ROLE OF PRESS IN INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE

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.

                                                           THE BOMBAY CHRONICLE

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)


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