Bachelor of Journalism & Mass communication, Indian Govt. Politics, Press and Indian National movement

1. Press & Indian National Movement
Press - It s Decisive Social Role
In modern times, the Press has become a powerful social
institution. This is proved by the fact that the Press has been
glorified as the Fourth Estate. The Press moulds as well as
mirrors all complex processes of modem life. It facilitates the
exchange of thought on a mass scale in the shortest time. By its
aid, conferences are mobilized, controversies settled or fought
out, movements organized, institutions built up. The Press is a
powerful censor of all actions of those who occupy the
summits of society and hold the destiny of peoples in their
hands. It thereby helps to establish popular democratic control
over them.
The Press was a formidable weapon in the hands of the
Europeans in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries; in integrating themselves as nations, in organizing
struggles against feudal disunity maintained by the feudal
nobility, in establishing the modern national state,society, and
culture. In France,the intelligentsia, the harbingers and
proclaimers of the new social order and its advanced social
conceptions, found in the Press an effective weapon to expose
the moral decadence,cultural poverty, and reactionary social
significance, of the ruling feudal class. Through the Press,
Voltaire, Diderot, Holbach, Helvetius, and others disseminated
scientific, social ideas among the people and kindled indignation
among them against the religious superstition and social
oppression under which they lived. They stormed against
serfdom and summoned serfs to revolt against the feudal
nobility and its state. They denounced, in thousands of books
and brochures, the undemocratic principles of the privilege
through birth on which feudal society was based and which was
made sacrosanct by the catholic superstition. They propagated,
in flaming printed word, equal rights of individuals in opposition
to feudal privilege. They carried on the propaganda of a
program of abolition of serfdom and the establishment of a
centralized democratic national state of the French people. The
Press became an indispensable weapon for the rising social
forces led by the intelligentsia including political writers such as
Mirabeau, Danton, Robespierre, Marat to stir up the consciousness
of the people, to enlighten it with new ideas and lead
them through a great historic struggle for the overthrow of the
feudal state and society and replace them by the modem
national state and society. In the hands of the advanced section
of the French people, the Press became a weapon for the
creation and development of the new, historically higher type of
society, the bourgeois national democratic society which post-
Revolutionary France represented. Without the help of the
Press,it is extremely doubtful if the mass mobilization for the
anti-feudal struggle, the establishment of a national state and
society after the destruction of the feudal state and social order,
and the development of the rich complex scientific and artistic
culture of modem France,would have been possible.
Its Absence in Pre-British India
The printing press did not exist in the pre-British period.
Though the Portuguese Jesuits first introduced it in India as

2. early as 1557 to print Christian literature, it became a realsocial
force influencing the life of the people only in the first quarter
of the nineteenth century.
Manuscript newspapers were in vogue during the Mogul
regimes. Generally the emperor appointed two news-writers,in
every provincial centre; a waquia-navis who prepared a manuscript
news gazette embodying information about all-important
public activities in the area and a sawanih-navis who prepared a
newssheet,which gave news about all-important events that
took place there.
During the pre-British period, wealthy merchants also employed
private news-writers who prepared and sent to their
employers’ newsletters providing commercial and other news.
All these official and private newspapers and newsletters were
handwritten in the absence of the facility of the printing press.
They reached a small section of the population only and were
restricted in the range of information.
Grow t h of Indian Press, Up t o A.D. 1900
The introduction of the printing press in India was an event of
revolutionary significance in the life of the 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 others had started a few papers before him,
his Sambad-Kaumudi in Bengali published in 1821, and Mirat-UIAkbar
in Persian published in 1822, were the first publications
in India with a distinct nationalist and democratic progressive
orientation. These papers were mainly the organs of the
propaganda of social reform, and a critical discussion of
religious and philosophical problems.
Fardoonji Murzban was the pioneer of the vernacular (Gujarati)
Press in Bombay. It was as early as 1822 that he started the
Bombay Samachar which, as a daily, is 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 progressive Indians like Dwarkanath
Tagore, Prasanna Kumar Tagore,and Raja Ram Mohan Roy was
founded in 1830.
In Bombay, the Jam-e-Jamshed (in Gujarati), which, as a daily, is
still being published, was started in 1831 by P. M. Motiwala,
another enterprising Parsee. Two more papers in Gujarati, Rast
Goftar and Akhbar-e-Saudagar,were founded in Bombay in 1851.
