Question

What role did the press play in the National Movement?

Answer 1

Hint:In India, the Nationalist Movement was an early popular movement demanding independence from Great Britain from India. James Augustus Hickey is regarded as the founder of the press in India. In the year 1780, he began the Bengal Gazette. But in the year 1872, it was confiscated as it was critical of the British Monarchy. With the growing number of newspapers, the government has been responsible. Therefore, numerous actions to censor the press were carried into effect.

Complete answer:
Media freedom was of critical significance and it was a strong platform for political views to be propagated. Raja Rammohan Roy protested in 1824 against a bill banning press freedom. From about 1870 to 1918, the early period of the nationalist movement centred more on political propaganda and schooling, the development and promotion of nationalist ideology, recruitment, mobilisation and public opinion consolidation.
Under distinguished and fearless writers, several newspapers appeared during these years. Under G. These included The Hindu and Swadesamitran Subramania Aiyar, Voice of India under DadabhaiNaoroji, Amrita Bazar Patrika under Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, Indian Mirror under N.N. The Bengalee under Surendranath Banerjee, Under BalgangadharTilak, Sen, Kesari (in Marathi) and Maharatta (in English), Sudharak under Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Hindustan and Advocate under G.P. Verma.
These newspapers' primary goal was not to make gains, but to represent the people. Actually, these publications had a wide scope and the popular library movement was stimulated. The influence of this campaign was not limited to towns and cities; these publications often entered rural villages, where in local libraries every news article and editorial would be read and debated extensively. Libraries have therefore encouraged not only civic education, but also political participation.
Government acts and policies were put under rigorous review in these journals. They served as an institution for the government to resist. On its part, the Government had passed some strident laws to suppress newspapers, such as Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code, which specified that anyone attempting to cause disaffection in India against the British Government was to be transported or imprisoned for life for any term.

Note:Indian newspapers were strongly critical of the administration of Lord Lytton, especially with regard to its inhumane treatment of victims of the famine of 1876-77. In the 1878 Vernacular Press Act, the government hit back. In order to better regulate the vernacular press and effectively repress seditious literature, the Vernacular Press Act (VPA) was formulated.