ROLE OF PRESS IN INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE
Sis Michelle Notes, Unit 2, 2.4
Literature has always been a part of
Indian History from ancient times. However, the very concept of newspapers was
a western concept that was promulgated in India by the Britishers. While, most
of the Britishers initially started the newspapers, the people of the Country,
gradually took over with great gusto the pen- a tool mightier than the sword in
the world of newspaper publishing.
The newspapers indeed became a channel of information,
education and awareness. They were the major contributors in the freedom
struggle under the patronage of Stalwart leaders and Social reformists who were
bold and courageous and took to the pen in various corners of India to garner people’s
attention to their plight and to unite them to fight against tyranny,
domination and atrocities. Some of these papers who stood apart and contributed
to the freedom struggle are mentioned in this article.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, popular social reformist who was known for his
intellectual skills and his strong opinion against social evils like Sati,
brought out a newspaper himself. Roy wrote many articles opposing Sati and
other social evils that had ingrained themselves in Hindu culture. He wrote
against the orthodox ideas that perpetrated these social evils in religion. He
was not in favour of the Serampore missionaries who were promoting Christianity
either. His paper ‘Bangadoot’ which was published in 1829 was actually
printed in four languages. Namely English, Bangla, French, and Nagree
(Hindi dialect) which highlighted all the above issues.
A Marathi weekly, 'Prabhakar’ which was edited by Govind
Vitthal Kunte, who was popularly known as ‘Bhau Mahajan’ was published in
the year 1841. Prabhakar was popular for its stance on Swabhasha,
Swadeshi and Swa-sanskruti, which basically meant, ‘our
language, our country and our culture’ and had its run for almost 25 years.
He is considered as the first professional Marathi Journalist and his
paper catered to social reform.
Bringing in reform came another paper in 1851 called the Rast
Goftar published by the popular freedom fighter and social reformer
Dadabhai Nowroji in Anglo-Gujarati, who gradually reached out to all Indians
through his publishing.
The Hindu Patriot was an English newspaper which also played
a very important role in conscientising people about the Indigo planters who
oppressed the peasants and the imperial laws like the immigration bill, etc,. The
paper was initially published on January 6, 1853 by Madhusudan Roy under the
editorship of Girish Chandra Ghosh. But, it was later purchased by Harish
Chandra Mukherjee. However, Harish Chandra named his Brother Haran Chandra as
the Proprietor to shield himself from the Military Audit General under whom he
officiated.
In 1857, a paper with strong Political views with a view of
Hindu-Muslim unity for the freedom of India was ‘Payam-e-Azadi’ which
was the brainchild of Azimullah Khan and edited by Mirza Bedar Bhakt. Azimullah
Khan was well aware of the divide and rule policy and he tried his best to
conscientize the people about the same through his paper. Gautam Chattopadhyay
in his article ‘Petition, Protest and Revolt- The changing face of the
Anti-Imperialist Press in India 1857- 1947’ writes that “The paper started
publication from Delhi in February 1857 in Hindi-Urdu and right from May 1857
it openly supported the rebels. In September 1857, its Marathi edition was
published from Jhansi and it became truly the central organ of the revolt.
Copies of this journal are now available only in the British Library.” (Johansson,
1989)
In the year 1862, another Hindi paper that
was started in Bombay was called the Induprakash by Vishnu
Parshuram Pandit which rallied itself for the Indian freedom Movement by
publishing political articles.
Girish Chandra Ghosh
started an English newspaper in 1862 called The Bengalee. This
paper too supported the freedom struggle and did have a good circulation.
However, it is said that when it took a moderate stand on Swadeshi,
the circulation was hit. This newspaper saw various phases as it was made into
a morning and evening edition for urban and rural areas with the names The
Bengalee for the morning and The Calcutta Evening News for
the evening paper. However, the paper The Bengalee could not survive and was
finally again made into one newspaper and renamed as The Star of India.
Amrita Bazaar Patrika was another English newspaper that
contributed greatly to journalism and especially to the freedom struggle in
India. The paper was initially in Bengali language but gradually became a
bilingual and began its print in English. Today the place where this paper was
initially printed exists in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was a weekly printed by Moti
Lal and Sisir Ghosh in Bengali and launched on February 20, 1868. It
is said that both Sisir and Moti Lal vehemently opposed the economic
exploitation of India and the restriction on an individual’s civil liberties.
They were close friends of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and went into great depths at
exposing the atrocities and loop holes of the British Administration in India.
It was a weekly that became a daily in 1891 and was one among the first one’s
in India to enter into the genre of Investigative journalism. Despite many
attempts at trying to dissuade the nationalistic activities, including cases of
sedition and imprisonment on its editors at various times, this paper stood the
test and kept on promulgating the cause of India’s freedom.