Dadabhai Naoroji, an outstanding leader of the Indian
nationalist movement and a founder leader of the Indian
National Congress, edited Rast Goftar.
LESSON 9:
PRESS AND INDIAN NATIONALM OVEM ENT
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INDIAN GOVERNM ENT AND POLITICS
Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, the famous nationalist and social
reformer, started the Shome Prakash in Bengali in 1858. It was
conducted from the nationalist standpoint and maintained a
high standard of political journalism. When disturbances broke
out in 1860 in the indigo growing area in Bengal, it stoutly
defended the interests of the farmers.
The enactment of the Indian Council’s Act of 1861, which for

3. the first time associated Indians with the government for
legislative work, led to the growth of political awakening
among the upper section of Indian society. This stimulated the
expansion of both Indian and non Indian Press in the
following years. The Times of India was founded in Bombay in
1861, The Pioneer in Allahabad in 1865, The Madras Mail in 1868,
The Statesman in Calcutta in 1875, and The Civil and Military
Gazette in Lahore in 1876. All these papers were English dailies
and persisted during the British period. The Times of India
usually supported the policy of the British government in
India. The Pioneer supported landowning and mercantile
interests. The Madras Mail represented the interests of the
European commercial community.
The Statesman criticized the government as well as the Indian
nationalist groups while The Civil and Military Gazette was
distinctly an organ of British conservative opinion.
The nationalist Press also grew during this period. In Bengal,
The Amrit Bazar Patrika was founded as an Anglo-Bengali
weekly as the result of the combined effort of the Ghose
brothers, Hemendrakumar, Shishirkumar, and Motilal, in 1868.
To circumvent the Vernacular Press Act of 1878, it was converted
wholly into an English weekly. It was turned into an
English daily in 1891. The Amrit Bazar Patrika propagated
strong nationalist views and had been one of the most popular
of the nationalist newspapers. Due to its strong criticisms of
the measures of the government, the paper was subjected to
repression. A number of its editors were imprisoned in the
past.
Sir Surendranath Banerjee,one of the most prominent leaders
of the rising Indian nationalism, edited and owned The Bengali
(in English) in 1879. For an article published in The Bengali, he
was convicted for the offence of contempt of court and
sentenced to two months imprisonment. The Bengali propagated
the views of the moderate wing of the liberal school of
Indian political thought.
Under the advice of Sir Surendranath Banerjee, Sir DayalSingh
Majeetia started The Tribune of Lahore, an English daily, in
1877. It was an influential paper in the Punjab with a liberal
nationalist hue.
The political discontent, which gathered during the period of
Lord Lytton’s administration due to a number of measures,
which offended the public sentiment, gave impetus to the
further growth of the Press. The Hindu, an English weekly, was
founded in Madras in 1878, which was converted into an
English daily in 1889. The Hindu had a liberal outlook but
supported, though critically, the politics of the Indian National
Congress.
It was during this period the Bangbasi (weekly) and Basumati
(daily/ weekly), both in Bengali, were started. Babu
Jogendranath Bose founded the former. Both were priced low
and mainly met the growing appetite of the people for news.
Both these papers continued to be published and were organs
of orthodox Hinduism in Bengal.
Indian nationalism found an organizational expression on an
all India basis in the rise of the Indian National Congress in
1885. The national awakening of the upper strata of the Indian

4. people gathered rapid momentum after this. By the end of the
century, a new current of political thought crystallized.
Alongside and almost contraposed to the leaders of the liberal
nationalist school, emerged leaders of extremist or militant
nationalism such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal,
Aurobindo and Barindra Ghose and Lala Lajpat Rai.
The broadening and deepening of the nationalist movement
after 1889 was reflected in the growth of the nationalist Press of
various hues. Tilak along with Agarkar started The Kesari,a
Marathi journal, in which he expounded the ideology and
methodology of struggle for national freedom conceived by the
new school. Tilak was a journalist of consummate ability and,
in his hands, The Kesariand The Maratha (an English weekly)
became effective weapons to instill militant nationalist sentiments
and ideas among the people. The Kesaricontinued to be
published in Marathi as a bi-weekly. Tilak was sentenced to
imprisonment twice for his articles in The Kesari.
The Jugantar and The Bandemataram were the two influential
organs of the Bengal group of militant nationalists led by the
Ghose brothers to spread their views of national freedom and
reconstruction. They were organs of agitation against the
Partition of Bengal and of propaganda of Swadeshi and
Boycott. The Indian Social Reformer,an English weekly, primarily
devoted to the propaganda of social reform, was started in
Bombay in 1890.
