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0.

Why This Book About India's

First English Newspaper Is
Relevant Now
II I C . 1· 1
7. T •
•

BY. Fathima Abdul Kader I Posted Jun 27 2019

As the socially conscious youth of the nation take to alter11ative websites, social 1nedia
accot1nts and even meme pages to bring matters of concern to the pt1blic 's attention,
mainstream newspapers are fading from their glory days. Bt1t the marginalized who need
awareness regarding the incidents in the cot1ntry are often those withot1t access to internet or
broadcast media. Newspapers are the 1nedit1111 that can reacl1 the n1ost nt11nber of people and
ethical reportage is 1nore important than ever right now. The fact that established journalists
who speak the truth have co1ne under attack for doing so, is also a 1natter of concern that
turns away many an aspiring jot1r11alist fro1n worki11g with newspapers. With the state of flux
that India is in, it is essential to reach out to as many as possible.

During a sin1ilar state of flux that India faced, two l1undred years ago, in 1780 the first Indian
E11glisl1 newspaper- Hicl<:y's Bengal Gazette, was facing atte111pts at being shut down by
Wa1Te11 Hastings, tl1e gover11or general of the British ruled provinces. For raising questions
that shook the British rule in the nation, James Augustus Ricky was said to have acted with
''t1nparalleled insolence'' against his social betters. Although this newspaper only lasted for
two years, it went through more trot1ble than success. According to Andrew Otis, the author
of the book Ricky's Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India's First Newspaper, it was a
lesson in the role of free press in the society and what the press shot1ld and should not do.

HICKr's
BENGAL GAZETTE;
OR 'J. H8 O R IGI N A L

Calcz,tta General Adverti!er

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O ne of the surv iving copy of Hicky 's Bengal Gazette from 178 l

As a young boy growing tip in a small town with a penchant for history even at that age,
newspapers were Otis's window into a wider world. During a visit to the British library in
2011, Otis can1e across an edition of Ricky's Gazette and lmew it was a story that deserved to
be looked further into and he said, ''I think some people think it's strange that an American
would have such interest i11 Indian history. But I think there's some sl1ared culh1ral heritage
between India and America. We both were colonial subjects at one point, and I find it
fascinating that at the time of the American Revolution there were also revolt1tionary
rumblings in India."

While doing the research on the Hicl<:y's Gazette, Otis faced his share of difficulties because
there were no real procedures in place for this pt1rpose in India. During his ti1ne in India, he
spend time in the St1preme Cot1rt of India, looking throt1gh docu1nents and record rooms and
recalls, ''I wandered around the Courthouse for an hour poking my head into rooms. I thinl<: it
was weird for people to see a ra11dom wl1ite guy walking around the Court's bowels. I finally
went to tl1e roo1n but was told tl1at the Court disposes and digitizes its records every year, and
that they had no records before 1935. I left convinced that the records I was looking for, if
they still existed, were not at the Supreme Court.''