India observes National Press Day on 16 November. The date marks the day in 1966 when the Press Council of India began working as a statutory, autonomous body to protect press freedom and uphold standards. The idea of a free press is much older than the Council. It was fought for, newspaper by newspaper, between 1780 and 1947. A string of press laws, each passed after the government felt threatened, forms one of the most reliable question banks in the history paper: UPSC asks for the order of the laws, the Viceroy behind each one and the editor behind each paper. This article gives you all three.
The First Papers: From Hicky (1780) to Hastings (1818)
The first newspaper printed in India was Hicky's Bengal Gazette (also called the Original Calcutta General Advertiser), a weekly started at Calcutta on 29 January 1780 by James Augustus Hicky, an Irishman. Its motto promised a paper "open to all parties but influenced by none", and Hicky meant it: he attacked Governor-General Warren Hastings and Chief Justice Elijah Impey in print. Hastings struck back by withdrawing the paper's postal privileges in November 1780. Hicky was jailed for libel and his press was seized in 1782, which ended the paper.
Other English papers followed, many of them friendly to the Company: the India Gazette (1780), the official Calcutta Gazette (1784), the Madras Courier (1785), the Bombay Herald (1789) and the Bombay Courier (1790). The first Indian-owned paper in English was a Bengal Gazette run by Gangadhar Bhattacharya in 1816.
The Company's rulers saw the press as a danger from the start. In 1799, with France threatening and Napoleon in Egypt, Lord Wellesley issued regulations that imposed pre-censorship: every paper had to print the names of its printer, editor and proprietor, and send all matter to the Government's Secretary for approval before publication. Lord Hastings (Governor-General 1813-23) swept away pre-censorship in 1818 and replaced it with a set of rules for editors. That same year the Baptist missionaries at Serampore, led by Joshua Marshman, began the Samachar Darpan, the first Bengali weekly (the Bengali monthly Digdarshan started the same year).
Ram Mohan Roy, Adam's Licence and Metcalfe's Liberation
English education (see our education in British India page) created Indian readers and Indian editors. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the father of the Indian press, started the Bengali weekly Sambad Kaumudi in 1821 and the Persian weekly Mirat-ul-Akhbar in 1822. In Bombay, Fardunji Marzban started the Gujarati Bombay Samachar in 1822. It is still published today.
In 1823 the acting Governor-General John Adam issued a Licensing Regulation: no one could run a press without a licence from the Government, which it could cancel at will. It was aimed at Roy's papers. Roy and others petitioned the Supreme Court and then the King in Council, and Roy closed the Mirat-ul-Akhbar rather than accept the rule. The petition failed, but it is the first organised defence of press freedom in India.
The regulation was repealed in 1835 by Sir Charles Metcalfe, the acting Governor-General, with the support of Macaulay. The new Press Act required only that a printer or publisher declare the place of publication. Metcalfe is remembered as the "Liberator of the Indian Press". A free press then grew quickly for two decades.
Wellesley 1799 = pre-censorship. Adam 1823 = licensing. Metcalfe 1835 = freedom. Students often swap Adam and Metcalfe, or credit Lord Hastings with the 1835 Act. Metcalfe acted after Hastings had left.
Revolt, Lytton and the Vernacular Press Act (1857-1882)
After the Revolt of 1857, Lord Canning passed the Licensing Act of 1857, which brought back licences for printing presses for one year. The Press and Registration of Books Act of 1867 followed, which still underlies India's registration of newspapers. In 1870 the Indian Penal Code gained Section 124A, the law of sedition.
The sharpest blow came under Lord Lytton. Indian-language papers were growing fast and attacking the Government's famine policy, its Afghan policy and its lavish Delhi Durbar of 1877. Lytton's Government passed the Vernacular Press Act on 14 March 1878, in a single sitting. It was nicknamed the "Gagging Act".
| Feature | What the Act did |
|---|---|
| Who it hit | Only papers in Indian languages. English papers were exempt, which made it openly discriminatory |
| Bond | A District Magistrate could require a printer and publisher to sign a bond not to publish matter that stirred disaffection, and to deposit a security |
| Penalty | Security could be forfeited and the press seized after repeated offences |
| No appeal | The magistrate's decision was final; courts could not review it |
| Escape route | A paper could avoid the bond by submitting its proofs to a government censor before printing |
The effect was quick. Amrita Bazar Patrika, then a Bengali weekly run by Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, turned itself into an English weekly within about a week, because English papers were exempt. Protest meetings were held across the country, and the new Indian Association took up the cause. The Act was eased later in 1878 (the proofs rule was dropped) and was repealed in 1882 by Lord Ripon, who also introduced local self-government. The order matters: Lytton passed it, Ripon removed it.
In 1883, Surendranath Banerjea, editor of The Bengalee, became the first Indian leader jailed for what he wrote. He served two months for contempt of court after criticising a High Court judge. Calcutta's streets filled with protesters. It was a landmark in the early Moderate-era national movement.