Sachhidananda Sinha founded The Hindustan Review, an English
monthly, in 1899. The magazine had a liberal political and
ideological tone.
Its Subsequent Development
In Madras,G. A. Natesan started in 1900 The Indian Review, an
English monthly. In Calcutta, Ramanand Chatterjee started in
1907 The Modern Review, an English monthly, and the most
famous ones in India. The magazine was devoted to themes of
social, political, historical and scientific interest. It also gave
interesting and useful information about international events.
It usually endorsed the right wing in the Indian National
Congress.
After the split in the Indian National Congress in 1907 at Surat
between the Moderates and the extremists, the leaders of the
former group such as Sir Pherozshah Mehta, Sir Dinshaw
Wacha and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, acutely felt the necessity of
an organ of propaganda for their views in Bombay.
Sir Pherozshah Mehta started The Bombay Chronicle in 1913 with
B. G. Horniman as its first editor. Under the able and experienced
editorship of Horniman, The Bombay Chronicle soon
became popular.
During the First World War (1914-18), while one section of the
nationalist leaders (the Liberals and Gandhi), trusted the pledge
of the British government to meet the political demands of the
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INDIAN GOVERNM ENT AND POLITICS
Indian people and stood for wholehearted support to Britain in
war,another section led by Tilak stood for organizing countrywide
agitation for securing self-government without delay. Dr.
Annie Besant,who sympathized with this demand, took over
The Ma4ras Standard (in English) and changed its name to New

5. India which became the propaganda organ of the Home Rule
movement.
The Servants of India Society, in 1918, started its official organ,
Servant of India (an English weekly), under the editorship of
Shrinivas Shastri. The paper gave the analysis and solution of
the Indian problem from a liberal nationalist viewpoint. It
ceased publication in 1939.
The immediate post-war period witnessed the first wave of
nationalist mass movement in India. It was the result of a
profound political and economic crisis and the resultant ferment
among the people. Gandhi, C. R. Das, Pandit Motilal Nehru,
Ali Brothers, Hazarat Mohani, and other leaders of the
Congress and Khilafat organizations led the movement. The
movement expressed as well as further intensified the national
consciousness of the Indian people. This led to the further
growth of the Indian nationalist press.
In 1919 Gandhi edited Young India, making it the mouthpiece
of his political philosophy, programs, and policies. Subsequently,
he also started Harijan (a weekly published in English,
Hindi and a number of vernaculars),after 1933.
Pandit Motilal Nehru started The Independent (an English daily),
in Allahabad in 1919 which served as the political propaganda
organ of the Congress official viewpoint. Shivaprasad Gupta
founded Aj (a daily/ weekly) in Hindi. The declared object in
starting the Aj was to bring politics and culture to the masses
who did not know English. In subsequent years,a number of
political and literary magazines and newspapers sprang up in the
Hindi language.
Sometime after the end of the Non-Co-operation movement, a
section of the Indian National Congress led by Motilal Nehru
and C. R. Das formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress,
differing from the other section on the issue of Council Entry.
The latter wanted to maintain the boycott of the councils and
stood for exclusively implementing Gandhi’s Constructive
Program. The leader of the Swaraj Party started The Hindustan
Times (an English daily) in Delhi in 1922 under the editorship
of K. M. Pannikar to carry on propaganda for its program.
The People, an English nationalist weekly, was also started during
this period in Lahore due to the efforts of Lala Lajpat Rai.
After 1923, socialist and communist ideas began to spread
slowly in India. Kranti, a Marathi weekly and an official organ of
the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of India, and Spark and New
Spark, both English weeklies respectively edited by M. G. Desai
and Lester Hutchinson, both of whom were involved in the
Merut Conspiracy case,had, as their declared aim, the spread of
Marxism in India and support to the independent political and
economic movements of the workers and peasants and the
struggle for national independence.
Between 1930 and 1939, the workers’ and peasants’ movements
gathered further strength and scope. Socialist and communist
ideas penetrated the minds of the Congress youth. Thus there
came into existence the Congress Socialist Party, which published
The Congress Socialist, an English weekly, as its main
official organ. The communists had National Front and subsequently
Peoples’ War, both English weeklies, as principal organs
of their propaganda.

