Origin and Growth of Journalism Among Europeans

Abstract

HOWEVER true it may be that the Englishman wherever he goes in the world seeks out a site for a golf course, his passion for starting a newspaper has endured longer and is as strong now as ever it was. Hence the very active developments of journalism in a town like Karachi, the newest of the big Indian ports. The story of British journalism in India traces back almost as far as that of regular government by the British, although it naturally does not extend to the unsettled days of the early traders. Within seven years of the Regulating Act of 1773, which created a Governor-General and set up a Supreme Court, the first British newspaper was published in Calcutta and by 1790 Bombay boasted two newspapers in the Herald and the Courier, the latter of which was to be merged at a much later date in the Times of India. In the conditions of India in those early days the newspapers were naturally born to trouble. The rule of the East India Company was autocratic; its officers did not welcome criticism; they had large powers in decidingwho should enter the settlements and how long their stay should be. Journals in those circumstances were either official, safe and dull, or were written with an eye to the scandals of the community, in which case their life was apt to be short. Hicky's Gazette or Journal, the first of Calcutta's newspapers, was so scandalous in dealing with the life of the community that it and its proprietor disappeared within two years. It had successors which were equally short-lived, for the most part because they were dull. The producers of these early organs of opinions faced many difficulties. Mails bringing news from home were uncertain and far between. A sailing ship might take anything up to thirteen months to reach Calcutta from England, and there was no organisation of a news service. The journalist was thrown back for his material in the main upon the life of a very small community and had to battle with every discouragement from the supreme authority, who objected to practically all news affecting its servants. Editors were deported for trivial offences against the regulations or were made to apologise publicly. Stringent rules were set up for the control of the Press, which was subjected to strict censorship. Everything that was to be printed had first to receive official sanction, and it was not until 1818, under the governorship of the Marquis of Hastings, that there was any relaxation of this stern and unenlightened code. Nevertheless, from this period one newspaper survives to the present day. The Bengal Gazette, started in 1780 under Government patronage, is the Calcutta Gazette of today, a purely official publication recording the proceedings of the Bengal Government.