Tilak, Swadeshi and the Acts of 1908 and 1910
Press freedom was tested again when the nationalist press turned militant. Bal Gangadhar Tilak launched Kesari (Marathi) and The Mahratta (English) in 1881. He was sentenced to 18 months for sedition in 1897, and in 1908 to six years' transportation to Mandalay for articles on the Muzaffarpur bomb. During the Swadeshi movement, Bengal's papers Yugantar, Sandhya and Bande Mataram urged boycott and even revolution.
| Law | Viceroy | Trigger | Main provision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908 | Minto II | Muzaffarpur bomb (April 1908) and the revolutionary press | Magistrates could seize the press of any paper that incited violence |
| Indian Press Act, 1910 | Minto II | Continued revolutionary writing | Local governments could demand a security of ₹500 to ₹2,000 from a new press or paper, and forfeit it |
The 1910 Act was repealed in 1922, after a committee under Tej Bahadur Sapru recommended it. By then Gandhi had made the press a tool of mass politics by taking over Young India and starting Navajivan (both 1919) and later Harijan (1933). We trace this in our Gandhian phase page. After independence, Article 19(1)(a), covered in fundamental rights: liberty, guaranteed freedom of speech and expression, and the courts read press freedom into it.
Put in order: Vernacular Press Act, Cornwallis Code, Morley-Minto Reforms, first Indian Factory Act.
Papers and Editors: The Table UPSC Matches
| Paper | Founder / editor | Place, language, year |
|---|---|---|
| Hicky's Bengal Gazette | James Augustus Hicky | Calcutta, English, 1780 |
| Samachar Darpan | Joshua Marshman (Serampore) | Bengali weekly, 1818 |
| Sambad Kaumudi; Mirat-ul-Akhbar | Ram Mohan Roy | Bengali 1821; Persian 1822 |
| Rast Goftar | Dadabhai Naoroji | Bombay, Gujarati, 1851 |
| Hindu Patriot | Girish Chandra Ghosh; made famous by Harish Chandra Mukherjee | Calcutta, English, 1853; defended indigo farmers |
| Amrita Bazar Patrika | Sisir and Motilal Ghosh | Bengali 1868; English from 1878 |
| The Hindu | G. Subramania Iyer and others | Madras, 1878 |
| Kesari and The Mahratta | Bal Gangadhar Tilak | Pune, Marathi and English, 1881 |
| The Bengalee | Surendranath Banerjea | Calcutta, English |
| The Tribune | Dyal Singh Majithia | Lahore, English, 1881 |
| Voice of India | Dadabhai Naoroji | 1883 |
| Indian Opinion | M.K. Gandhi | Durban, 1903 |
| Yugantar; Bande Mataram | Barindra Ghosh; Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghose | Bengal, 1906 |
| Al-Hilal | Abul Kalam Azad | Urdu weekly, 1912 |
| Mooknayak; Kudi Arasu | B.R. Ambedkar (1920); E.V. Ramasamy Periyar (1925) | Voices of the oppressed castes |
The Neel Darpan (1860), a Bengali play by Dinabandhu Mitra about the oppression of indigo planters, was translated into English by Madhusudan Dutt and published by Rev. James Long, who was fined and jailed for it in 1861. The Hindu Patriot's coverage of the indigo revolt and the play together shaped opinion against the planters.
How UPSC Has Asked It: Past Papers Solved
Five genuine CDS questions from 2019 to 2025, from order-of-events to matching.
Arrange the following in the chronological order of their implementation: (1) The Indian Factory Act (First) (2) The Vernacular Press Act (3) The Morley-Minto Reforms (4) The Cornwallis Code
(a) 4, 2, 1, 3 (b) 2, 4, 1, 3 (c) 3, 4, 1, 2 (d) 2, 1, 3, 4
Answer: (a). Cornwallis Code 1793, Vernacular Press Act 1878, first Factory Act 1881, Morley-Minto Reforms 1909. Option (b) is tempting because the Vernacular Press Act sounds early, but it came 85 years after the Code.
Who among the following founded the Marathi newspaper Kesari?
(a) Lokmanya Tilak (b) Vallabhbhai Patel (c) Lala Lajpat Rai (d) Mahatma Gandhi
Answer: (a). Tilak started Kesari (Marathi) and The Mahratta (English) in 1881. Lajpat Rai is linked with The Punjabee and The People, and Gandhi with Young India and Navajivan.
Which one of the following pairs of Newspaper and Editor is not correctly matched? (a) Navjivan, Mahatma Gandhi (b) Mahratta, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (c) Bengalee, Surendranath Banerjea (d) Voice of India, Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(a) a (b) b (c) c (d) d
Answer: (d). Voice of India is associated with Dadabhai Naoroji, not Gokhale. The other three pairs are correct.
Match List-I (Journal/Newspaper/Pamphlet) with List-II (Founder/Editor/Author): A. Kudi Arasu, B. Kisan Bulletin, C. Bombay Chronicle, D. Bhawani Mandir. 1. Aurobindo Ghose 2. Pherozeshah Mehta 3. Indulal Yagnik 4. E.V. Ramaswami Naicker
(a) 4 3 2 1 (b) 4 2 3 1 (c) 1 3 2 4 (d) 1 2 3 4
Answer: (a). Kudi Arasu is Periyar's (4), the Kisan Bulletin was Indulal Yagnik's (3), the Bombay Chronicle was founded by Pherozeshah Mehta in 1910 (2) and the pamphlet Bhawani Mandir is Aurobindo Ghose's (1). Starting with the certain pairs, A-4 and D-1, eliminates (c) and (d) at once.
