent Congress leaders.
In Lahore, Mahashaya Khushal Chand brought out Milap and Mahashaya Krishna started publishing Urdu journals which helped a lot in promoting the national cause. In 1881, Sardar Dayal Singh Majitha on the advice of Surendra Nath Bannerjee brought out Tribune under the editorship of Sheetala Kant Chatterjee. Bipin Chandra Pal also edited this paper for sometime. Later in 1917, Kalinath Rai joined the paper as its editor.
A. G. Horniman made the Bombay chronicle a
powerful instrument to promote militant nationalism. He himself took part in
the meetings where Satyagraha used to be planned. He published vivid accounts
of Jallianwala Bagh carnage for which one correspondent of his paper, Goverdhan
Das, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a military court. Horniman
too was arrested and deported to London even though he was ill at that time.
Amritlal Shet brought out the Gujarati Journal Janmabhumi
which was an organ of the people of the princely states of Kathiawad, but it
became a mouthpiece of national struggle. Similarly another Gujarati journal Saanjvartman
played a prominent role under the editorship of Sanwal Das Gandhi, who played a
very significant role in the Quit India Movement in 1942. It was soon after
independent formed a parallel Government in Junagarh and forced the Nawab of
Junagarh to leave the country. The three editors of the Sindhi journal Hindi
Jairam Das Daulatram, Dr. Choithram Gidwani and Hiranand Karamchand, were
arrested, their press closed and the property of the paper confiscated.
In Bihar the tradition of national newspapers was
carried forward by Sachidanand Sinha, who had started the publication of Searchlight
under the editorship of Murtimanohar Sinha.
Dev Brat Shastri started publication of Nav Shakti
and Rashtra Vani. The weekly Yogi and the Hunkar also
contributed very much to the general awakening.
There is not a single province in India which did not produce a journal or newspaper to uphold the cause of freedom struggle
Ref: Introduction to Journalism – Troy Rebeiro
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