6. M. N. Roy, differing from the official communists, formed his
own group with Independent India, an English weekly, as its main
official organ.
In 1930, The Free Press Journal, an English daily, edited by S.
Sadanand, was founded. It was very cheaply priced. It was a
staunch supporter of the Congress demand and struggle for
independence.
With the social, political, and cultural advance of the Indian
people, the newspaper Press expanded. Magazines, dailies, and
weeklies were published in all provinces, in all important towns,
in vernaculars, English, Hindi, and Urdu. The journalistic
literature embraced all subjects such as politics, economics,
social, educational and cultural problems, and problems of
technical and scientific significance. Only the most important of
them have been mentioned above.
Different political parties, cultural and scientific groups, socioeconomic
groups such as landlords, industrialists, workers and
kisans, and social groups such as students, women and
depressed classes,had their special Press organs to propagate
their programs and views. Communal organizations, such as
the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha,published their
own organs. About 4,000 printed newspapers and magazines
were published in the country, in 1941, in seventeen languages.
Indian Press,its Broad Political Trends
These newspapers and periodicals could be divided into a
number of categories. The Statesman,The Times of India, The
Civil and Military Gazette, The Pioneer and The Madras Mail, were
prominent organs, which generally defended the views and
actions of the British government and administration in India.
Amrita Bazar Patrika, The Bombay Chronicle, The Bombay Sentinel,
The Hindustan Times, The Hindustan Standard, The Free Press
Journal, Harijan, National Herald, and National Call, were
prominent nationalists dailies and weeklies in English. The
Hindu, The Leader,The Indian Social Reformer,The Modem Review
were some of the outstanding journals reflecting the liberal
school of nationalism. Broadly, the nationalist papers supported
the Indian National Congress, its programs and policies,
while liberal papers supported programs of the Indian National
Congress critically. Dawn represented the views of the Muslim
League. Student organizations in the country published their
own organs such as Student and Sathi.
The vernacular Press was also rapidly expanding in India. lana
Shakti, Anand Bazar Patrika,Bangbasi, in Bengali; Kesari,
Lokamanya, Navakal, and Kirloskar, in Marathi; Bombay Samachar,
lanmabhoomi, Hindustan and Praja Mitra, Sandesh, and
V andemataram, in Gujarati; Matribhumi in Malayalam;
Swadeshamitram in Tamil; these and others were some of the
prominent dailies and weeklies in these languages. Ittihad,
Ajmal, Hamdam, Khilafat, Tej and Riyasat were some of the
prominent organs published in Urdu. V ir A rjun, Aj, Sainik and
V ishwamitra were some of the prominent Hindi publications.
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INDIAN GOVERNM ENT AND POLITICS
Reuters extended to India in 1860, the Associated Press of
India founded in 1905, the Free Press News Service in 1927 and
the United Press of India in 1934 were the principal news

7. services in the country.
It’s Slowand M eager Growth and the Reasons
Though the newspaper Press was steadily expanding in. India,
the rate of its growth was slow. Mass illiteracy, great poverty,
and repressive Press laws,were considered by the critics as
handicaps to the rapid growth of the newspaper Press in the
country. A number of Press Acts,requiring security from the
press and placing other handicaps on its free functioning,
constituted a formidable obstacle in the way of the swift
growth of the Indian Press.
Since the Press was a powerfulweapon in the development of
Indian nationalism and of the nationalist movement, it was
subjected to restrictions by the British government which was
reluctant to satisfy the aspirations and grant the demands of
Indian nationalism. The very fact that the British government
had to enact,during its rule, a series of Press Acts of varying
stringency, eloquently proved the decisive role played by the
Press in the development of the nationalist movement.
Indian nationalism, from its very inception, recognized the
value of the Press in rousing the people to national consciousness
and put up a tenacious resistance to all attempts to curtail
its freedom. The history of the struggle for the freedom of the
Press had,therefore,been an integral part of the nationalist
struggle. The freedom of the Press was one of the basic
democratic liberties which Indian nationalism, in all its stages of
evolution, cherished and fought for.
The peculiar situation of India, which was governed by a
foreign nation, made a free Indian Press a controversial question
even among the British themselves. During the nineteenth
century, while Wellesley, Minto, Adam, Canning and Lytton
stood for a drastic restriction of the freedom of the Press;
Hastings, Metcalfe,Macaulay and Ripon, argued in favor of a
more or less free Press in India.
