Freedom of the Press? 'Hicky's Bengal Gazette', India's first printed newspaper
Fun fact from 'Eaten by a Fish'
The printing press was introduced into India in 1556. But it was not until 1780 that the first printed newspaper appeared in India. This was Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, or The Original Calcutta General Advertiser, edited and published by James Augustus Hicky from Calcutta.
Hicky described his paper as “A Weekly Political and Commercial Paper, Open to all Parties, but influenced by None”. Despite persecution by the East India Company and Warren Hastings’ colonial government, he stood by his principles. He was the first journalist in the subcontinent to protest government control and fight for freedom of the press, and deserves to be recognised as such.
James Augustus Hicky (1740-1802)
Hicky was born in Ireland in 1740. He moved to London as a printer’s apprentice. He left the apprenticeship to work as a law clerk, but abandoned his beginning legal career as well to briefly train as a surgeon. In 1772, he took up the position of surgeon’s mate on an East Indiaman bound for Calcutta. In Calcutta, he practised as a surgeon and also set up a business trading goods along the Indian coast. By 1776, his trading business had failed, and deep in debt, Hicky found himself in debtors’ prison.
While still in prison, he acquired a printing press and began a printing business. He was released from prison in 1778. And on January 29, 1780, he began publishing the Bengal Gazette. Priced at a princely Re. 1, the paper sought to cover “everything that might be important to Calcutta” as well as news from other parts of India and the world.
Hicky quickly began writing about the various ills that beset the inhabitants of Calcutta — the poor sanitation, the miserable state of the roads, and the general lack of civic care by the colonial government. He reported a disastrous fire in 1780 that destroyed the grass-roofed homes of 15,000 poor and killed 190, and appealed passionately to the government to clothe and rehouse the victims.
Hicky also reported on the conditions of Indian and British soldiers in the East India Company’s army and closely followed the battles being fought by the Company’s soldiers. In particular, he wrote about the Battle of Pollilur where, in 1780, the British army faced a resounding defeat at the hands of Haider Ali, the ruler of Mysore. Hicky accused the Company of squandering the lives of its soldiers. He also began to question the British image of the ‘good guy’ in India. Instead of fanning rumours that Haider Ali’s soldiers had killed all British soldiers they found fleeing after the battle, Hicky reported how the British had been escorted to friendly territory by Haider Ali’s troops. He also wrote of the crisis that followed as thousands of refugees fled to Madras, and the famine and disease that followed. This coverage won Hicky a wide international audience. However, it did not please the colonial government.
A rival newspaper, The India Gazette, was now set up with the blessings and support of the then Governor General, Warren Hastings. Hicky now accused Simeon Droz, a Company official and Warren Hastings’ wife, Marian, of helping The India Gazette because he, Hicky, had not paid them a bribe. In retaliation, the government issued an order banning the circulation of Hicky’s paper via the Post Office, on the grounds that the paper was found “to contain several improper paragraphs that tending to vilify private characters and to disturb the peace of the settlement”.
Hicky protested strongly, declaring that freedom of the press was essential to the existence of a free government, that a subject of such a government “should have full liberty to declare his principles, and opinions, and every act which tends to coerce that liberty is tyrannical and injurious to the community". He now took on the establishment in full force. He accused Warren Hastings and Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, of corruption. He also levelled similar charges against Johann Kiernander, the leader of the Protestant Mission. But Hicky could not win against the combined forces of State and Church. After four dramatic trials in 1781, he was convicted and imprisoned. The court confiscated his types and printing press, and his newspaper was shut down in 1782. He died in penury in 1802.
Hicky’s reporting was not free from faults. We would find his views on women, for instance, deeply troubling today. But he was the first defender of press freedom in India and his newspaper served as inspiration to many.
Today, in the RSF (Reporters Without Borders) World Press Freedom Index for 2022 India ranks 150 out of 180 countries. It’s something for us all to think about, is it not?
No images of Hicky survive, but we do have samples of his handwriting and signature. Here they are, on a bill to the East India Company for a printing job:
Several English newspapers followed after Hicky’s. Till the end of the 18th century, all newspapers in India were published in English by Englishmen. All of them, with the exception of the Madras Carrier published by Richard Johnson who won government approval by publishing government communiques, were ruthlessly suppressed by the colonial government. With the advent of the Indian press in the 19th century, even stricter laws for press censorship were enacted. Nevertheless, the Indian press not only survived, it thrived, and went on to play a critical role in the 1857 uprising as well as during the freedom struggle.
Did you enjoy this post, find it informative? Tell us what you think!
If you enjoyed this post, why not share this newsletter with your friends?
SOURCES
I have drawn upon the following articles, papers and online resources in writing this post:
ARORA, JAGDISH. “The History of the Press in India.” Current History 13, no. 71 (1947): 27–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45307271.
Gupta, Uma Das. “The Indian Press 1870-1880: A Small World of Journalism.” Modern Asian Studies 11, no. 2 (1977): 213–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/311549.
Aniket De (2020) Hicky’s Bengal gazette: the untold story of India’s first newspaper, South Asian History and Culture, 11:2, 230-232, DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2020.1755130
Ben Gilding (2019) The Rise and Fall of Hicky's Bengal Gazette (1780–2): A Study in Transoceanic Political Culture, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47:1, 1-27, DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2018.1506870
Sonwalkar, P., 2021. The early history of press freedom in Bengal. [online] The Daily Star. Available at: <https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/news/the-early-history-press-freedom-bengal-2087157> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
Wangchuk, R., 2020. How an Irishman Challenged the East India Company With India's First Newspaper. [online] The Better India. Available at: <https://www.thebetterindia.com/241344/india-first-newspaper-bengal-gazette-james-augustus-hicky-warren-hastings-east-india-company-corruption-india-nor41/> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
Bl.uk. n.d. British Library. [online] Available at: <https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-bengal-gazette-an-anglo-indian-newspaper> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
History Flame. n.d. James Augustus Hicky - First Indian Newspaper Founder - History Flame. [online] Available at: <https://historyflame.com/james-augustus-hicky/> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
Rsf.org. 2022. RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index : a new era of polarisation. [online] Available at: <https://rsf.org/en/rsfs-2022-world-press-freedom-index-new-era-polarisation> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
Rsf.org. 2022. Index. [online] Available at: <https://rsf.org/en/index> [Accessed 27 May 2022].
Image Sources
Masthead for the March 3-10, 1781 issue of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette
From Heidelberg University’s digital library: Heidelberg historic literature- digitized. Available at:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/hbg1781_7/0001/image,info,thumbsBill submitted by Hicky to the East India Company
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Augustus_Hicky%27s_Bill_to_the_East_India_Company_for_a_printing_job.jpg
Well deserved recognition of Hickey. This piece has made me wonder about the history of the press in India in local languages and the influence those newspapers and magazines had and the role they played in the lives of Indians.
Very interesting