"Neel Darpan", a play that depicted the atrocities on the indigo planters, was translated into English by:
(a) Dinabandhu Mitra (b) Michael Madhusudan Dutta (c) James Long (d) James C. Scott
Answer: (b). Mitra wrote it in Bengali (so (a) is the author, not the translator) and Rev. Long published the English version, for which he was jailed. The translator was Madhusudan Dutt.
UPSC mixes two styles: sequence (Wellesley, Adam, Metcalfe, 1857, 1878, 1908, 1910) and pairs (paper and editor). Keep both lists in your head and the section is nearly free marks.
Practice MCQs (with answers)
- Hicky's Bengal Gazette began publication in
- 1780
- 1818
- 1835
- 1857
- Which acting Governor-General is called the "Liberator of the Indian Press"?
- Lord Wellesley
- Sir Charles Metcalfe
- Lord Lytton
- Lord Ripon
- The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was repealed in 1882 by
- Lord Lytton
- Lord Canning
- Lord Ripon
- Lord Curzon
- Which of the following newspaper and editor pairs is correct?
- Kesari: Surendranath Banerjea
- Hindu Patriot: Dadabhai Naoroji
- Indian Opinion: Tilak
- Al-Hilal: Abul Kalam Azad
- Wellesley's press regulations of 1799 required newspapers to
- submit all matter to a government Secretary before publication
- pay a security of ₹2,000
- be printed only in English
- be owned only by Europeans
- The Vernacular Press Act applied to
- all newspapers
- newspapers in Indian languages only
- English newspapers only
- newspapers in Bengal only
- The Indian Press Act of 1910 was passed under Viceroy
- Curzon
- Hardinge
- Minto
- Chelmsford
- In 1883 Surendranath Banerjea was jailed over an article in
- Kesari
- Amrita Bazar Patrika
- The Hindu
- The Bengalee
1-a, 2-b, 3-c, 4-d, 5-a, 6-b, 7-c, 8-d. Q2: Metcalfe, not Hastings; he acted in 1835. Q3: Lytton passed the Act and Ripon removed it. Q4: Kesari was Tilak's, Hindu Patriot is linked with Harish Chandra Mukherjee and Indian Opinion with Gandhi. Q6: English papers were exempt, and that is why Amrita Bazar Patrika switched language. Q7: Minto II (1905-10) was Viceroy; Curzon was earlier and Hardinge later.
Quick Revision
- 1780: Hicky's Bengal Gazette, Calcutta, weekly; Hastings and Impey attacked; press seized 1782.
- 1799 Wellesley: pre-censorship. 1818 Hastings: ended it. 1823 Adam: licensing; Ram Mohan Roy protests. 1835 Metcalfe: liberator of the press.
- 1857 Licensing Act (Canning); 1867 Press and Registration of Books Act; 1870 sedition clause 124A.
- Vernacular Press Act: 14 March 1878, Lytton, Indian-language papers only, magistrate's bond, no appeal. Amrita Bazar Patrika became English. Repealed 1882 by Ripon.
- 1883: Surendranath Banerjea jailed (The Bengalee). Tilak: sentenced 1897 and 1908; Kesari and Mahratta 1881.
- 1908 Incitement to Offences Act; 1910 Indian Press Act (security ₹500-2,000), Minto; repealed 1922 (Sapru Committee).
- Press Council of India: began work on 16 November 1966, now National Press Day.
Frequently asked questions
Which was the first newspaper in India?
Hicky's Bengal Gazette, started by James Augustus Hicky at Calcutta on 29 January 1780. It was a weekly in English. Warren Hastings's government withdrew its postal facilities and eventually seized its press, and the paper closed in 1782.
Why is Charles Metcalfe called the Liberator of the Indian Press?
In 1835 Metcalfe, then acting Governor-General, repealed John Adam's licensing regulation of 1823. The new Press Act only required printers and publishers to declare the place of publication. Indian-owned papers grew fast after this.
What was the Vernacular Press Act of 1878?
It was a law passed by Lord Lytton's government on 14 March 1878 that targeted only newspapers in Indian languages. A District Magistrate could demand a bond and security from a publisher, and the decision could not be appealed. English-language papers were exempt, which made the Act openly discriminatory.
Who repealed the Vernacular Press Act and when?
Lord Ripon, Viceroy from 1880, repealed it in 1882. The Act had already been softened later in 1878, when the requirement to submit proofs before printing was dropped.
Why is 16 November National Press Day?
On 16 November 1966 the Press Council of India began functioning as a statutory body to protect press freedom and maintain standards of journalism. The Council was set up on the recommendation of the First Press Commission of 1954.
Related CDS / OTA History topics
Modern history is where order-of-events questions win marks
Cavalier's CDS/OTA batches teach modern Indian history as a timeline, with weekly PYQ tests that drill the sequence questions UPSC loves.