Abstract India is the world’s largest democracy as well as the second largest populated country. As a democratic country, press played an important role to bring people’s voice in forefront. This is because only press can bring out people’s words from every corner of the country in a single platform. If we look at the colonial period, we will find that press played a strong role in social and political awakening. Newspapers like Amrit Bazaar Patrika, Hindustan Times, Kesari, Sanjivani played an important role in this regard. The press continued to uncover the real intentions of Britishers in India through a number of newspapers, journals in native languages as well as English. Following this, the Britishers tried to crush freedom of the press. As a repressive measure, they enacted strong laws against press like the Gagging Act and the Vernacular Press Act by which newspapers in native languages were declared illegal. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people had to give their life. They sacrificed because they knew that only press could unite people against British rule and attain freedom. Under this background, the present study has been undertaken. This paper is thus an attempt to understand the role of press in India’s freedom struggle. It will also focus on how the Britishers tried to curb the freedom of press through repressive acts and measures during colonial period.
See Full PDF See Full PDFOne of the most significant subjects on colonialism in modern history could be that of Great Britain " s colonization of India. Started as a trading company, however, the attention slowly drifted to the control of its political and administrative system by taking due advantages of the weakness of Indians.\ Within 200 years of colonial rule the entire traditional political and administrative systems of Indians got heavily revamped, if not wholly abolished. Moreover, it is a well known fact that the country was looted of its resources to feed the industrial demands of Britain. While the negative impact of colonialism far outweighs the positive aspects, it will be unjust to undermine the contribution of colonial government in India " s past. This paper intends to through light on the role of colonial government and their contribution on the growth of press in the country.
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This paper briefly reviews press-government relations during the East India Company’s Rule (1600-1857) in South Asia. The paper begins with a short background on the beginning of the press in pre-colonial India. It examines the nature and evolution of the press during the Company’s Raj and its relations with successive viceroys and other colonial rulers. The paper also reviews the tactics of the colonial rulers to suppress the vernacular press under their authoritarianism our paper uses the sociological perspective of conflict theory, to describe and analyse the historical narrative of the press in pre-Independence India. The analysis revealed that the press in the subcontinent emerged owing to Britain’s colonial ambitions to collect information about rival powers, Christian preachers, and dissenting employees Company. The last was the prime reason that led to an adversarial relationship between the press and the regime in India from the very beginning. Initial press criticism of the regime was justifiable but also very scandalous. The Muslim press was mainly targeted on the eve of the 1857’s War of Independence. Regime’s ties with a few newspapers also remained cordial as some leaflets even supported the suppression of the native people and the press in 1857. Some anti-press laws, i.e., the Censorship of Press Act (1799), the Licensing Act (1823), the Press Act (1835), and the most draconian law, the Gagging Act (1857) were also enforced during the Company’s regime.
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Pakistan Historical Society. Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society
IntroductionThe Sub-continent of South Asia has been considered as a geographical entity with varied boundaries in different periods of time in spite of internal rifts and external invasions. Its historical existence has remained under query for the traditional and modern developments. One may say that the epochs of Indian history, and their evolution, have been determined by the appearance of foreign influences from time to time. The social system of India and its philosophy of life have been nurtured and enriched with the contribution and impact of different civilizations. In the modern era coming of the Portuguese and the British in India marked a great impact through modern Western sciences and philosophy upon the Indian world. The Subcontinent witnessed great changes in the period of British rule which determined its importance in the realm of history and philosophy. Its historical patterns have been discussed by different historians with the explanation of socio-political and .
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India got independence from the British rule after a long struggle. Uncountable Indians lost their life and there was destruction of property also to a great extent, in the struggle of freedom movement. After more than seven decades of India"s independence, the martyrs were remembered only on occasions like Independence Day, Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti, etc. National journalism played a significant role in the freedom movement of India. There are innumerable facts on the contribution of journalism and mass media for the freedom movement which were stated in the paper. Despite of the strict regulations and restrictions imposed by the alien government, the freedom fighters used national journalism as a sharp weapon to cut the roots of the British government from India. A SWOT analysis has been done on the mass media during the freedom movement. There were social and economic problems in the country which were tried to tackle through the national journalism during the pre-independence era. National journalism gave a new dimension in the British India to the Indians. The non commercial aspect of mass media during the pre-independence era was also studied.
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the country. The term 'popular' has been applied here to address class consciousness leading to political conflict and Indian response to colonial rule has also been deliberated. It also examines how literary tradition of the country and its impact on Indian society confront with the 'Raj' has also been discussed. For about two hundred years of the British rule, Indian experienced various kinds of challenges and changes in their socio-religious matters that affected them enormously., We have also chosen some vernacular (proscribed) literature published from various parts of the country to construct the history of the resistance movement that manifested in armed revolts, social protests, cultural assertions and intellectual dissent in colonial India. Most of the literatures dealing with British rule published in the first half of the twentieth century in colonial India were declared proscribed and its circulation was banned by the British. The purpose behind writing such pamphlets and circulating it among the masses, was obvious, that was to create national consciousness among the masses as to how the British introduced new system of administration to exploit Indian resources and at the same time how did they undermine the Indian social system in the garb of modernization and 'civilizing missions'. It also argues that those writing truth of the British rule were punished and their publications were banned under Section 124-A and 153-A of the Indian Penal Code and 99-A of Cr.P.C. ABSTRACT The present article seeks to examine the changes noticed under the colonial South Asia which has been argued by Karl Marx as 'destructive' and 'regenerative' phase of British rule. These two terminologies of Marx became an example for the writers of the 20th century to look into it in their literary tradition of India. While dealing with these two phases of history under the Raj, this article analyses the role of vernacular press, published from various parts of the country, in shaping Indian minds and bringing about political consciousness in
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till 1880's along with the vernacular press played a substantial role in propelling the intelligentsia to formulate their line of thinking, which formulates a key component based on which the nationalists in the twentieth century made all the efforts to bring changes in governing the country from within.
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Freedom of Speech, 1550-1850
Mill’s On Liberty (1859) offers one of the most powerful arguments for the progressive effects of liberty of speech and of the press. When interpreted within the contexts of his other writings, Mill’s approach is notable for three exceptions to its general liberty-defending rule. Mill appears to exempt defamatory speech from protection; he does not defend speech that incites violence; and, most importantly, Mill argues that the liberty principle does not apply in precisely the democratizing places where progressive liberty of speech and press promise the greatest short-term benefits. Below, I argue that Mill’s theory is a near-absolutist and conditional theory. First, by interpreting defamation and incitement narrowly, Mill’s theory of free speech becomes nearly absolutist. Second, Mill’s comparative experience with British India, coupled with an un-empirical philosophy of history borrowed from Auguste Comte, makes Mill’s theory conditional. In my conclusion, I argue that Mill’s near-absolutist, conditional theory should be updated. Mill’s theory of liberty remains very defensible but his theory of liberty of speech and of the press should be released from its straitened conception of British Indian publics. Publics were very much in existence in English and vernacular circles in Mill’s India, even if they were not recognized by Mill. Mill’s theory should also be liberated from the a-historical and un-empirical Comtist philosophy of history that contributes to the annulment of existing publics. However, to do so risks implying that the liberty principle can be applied to all societies indiscriminately at any place or time. A truly utilitarian theory of the useful effects of free speech and freedom of the press is instead relative to its historical and political circumstances.
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