The Statesman too was an English newspaper that
emerged from the merging of two newspapers called The Englishman and Friend
of India. It was started in 1875. The Statesman was a paper worth
acknowledgement. It opposed the decision of making Delhi the capital of India
instead of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Ian M Stephens, the editor of the newspaper,
who was disappointed that the world was not taking note of the drastic
conditions of the Bengal famine (1943- 1944) due to the deliberate clamp on the
freedom of the Press, printed a group of pictures which actually put Bengal
famine in the limelight much to the dismay of the Administration. It is
said The Statesman stood its ground in also opposing Indira
Gandhi during the Emergency.
Vishnushastri Krushnashastri Chiplunkar
was another prolific writer who wrote political articles that criticised the
British Colonial rule and the Christian Missionaries in a Marathi paper called
‘Shalapatrak’ started by his father, Krushnashastri Chiplunkar, but had
to be shut down in 1875 due to the controversies it got embroiled into for its
stance. He then started another monthly called the ‘Nibhandmala’ a
Marathi language Magazine which meant ‘a garland of essays’. The magazine had
revolutionary ideas and which had a run for almost 12 years with almost all the
essays contributed by him. He also teamed up with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal
Ganesh Agarkar in 1880 for Kesari in Marathi and Mahratta in
English. To familiarise people with Marathi History and poetry, he started
another monthly in 1878 called Kavyetihas Sangraha and went on to establish two
presses and a bookshop.
Bal Gangadhar Lokmanya Tilak, the popular
freedom fighter himself started Kesari in 1881, a paper whose writings were aglow with the fire of
freedom, swadeshi and social- reforming ideas. He sparked political and social
upheavals with his bold and impressive writings. The Kesari was a huge success.
He also started the Mahratta in English. Kesari stoked the fire of freedom and
had a very huge number of subscriptions. Tilak with his zeal and passion for
Swaraj (freedom) had the knack of touching people’s hearts and winning them
over through various initiatives like the Ganesh Mandali’s and his love
and defence of Shivaji. Kesari became a powerful weapon in the fight against
British rule in India.
In 1883, a bi-lingual journal in Hindi -English called 'Hindusthan' was begun by Raja Rampal Singh which was printed in London and had a subscription of Rs 10. He was the Talukdar of Kalakankar. On his return to India, he purchased a press and began publishing the same in three languages, namely, English, Hindi and Urdu. But by 1885, it had become nationalist in its views, was pro-Hindi and published as a Hindi daily. This daily stopped its publication by the year 1912.
Saraswati, Abhyudaya (1900), and
many other papers revolutionised the era in their times. Acharya Mahavir Prasad
Dwivedi, was a man known for his expertise in literature, history. It was under
his editorship that ‘Saraswati’, a newspaper in Khadi Hindi, gained huge
prominence.
A sub-editor named Ganesh Shankar
Vidyarthi contributed his mite to ‘Saraswati’ too. At a later stage, in
1913, Vidyarthi started his own newspaper called ‘Pratap’ which gained
huge popularity. He was a social reformist and often highlighted in his paper
the plight of the suffering farmers of Rae Bareilly and other suffering people
in the Indian states.
Jugantar Patrika (1906) was another Bengali revolutionary newspaper founded in Calcutta by Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Abhinash Bhattacharya and Bhupendranath Dutt. The journal led to the formation of the Jugantar group who were heavily punished and even deported for their ideas, works and views which also included use of violence against Britishers. It was also critical of the ideology of the Indian National Congress. It carried numerous articles of Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Aurobindo Ghosh who were revolutionaries.
The paper had a good readership of almost 20,000 copies and was primarily targeted towards the youth with the desire to politically motivate them and was priced those days at one paisa.
Bhupendranath Dutt who was the editor till 1907, was punished for writing articles that the British claimed were inciting violence against them. It had to shut down its operations by 1908.
Although initially, most Tamil newspapers
did not have problem with the government as there were no objectionable views.
But towards the twentieth century there was a turn around. Papers like the Swadesmitran,
the Hindu and the Swaraj were all printed from Tamil Nadu. At this point a
Tamil periodical that created waves of patriotic fervour was S. N.
Thirumalachari’s, ‘India’ which was published on May 6, 1906. The
periodical is said to be one of the first one’s to publish cartoons that had
political messages in the history of Indian journalism. The paper boldly
carried articles and songs that were nationalistic in nature. Thus, was laid a
foundation of a bold Press that supported the Indian Freedom movement in Tamil
Nadu. “From the India office, many
pamphlets and booklets were published about the Swadeshi propaganda and
speeches of the extremists. The famous speech of Tilak on the ‘Tenets of the
New party’ at the College Square in Calcutta was translated into Tamil by
Subramania Bharati and published in February 1907. It was printed at the India
Printing Works, Broadway, and the same place where India periodical was
printed. The Speeches of B.C. Pal (in Madras), Life of Aurobindo Ghosh and
Congress Yatra were printed and distributed from India newspaper office
press. [6] (Sakthivel R., 2015)
When ‘India's’ printing had to be
stalled dues to problems with the British Government, the printing was
continued from Pondicherry which at that point of time was not under British
rule. Thus, Tamil Nadu contributed massively to the growth of the Vernacular
journalism.