Repressive M easures against Press, there History
Historically, however,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, in the proportion that it grew, the freedom of the Press in
India suffered a proportional curtailment.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the pioneer of the Indian nationalist
Press,was also the first fighter for the freedom of the Indian
Press. When,during the period of Adam, an attack on the
freedom of the Press was launched,he along with enlightened
nationalist Indians such as Chandra Kumar Tagore, Harchandra
Ghose, Dwarkanath Tagore,Gauri Charan Banerji, and
Prasanna Kumar Tagore,drafted a petition to be submitted to
the Supreme Court of Calcutta. The petition condemned the
projected attack on the freedom of the Press as undemocratic,
inexpedient, and reactionary. The signatories of this petition
were the pioneers of the struggle for the freedom of the Press
in India. Miss Sophia Collet extolled this petition as ‘the
Areopagitica of Indian history’. R. C. Dutt described it as the
beginning of “ that system of constitutional agitation for
political rights which their countrymen have learnt to value so
much in the present day.”
It was the Marquess of Wellesley who in 1799 appointed an

8. official censor entrusted with the duty of passing all matter for
publication and framed drastic rules to punish those who
infringed them. Hastings abolished the Press censorship and
removed most of the restrictions in 1818. The atmosphere of
relative freedom of the Press,which the measures of Hastings
created,stimulated the emergence of Indian newspapers such as
the Bombay Samachar published in 1822.
Adam, the Acting Governor-General in 1823, launched
repressive measures against the Press. This provoked the
protest of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his nationalist compeers.
Their petition was,however, rejected by the Supreme Court and
the Press remained subjected to the new restrictions till 1835.
Metcalfe,assisted by the liberal Macaulay, put forward an Act in
1835 repealing the restrictions on the Press in Bengal and
Bombay. The Act also made it no longer necessary to get a
license for the printing of books and papers.
Till 1857, there was considerable freedom of the Press in the
country. The outbreak of the Revolt prompted Lord Canning
to pass the Press Act of 1857 known as the Gagging Act due to
its drastic nature. Under the Act, the government could control
the establishment of printing presses and prevent, if it wished,
the circulation of printed books and papers. This Act was,
however, to operate for one year only.
The Press and Registration of Books Act enacted in 1867
restricted the freedom of the printing and publication of books
and newspapers. In 1878, the Vemacular Press Act imposing
serious restrictions on the freedom of the vernacular Press,
which was rapidly growing and becoming the organ of
nationalist views and criticism of the British government, was
passed.
Lord Ripon, who had liberal views, repealed the Vernacular
Press Act in 1882. Till 1908, the Indian Press enjoyed considerable
freedom. However,due to the phenomenal growth of the
nationalist movement in the previous ten years,the government
decided to curtail the freedom of the Press. The
Newspaper (Incitement to Offences) Act was passed in 1908
and the Indian Press Act in 1910.
Sir Jenkins on Press Actof1910
The Press Act of 1910 was the most severe measure hitherto
adopted by the British government in India against the Indian
Press. It considerably extended the power of the executive over
the Press and its free functioning by empowering it to demand
heavy securities, which could be forfeited at, will and to
confiscate printing plants of offending papers. Though the
right of appeal to the courts was provided, this right was not
of much value. Sir Lawrence Jenkins, an English judge of an
Indian Court, remarked: “ The provisions of section 4 are very
comprehensive, and its language is as wide as human ingenuity
could make it. It is difficult to see to what lengths the operation
of this section might not plausibly be extended by an ingenious
mind. They would certainly extend to writings that many even
command approval. An attack on that degraded section of the
public, which lives in the misery, and shame of others would
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INDIAN GOVERNM ENT AND POLITICS
come within this widespread net; the praise of a class might not

9. be free from risk. Much that is regarded as standard literature
might undoubtedly be caught.”
Section 4 alluded to was a part of the Press Act of 1910. It was
subsequently incorporated in the Acts of both 1931 and 1932.
This comment of an English Judge of an Indian High Court
was a strong testimony proving the repressive nature of the
Press Act of 1910.
As a result of countrywide nationalist agitation against the Act
as well as the previous Acts,the Press Law Repealand Amendment
Act of 1922 was passed whereby the Press Act of 1910
and the Newspaper Act of 1908 were repealed,and the Press
and Registration of Books Act and the Post Office Act were
relaxed.
