Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

THE POWER OF THE PEN

Chronology

1822

Mirat-ul-Akbar

Ram Mohan Roy

1912

A1 Hilal

Abul Kalam Azad

1822

Bombay Samachar

Fardoonjee Mazban

1913

Bombay Chronicle

Pherozshah Mehta

1853

Hindoo Patriot

Harischandra Mukherji

1918

Young India & Naujivan

Gandhi

1878

Kesari

Tilak

1919

Pratap

AryaSamai

1878 1881

Maharatta The Hindu

Tilak

1923 1933

Hindustan Times

Akali

G. Subramanya Iyer

Harijan

Gandhi

1905

Bande Mataram

Aurobindo Ghosh

1942

Dawn

Muslim League

Bengal Gazette 1780 J A Hicky (Founder)

A free press and the dominion of strang- ers are things which are incompatible and which cannot long exist together; for what is the first duty of a free press? It is to deliver the country from a foreign yoke and to sacrifice to this one great object every measure and con- sideration.

“To make a desolation and call it peace, to hush free speech and curb free action and to call it law and order, to demand submission and servility and to call it loyalty is easy but is it worth while ? Will such things not breed their own crops of evil?... ” “Lord Zetland is not for peace. That is the impression the statement in the House of Lords is bound to leave on the mind of the Indian public. If he represents the attitude of H.M.'s Govern- ment correctly they are singularly unmindful of the realities of the Indian situation and contemp- tuous of Indian opinion as it has unmistakably mani- fested itself. ” The Hindu, April 17, 1919

Object : A weekly political commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none. Weekly Madras Courier 1785 Bombay Herald 1789 Bombay Samachar 1822 Hindoo Patriot 1853 (Editor : Haris Chandra Mukherji) Object: A fair and manly advocacy of the interests of the country and an impartial exposition of the social and political evils with which she is now afflicted.

- Munro 12 April 1822.

Free press is the best protection

against sedition and revolution.

- Elphinstone.

Leader of Allahabad, The Tribune of Lahore, Kesari and a larger number of Indian language dailies. The Indian owned press examined every move of the British government. The press became a major vehicle for expressing India's national aspirations. The influence of the Indian-language papers far exceeded that of their Indian-owned English counter- parts because of their wider readership. The papers of Bengal and Maharashtra were more forthright and daring in their comments than the English papers. The British Government began to regard the Indian language press as a thorough nuisance. In 1878, the government brought out the Vernacular Press Act which sought to curb the freedom of the Vernacular Press. This Act made it clear that nationalism had become a living force in India. In the meantime, nationalists like Bankim Chandra Chatterji contributed to the cause of Nationalism through his writings. Bankim Chandra's Bengali novels like 'Anandmath ’ which con- tained the patriotic hymn ‘ Bande Mataram' glorified the past. Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) emerged as the foremost leader of the country. He propounded the economic drain theory by which he devoted himself to the task of convincing the British that it ruined India systematically draining it of its great wealth. Like- wise, Mahadev Govind Ranade's ‘ Poona Sarvajanik Sabha ’ (1870) also was a moving spirit. Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1926) founded the Indian As- sociation in 1876. He voiced his concern against the Vernacular Press Act and the Government's decision of 1876 lowering the age limit for entrance to the I.C.S to 19 years. The Aligarh movement was started by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan which aimed at popularising the use of Urdu amongst the Muslims and to soften Muslim resistance to Western education. He set up the Muslim Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh.

National consciousness and awareness of India's degraded condition became evident in the formation of political associations like the Bombay Association (1852), the British Indian Association in Calcutta (1851) and the Madras Native Association. These as- sociations exerted pressure on the British government through pe- titions and by mobilizing political opinion in Britain. . The East Indian Association (Britain) was formed to promote Indian inter- ests. Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1870), Indian Association (1876), Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884), Bombay Presidency Association (1885) were formed by more radical elements. They voiced the discontent against various Acts like the Arms Act and the Ver- nacular Press Act (1878), removal of import duties on British textiles, use of Indian resources in Colonial wars and the govern- ments surrender to the racial arrogance of Europeans over the Ilbert Bill. The most significant development and powerful force that sustained Nationalism during this period was the Indian-owned press. By the end of the 19th century about 500 Indian newspapers and journals were published all over India. While the English papers provided political education for their English-speaking readers, the Indian-language papers or vernacular press benefited the Indian readers. The earliest newspapers were weeklies brought out by Eng- lishmen in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras during the second half of the 18th century. Then the Indian weeklies followed, the most notable amongst them was the ‘ Sambad Kaumudi’ of Calcutta for which Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote regularly. The first dailies to appear were financed by members of the British business community in order to promote their commercial interests. Then came the Indian-owned English dailies including the Amrit Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, The Hindu of Madras, The