Another newspaper which albeit had a short run was strongly
patriotical and published in Urdu was ‘Swarajya’ which was published
from 1907 to 1910 .Gautam Chattopadhyay in his article ‘Petition, Protest and
Revolt- The changing face of the Anti-Imperialist Press In India 1857- 1947
writes that Swarajya a weekly, “denounced Bristish Rule in
India week after week in scathing terms and called for the overthrow of British
Rule in India. During four years of its existence, it suffered an ordeal unique
in the annals of Indian journalism. Its successive editors were Shanti Narayan,
Ram Das Suralia, Motilal Verma, Babu Ram Hari, Munshi Ram Sewak, Nanda Gopal
Chopra, Sham Das Verma, ‘Field Marshal’ Ladha Ram Kapur and finally Amir Chand
Bombwal. All the editors, except the last one, were tried and convicted by the
British in a barbarous manner. They suffered long terms of rigorous
imprisonment and deportation to the Andamans. (Johansson, 1989)
Among the most prominent names, we also have
papers like ‘The Leader’ from Allahabad, ‘The Bombay Chronicle’,
‘The Hindustan times’, etc. Founded by
Madan Mohan Malviya on October 24, 1909 in Allahabad, ‘The Leader’ had a
long run till Sept. 6, 1967 and was considered to be an influential newspaper
in English run by Indians due to its politically charged stance. The Paper also
carried numerous writings by Mahatma Gandhi. The chief-editor was C. Y.
Chintamani. It is said that Motilal Nehru was also partly associated with this
newspaper. However, he and C. Y. Chintamani had a clash which gradually led to
Motilal Nehru quitting the Paper.
Another English Paper which was known for
its raconteur and its political content especially during the upheavals and the
freedom struggles was The Bombay Chronicle started by a
lawyer, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. This paper had a run from 1910 to 1959.
'Vijay' another Hindi newspaper that worked immensely for the Freedom struggle was launched in the year 1918 in Delhi by Pt. Indra Vidya Vachaspati. This paper was inspired by Swami Sraddhanand who contributed many Nationalist articles. It strongly opposed the Rowlatt Act with a series of articles well scripted by Swami Sraddhanand a lawyer by profession who was very meticulate in his opinion so that it could not be retaliated to or pulled down by the Britishers. But after his departure to Lahore, the paper could not survive and succumbed in 1920.
Another great journalist
and intellectual who shaped Marathi Journalism and in the long run, was the
primary brain-child behind the Indian Constitution was Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. On
January 31, 1920, he started his first newspaper, 'Mooknayak', which only ran for
three years and focussed on Dalit issues. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar also “found three
more newspapers – 'Bahishkrut Bharat' (1927-1929), Janata (1930-56), and
'Prabuddha Bharat' (1956). He was directly involved in the editorial management
of the first two newspapers, Mooknayak and Bahishkrut Bharat. From 1930
onwards, he delegated the task to his most important colleagues, such as,
Devrao Naik, B.R. Kadrekar, G.N. Sahastrabuddhe, R.D. Bhandare, and B.C.
Kamble. Interestingly, Naik, Kadrekar and Sahastrabuddhe were not Dalits”. (Prabodhan Pol, thewire)
The Hindustan Times was involved equally in the
contribution towards the cause of Freedom. It was founded by Sunder Singh of
the Akali Movement in 1924 and had for in its managing committee the dynamic
freedom fighter, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Master Tara Singh. It is said
that Mahatma Gandhi was himself present at the launch of this Paper. This paper
survived the Test of time and exists even today. It is said that due to Pandit
Madan Mohan Malviya’s dynamism, that The Hindustan Times was
able to launch its Hindi version called the Hindustan Dainik in
1936. It contributed a great deal to the Indian freedom struggle with its journalism.
There were other papers that contributed
to nationalism, freedom from the tyranny of Britishers and Hindu -Muslim unity.
These include popular newspapers like ‘Biswamitra’ or ‘Viswamitra’
in 1916 started by Mahendra Chandra Aggarwal.
‘Swarajya’ started in 1920 by T
Prakasham, ‘Sainik’ by Krishna Dutt Paliwal in Agra, ‘Desh’ by
Babu Rajendra Prasad in Patna, Swami Shradhanand’s ‘Vir Arjun’ and two
other magazines, namely, ‘Nrisinha’ and ‘Devnagar’ were all
popular in their era.