Press Acts of1931 and 1932, their Significance
The Indian Press enjoyed relative freedom till 1930. The
nationalist movement, in its mass form, had declined and
subsided between 1922 and 1929. But again with the rise of the
new wave of the movement in 1929, the government decided
to arm itself with powers to curb the Press. The Indian Press
Emergency Powers Act was passed in 1931. The Act was
subsequently reinforced and expanded by the incorporation into
it of the Emergency Powers Ordinance of 1932. Sections 14, 15
and 16 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1932 also
amended it. “ The amending Act of 1932 (the Ordinance Act)
rendered the Press law more drastic, extended its scope and
armed the Executive with greater powers than even the Act of
1931.
The Press Law of 1931 in its subsequently amended form
seriously curtailed the freedom of the Indian Press. Under it,
the Executive had wide powers to demand securities and to
forfeit them. Its scope was so comprehensive that the newspapers
of even moderate or liberal types were not beyond its
reach. The Act explicitly described ‘the better control of the
Press’ as its aim. Among the new offences against which it was
directed, were included publications which tended directly or
indirectly, “ to bring into hatred or contempt His Majesty or the
Government established by law in British India, or the
administration of justice or any class or section of His Majesty’s
subjects, or excite disaffection towards His Majesty or the
Government.” It also penalized intimidation; interference with
the administration or maintenance of law and order, payment
of and revenue, rent of agricultural land, or anything recoverable
as arrears of rent or other items; inducing public servants
to resign office; promoting feelings of hatred between different
classes of His Majesty’s subjects.
The Act was thus very comprehensive in its range. “ A study of
the clauses will show the discretion of magistrate, police officers
and the “ Local Government” decides what the Press mayor may
not do.”
The government itself recognized the drastic nature of the Act.
Sir Harry Haig, the Home Member, remarked in the Central
Assembly, “ I recognize, Sir, and the Government fully recognizes
that the provisions ... are irksome to responsible editors,
and there are many such. I am well aware,Sir, of the difficulties
that well conducted papers feel.”
Under the Press Law of 1932, the government frequently

10. prohibited the publication of certain news items in the papers
of one province while those in other provinces published them.
It also interfered with “ double-column headlines, display types,
even the arrangement and position given to a news item” and
the publication of photographs of certain political leaders.
These were felt as very galling restrictions by Indian journalists
and publicists.
The foreign Relations Act of 1932 penalized publications
circulated to interfere “ with the maintenance of friendly
relations between His Majesty’s Government and the Governments
of certain foreign States.” The Indian States (Protection)
Act was enacted in 1934 “ to protect the Administrations of
States in India which are under the suzerainty of His Majesty
from activities which tend to subvert, or to excite disaffection
towards, or to obstruct such Administrations” . This Act also
penalized all publications which tended “ to bring into hatred or
contempt or to excite disaffection towards the Administration
established in any State in India.”
These two Acts further diminished the freedom of the Indian
Press.
Three News Agencies
There existed by 1941 three main news agencies in the country,
namely, Reuters,the Associated Press,and the Free Press News
Service. The government subscribed to the first two and used
them for transmitting government news. The third was an
Indian enterprise and selected and distributed news from the
nationalist standpoint.
The practical monopoly of Reuters (which had the support of
the government) to supply India with all foreign news and the
outside world with Indian news prevented Indian nationalists
from providing the outside world with information of Indian
events selected and interpreted from the nationalist standpoint.
To suit the policy of the British government, Reuters delayed
transmission of certain types of news to the outside world.
“ The facts of the Amritsar massacre were withheld from
knowledge for over seven months, and were as little realized by
the generalpublic in Britain. ...”
The government support in various ways was regarded
indispensable for establishing a successfulnews agency by those
Indians who worked for it. “ We reached the conclusion that so
long as the Government shows partisanship to certain news
organizations, financially and otherwise, it is impossible for
other companies to become established.”
There existed restrictions also on the importation of certain
kinds of foreign literature into India, primarily of left character.
There was a section of the Sea Customs Department to enforce
these restrictions. This ban prevented the Indian people from
getting adequate information about” some of the movements
and ideologies of other countries.
