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Background and Early Growth of the Press
- James Augustus Hickey started The Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser in 1780, regarded as the first newspaper in India. Its outspoken criticism of the government led to its seizure in 1782.
- The early press was followed by publications such as The Bengal Journal, The Calcutta Chronicle, The Madras Courier and The Bombay Herald.
- The colonial authorities increasingly viewed newspapers as a potential channel for exposing official misconduct and influencing public opinion in Britain.
- James Silk Buckingham continued the development of journalism through the Calcutta Journal and is associated with the early growth of modern Indian journalism.
- Furdunji Marzban started an early Indian-language newspaper in Gujarati in 1812.
- Gangadhar Bhattacharya began a newspaper in English in 1816, marking an important stage in Indian participation in English-language journalism.
- J.C. Marshman started Digdarshan in 1818, associated with the early Bengali-language press.
- Raja Rammohan Roy emerged as an early Indian advocate of press freedom and used journalism as an instrument of social and political reform.
- Jugal Kishore started Udant Martand in 1826, identified in the chapter as the first Hindi-language newspaper published from Kanpur.