The Indian Press 1870–1880: A Small World of Journalism

A Unianimous decision of the Viceroy's Council was taken on 14 March 1878 to establish a check over the vernacular press in India. This was Act IX of 1878, an act for ‘the better control of publications in Oriental languages’. It was to control ‘seditious writing’ in the vernacular newspapers everywhere in the country, except the south. Too much was being written in these newspapers of the ‘injustice and tyranny’ of the British government, ‘its utter want of consideration towards its native subjects, and the insolence and pride of Englishmen in India’.One hundred and fifty-nine extracts from vernacular newspapers of the North-Western Provinces, Punjab, Bengal and Bombay were produced before the Supreme Council as evidence of existing sedition. Surprised at its own importance, the vernacular press staggered into the eighties of the nineteenth century. The crucial demand for ajudicial trial in case of an accusation of sedition against an editor was never conceded by the government, although in October 1878 the act was modified in minor respects. The important thing was that the government from an almost complete unawareness had come to be so preoccupied with the vernacular press. What was the nature of the vernacular press in India in the 1870s and how wide was its range?