The introduction of printing press in India was an event of revolutionary significance in the life of Indian people. The awakening and growth of national consciousness among them gave rise to the nationalist press.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the founder of the nationalist press in India. Though a few papers had been started by others before him, his Sambad-Kaumudi in Bengali published in 1821, and Mirat-Ul-Akbar in Persian published in 1822, were the first publication in India with a distinct nationalist and democratic progressive orientation.
In 1822, Fardaonji Murzban, the pioneer of the Vernacular Press in Bombay, started Bombay Samachar (still in existence).
The progressive administrative measures of Lord Bentinck gave a fillip to the growth of Indian journalism. Bang Dutt (in Bengali), with the effort of Dwarkanath Tagore, Prasanna Kumar Tagore and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, was founded in 1830.
In Bombay, the Jam-e-Jamshed (in Gujarati) was started in 1831 by P.M.Motiwala. Rast Goftar and Akhbar-e-Saudagar was founded.
With the enactment of the Indian Council Act of 1861, both Indian and non-Indian Press expanded. The Times of India which supported the policy of the British Government in India was founded in Bombay in 1861. The Pioneer which supported the landowning and mercantile interests was in Allahabad in 1865. The Madras Mail which represented the interests of the European commercial community was founded in 1868. The Statesman which criticized the government as well as the Indian nationalist groups was founded in Calcutta in 1875. The Civil and Military Gazette which was distinctly an organ of British conservative opinion was founded in Lahore in 1878.
The nationalist press such as The Amrit Bazar Patrika, The Bengali, The Tribune of Lahore, The Hindu, Bangbasi, Basumati, The Kesari, Young India and many others were started during this period. Though the newspaper press was steadily expanding in India, the rate of its growth was slow. The primary reasons were mass illiteracy, great poverty, and repressive Press laws.
Since the Press was a powerful weapon in the development of Indian nationalism and the nationalist movements, it was subjected to restrictions hy the British Government which was reluctant to satisfy the aspirations and grant of the demands of Indian nationalism. The very fact that the British government had to enact a series of Press Acts proved the decisive role played by the Press in the development of the nationalist movement.
The history of the Indian Press was the history of the increasing diminution of its liberty, in spite of minor vicissitudes. The history of Indian nationalism proves that the freedom of the Press in India suffered a proportional curtailment.
From the early period a number Indian nationalist leaders fought for the freedom of Press. In 1799, Lord Wellesley appointed an official censor entrusted with the duty of passing all matter for publication and framed drastic rules to punish those who infringed them. Lord Hastings repealed those restrictionsin1818. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was enacted. This Act restricted the freedom the vernacular Press. The Vernacular Press Act was repealed in 1882 by Lord Ripon.
Till 1908, the Indian Press enjoyed considerable freedom. However, due to the phenomenal growth of the nationalist movement , the Newspaper Act was passed in 1908 and the Indian Press Act in 1910. The Indian Press enjoyed relative freedom till 1930. However, the Press Law of 1932 and Foreign Relations Act of 1932 diminished the freedom of the Indian Press.
Role of the Press in the national movement: The Press was a powerful factor in building and developing Indian nationalism and nationalist movement, social, cultural, political and economic.
The national movement, on its political side, was possible because of the facility of political education and propaganda provided by the Press. It was a weapon, in the hands of the nationalist groups, to popularize among the people their respective political programmes, policies, and methods of struggle, and to form organizations with a broad popular basis.
With the Press, all India conferences of nationalist organizations could not have been prepared and held and big political movements organized and directed.
Since the Press was a powerful weapon of the nationalist struggles, the Indian nationalists staunchly fought for its freedom throughout the Indian nationalist movement.
The Press alone made possible exchanged of views among different social groups of different parts of the country. The establishment and extension of the Press in India brought about a closer and intellectual contact between the Indian people. It also made possible the daily and extensive discussions of programmes of inter-provincial and national collaboration in sphere of social, political and cultural. National committees were appointed to implement the programmes adopted at these conferences throughout the country. This led to the building of an increasingly rich, complex, social and cultural , national existence.
The Press also helped the growth of provincial literatures and cultures, which were provincial in form and national in content.
The Press was an effective weapons in the hands of social reform groups to expose social evils such as caste fetters, child marriage, ban on remarriage of widows, social, legal and other inequalities from which women suffered and others. It also helped them to organize propaganda against such inhuman institutions as untouchability. It became a weapon in their hands to proclaim to the masses, principles, programmes, and methods of democratic reconstruction of the Indian society.
Further, the Press also brought to the Indian people, knowledge of the happenings in the international world. It became a weapon to constrict solidarity ties between the progressive forces of different countries.
Such was the role of the Press in the building up of an increasingly strong national sentiment and consciousness among the Indian people, in the development and consolidation of their growing nationalist movement, in the creation of national and provincial literatures and cultures, and in the forging of bonds of fraternity with other progressive peoples and classes in the outer worlds.