Svatantra- a paper which was the mouthpiece of the Congress was begun by Ambikaprasad Bajpeyi on August 4, 1920. This paper became extremely popular as it carried the minutest details of Gandhiji's Non co-operation movement. The feature of this newspaper that stood out was the appointment of Women journalists to cover reportage of Women's meetings. It carried commercial news, had Market rates and also carried special features during the festival of Holi and Diwali. This paper however, did not have a long run as it succumbed to Press Ordinance act in 1930 where it was asked to deposit a security of Rs 5000/- .
Another paper with the same title of ‘Swatantra’ started in 1939 by Puranchand Gupta
and Jagdish Chandra Kulsia. This paper was gradually launched as ‘Dainik
Jagran’ which is very popular and has a huge readership today.
Another paper that brought in a revolution
and popularised Hindi was ‘Aaj’ by Shiv Prasad Gupta on September 5,
1920 from Benaras with Baburao Vishnu Paradkar as its editor. The paper grew in
circulation and was hailed for its stand on nationalism under the brilliant
editing skills of Paradkar.
Abhyudaya by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was a
hindi weekly, also contributed massively to the Indian freedom struggle. At a
later stage he also founded the ‘Hindustan Dainik’ in Hindi in 1936
which rose to popularity.
After his return from Africa, Gandhiji
revolutionised the phase in India’s struggle for freedom by steering the
Satyagraha, Dandi March, Salt Satyagraha, Non-Violence Movement, promotion of
Khadi and the use of the Press. His contribution to journalism was seen in all
his newspapers like ‘Young India,
Indian Opinion, Navajivan, Harijan in English, Harijan Bandu in Gujarati and Harijan
Sevak in Hindi.
Around the year 1904, it is said that Gandhiji received a proposal in Johannesburg, to take over a weekly. Thus, began the venture of 'Indian Opinion' which was a multilingual weekly, largely financed by Gandhi. He initially began it with Mansukhlal Nazar as his editor, but due to a huge loss of over 200 pounds, was compelled to take up the editorship himself and transfer the printing to Phoenix where Rustomji Parsi helped with its finances.
In India, Gandhiji also launched a Gujarati newspaper on October 7, 1919 called the Navajivan and 8 October 1919, he launched an English Daily called the 'Young India'. Navajivan- the Gujarati newspaper actually became popular and had a circulation of 12000 copies as compared to 1200 copies of Young India, which led Gandhiji to launch a Hindi version of the paper Navajivan on August 19, 1921. Although, it is said that the subscriptions of the Hindi 'Navajivan' dropped down considerably from 12000 to 1400.
YOUNG INDIA NEWSPAPER
Indian was and continues to have an ingrained caste system. Despite the modern era, in many parts of India, this caste discrimination continues to be upheld. 'Harijan' was a word used by Gandhi to address 'the untouchables' in order to encourage people to overcome this discrimination. He gradually started a newspaper called 'Harijan' in English February 11, 1933 from the Yerwada Jail in Pune where he was imprisoned by the Britishers. He gradually launched the Hindi edition of the same paper on February 23 1933 from Delhi with Viyogi Hari as the editor and titled it as 'Harijan Sevak'. He drew the financial support for this paper from Ghansyamdas Birla. The Britishers were vary of Harijan and asked Gandhi to submit the paper for proof reading before printing. Gandhi refused the same with the demand that Freedom of the Press was his Right. The paper succumbed for this reason by its tenth issue. Gradually due to financial losses these papers closed down too.
The newspapers were a weapon that silently
and non-violently stoked the fire of freedom all across India and the British
Government grew wary of its reach and power. At the height of this movement,
the British Government brought in the Press Act 1910, due to which within a few
years over 350 printing presses were punished with penalisation and almost 300
newspapers were asked for security deposits. The pressurisation, penalisation
and harassment led to the closure of almost 200 papers. However, this only
catapulted the freedom movement as this act of penalising and trying to shut
down the voices of the locals only confirmed the mismanagement in India and the
cruelty shown towards Indians by the East India company and the Britishers.
There were many pamphlets and papers printed and circulated anonymously to ignite the freedom struggle. The slogan, “the pen is mightier than the sword” proved itself
true in the struggle for freedom, the demand for economic liberties and civil
rights as citizens of a country and right to freedom of speech. It is the
obligation of every citizen of this country to uphold these rights as these
were gifted to us through the ordeal and zeal of great socially reforming
journalists of great calibre.
(Pictures clicked by Sis Michelle from Indira Gandhi Museum, New Delhi)
Below are few pictures for your perusal...