The Indian nationalist movement always agitated against the
various measures of the government to diminish the freedom
of the Press. The struggle for the freedom of the Press was an
integral part of the national movement. Various groups and
organizations such as the group of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and
his fellow pioneers of Indian nationalism, the Moderates,the
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11. INDIAN GOVERNM ENT AND POLITICS
Liberals, the Extremists, the Besantine Home Rulers, the
Indian National Congress under Gandhi, the Socialists, the
Communists, Students’ Organizations, Trade Unions, Kisan
Sabhas, and the All-India Civil Liberties Union, criticized the
various measures of the government which reduced the liberty
of the Press. This only demonstrated the great importance of
the Press for the growth and development of the nationalist
movement. The All-India Civil Liberties Union working for the
defense of the democratic liberties of the Indian people also
fought for the liberty of the Press.
There were other organizations such as the All-India Journalists’
Association, All-India Editors’ Conference and Progressive
Writers’ Conference,which also fought for the freedom of the
Press.
I ndian Press, its Progressive Role
The Press was a powerfulfactor in building and developing
Indian nationalism and the 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. With its help, the Indian nationalist
groups were able to popularize among the people, the ideas of
representative government, liberty, democratic institutions,
Home Rule, Dominion Status, and Independence. Through it,
they could carry on daily criticism of the measures of the British
government and administration and educate the people in the
understanding of political problems.
The Press was a weapon,in the hands of the nationalist
groups, to popularize among the people their respective
political programs, policies, and methods of struggle form
organizations with a broad popular basis.
Without the Press,the all-India conference of nationalist
organizations could not have been prepared and held and large
political movements would not have been organized and
directed. For instance, it was towards the Young India of Gandhi,
the leader of the Indian National Congress, that the Congressmen
and Congress supporters looked for directives for their
political activities during the great mass movement of 1930-32.
Since the Press was a powerfulweapon of the nationalist
struggle, Indian nationalists of all hues staunchly fought for its
freedom throughout the existence of the Indian nationalist
movement.
The vital role of the Press in the building of Indian nationalism
and national movement could be shown by the fact that,
“ In India, from Raja Ram Mohan Roy to Keshub Chunder Sen,
Gokhale, Tilak, Pherozshah Mehta,Dadabhai Naoroji,
Surendranath Banerjee,C. Y. Chintamani, M. K. Gandhi and
JawaharlalNehru, there is distinguished line of public men
who have used, and are using the Press as a medium for the
dissemination of their ideas of ‘more values’.”
The Press alone made possible the large scale, swift and
constant exchange of views among different social groups
inhabiting various parts of the country. The establishment and
extension of the Press in India brought about a closer social
and intellectual contact between provincial populations. It also

12. made possible the daily and extensive discussion of programs
of inter-provincial and national collaboration in spheres of
social, political and cultural matters and the holding of national
conferences-social, political and cultural. National committees
were appointed to implement the programs 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.
In Bengal, Maharashtra,Andhra, Gujarat, Malabar, D.P. and
other provinces, there came into existence rich provincial
literatures, poetic, dramatic and in prose.
The Press was an effective weapon in the hands of social reform
groups to expose social evils such as caste fetters,child marriage,
ban on remarriage of windows, social, legal, and other inequalities
from which women suffered. It also helped them to
organize propaganda on a vast scale against inhuman institutions
such as untouchability. It became a weapon in their hands
to proclaim to the broad mass of the people, principles,
programs and methods of democratic reconstruction of the
Indian society. It was also by means of the Press that social
reformers,allover the country, were able to maintain a permanent
discussion about the best programs of the solution of
social evils and to prepare and hold All-India Social Conferences
with a view to chalking out a common line.
Further, the Press also brought knowledge of the happenings
in the international world to the Indian people. The Press has
been one of the principal forces which has helped various
nations to build up a world outlook and shape their own
national programs and policies on the basis of a comprehension
of world development as a whole. The Press also became a
weapon to construct solidarity ties between the progressive
forces of different countries.
Such was the vital 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 world.
Prerequisitesofits Sound Development
The following were the chief factors,which obstructed the
development of a free,extensive, well-ramified and progressive
Press in India:
(1) Restrictions imposed on the freedom of the Press by the
government.
(2) Widespread poverty of the people, which restricted the
sale of papers, periodicals, and publications, even among the
literate sections.
(3) Mass illiteracy
(4) Growing tendency of monopoly control of the Press by a
few wealthy British and Indian groups. (The increasing
growth of monopoly in the sphere of the Press only
reflected the generalgrowth of monopoly in economy).

13. References-
1. Public Policy and politics in India By Kuldeep Mathur
2. Indian Political Trials By A.C. Noorani.
3. Basu, Durga Das. The Laws of the Press in India(1962) Asia Publishing House, Bombay