Print Culture in Colonial India: Religious Debate, Women and Press Censorship

A young Bengali wife learned to read in secret, late at night. Years later she wrote Bengali’s first full-length autobiography. Her story shows what print could do in colonial India.

In this lesson, we follow print from its first arrival in Goa to the colonial censor’s desk. Along the way we meet newspaper editors, religious reformers, women writers and the poor who bought cheap books. We finish with the laws that tried to gag them.

1How did print come to India?

The printing press first reached India in Goa. Portuguese missionaries brought it in the mid-sixteenth century. Catholic priests then printed in Indian languages. School texts say the first Tamil book came out in 1579 and the first Malayalam book in 1713.

For a long time, print stayed with missionaries. The big change came with the English East India Company. Its officers and merchants soon wanted newspapers of their own.

• The press first reached Goa, with Portuguese missionaries.
• Early books were printed in Tamil and Malayalam.
• Newspapers grew under the East India Company.

2Who was Hicky, and why was he punished?

James Augustus Hicky was an Irishman in Calcutta. On 29 January 1780, he started Hicky’s Bengal Gazette. It was the first newspaper printed in Asia. It cost one rupee a copy.

Hicky wrote boldly. He accused Governor-General Warren Hastings and his wife of corruption. Hastings was furious. He banned the paper from the post.

The courts then moved against Hicky. In June 1781, he was found guilty of libel and jailed. In March 1782, the court seized his types and the paper died. Hastings, in turn, backed newspapers that stayed loyal to the Company.

• Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: 29 January 1780, Calcutta.
• He attacked Warren Hastings in print.
• Found guilty in 1781. Types seized in 1782.

3How did print fuel religious debate?

Print let reformers speak to the public. Raja Ram Mohun Roy began the Sambad Kaumudi, a Bengali weekly, in December 1821. It argued against practices such as sati. Orthodox Hindus answered with their own paper, the Samachar Chandrika.

Many languages joined the debate. Jam-i-Jahan Nama began in Calcutta in 1822. It was first Urdu, then mostly Persian. The Gujarati Bombay Samachar began in Bombay on 1 July 1822. It still exists today.

Muslim scholars used print too. The Darul Uloom of Deoband was founded in 1866. School texts say it used cheap printing to spread guidance among Muslim readers.

Hindu texts spread as well. The first printed Ramcharitmanas came out of Calcutta in 1810. Cheap prints and lithographs soon followed in north India.

• Sambad Kaumudi: 1821, by Ram Mohun Roy. Rival: Samachar Chandrika.
• Bombay Samachar: 1822, Gujarati.
• Deoband: 1866. Ramcharitmanas printed in Calcutta, 1810.

4How did women use print?

Women became both readers and writers. Rashsundari Devi was born in East Bengal. She learned the letters by listening to lessons and studying in secret. School texts say she practised alone in the kitchen.

In 1876, her book Amar Jiban was published. It is the first full-length autobiography in Bengali.

Later, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain started a girls’ school in Bhagalpur in 1909. Family troubles forced a move to Calcutta in 1911. She spoke against keeping women from learning.

Other women wrote with anger. Tarabai Shinde wrote Stri Purush Tulana in 1882. It questioned how men and women were judged unequally. Pandita Ramabai wrote about the hard lives of high-caste Hindu widows.

Not everyone cheered. Some conservative families feared that reading would spoil girls.

• Rashsundari Devi: Amar Jiban, 1876.
• Rokeya: girls’ school, Bhagalpur 1909, Calcutta 1911.
• Tarabai Shinde: Stri Purush Tulana, 1882.

5Did the poor read too?

Yes. School texts say very cheap little books were sold at crossroads in Madras towns. Poor travellers on their way to market could afford them.

Caste became a theme in print. Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri in 1873. It was one of the earliest sharp attacks on the caste system. Later, Ambedkar and Periyar also wrote on caste.

Workers found a voice as well. School texts mention Kashibaba, a Kanpur mill worker, and his 1938 book Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal. It linked caste and class.

• Cheap books were sold at crossroads.
• Phule: Gulamgiri, 1873.
• Kashibaba, a mill worker, wrote on caste and class.

6How did print change pictures and cartoons?

Pictures went to the masses. Raja Ravi Varma started a lithographic press in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, in 1894. It later moved to Malavli. It printed cheap colour pictures of gods and goddesses. They hung in homes across India.

Cartoons grew too. By the 1870s, journals carried cartoons that mocked both Westernised Indians and imperial rule.

• Ravi Varma Press: 1894, Ghatkopar.
• Prints of gods reached ordinary homes.
• Cartoons from the 1870s mocked all sides.

7How did the colonial state censor the press?

At first the Company mostly feared English critics. Hicky was one of them. Indian-language papers drew more attention later.

After 1857, the government grew nervous. In 1878, Viceroy Lord Lytton passed the Vernacular Press Act. The Council passed it on 14 March 1878. It was modelled on Irish press laws.

The Act hit only papers in Indian languages. English papers were left out. A paper judged seditious could face a security demand and the loss of its press. The law was very unpopular. Lord Ripon repealed it in 1882.

Later fights followed. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was tried for his writings in the Kesari. He was arrested in 1908 and jailed in Mandalay. School texts say about 90 newspapers were suppressed in the Quit India year of 1942.

• Vernacular Press Act: 1878, Lytton. Repealed 1882, Ripon.
• It spared English papers and gagged Indian-language ones.
• Tilak: Kesari, arrested 1908.

CDS 2019: arranging the laws

CDS II 2019 asked students to put four items in time order. They were the Cornwallis Code, the Vernacular Press Act, the first Factory Act and the Morley-Minto Reforms. The correct order is Cornwallis Code (1793), Vernacular Press Act (1878), first Factory Act (1881), Morley-Minto Reforms (1909). (Source: CDS II 2019 GK, Q21)

8What are the exam traps?

• The press first came to Goa, not Bengal.
• The Vernacular Press Act was 1878. Do not confuse it with the 1919 Rowlatt-era laws.
• The Act spared English papers. That is why it was called discriminatory.
• Lytton passed it. Ripon repealed it.
• Amar Jiban (1876) came well before Ramabai’s and Tarabai’s later writings.