Question

The first vernacular paper, Samachar Darpan, was published during the tenure of _________.
a.Lord Hastings
b.Lord Minto
c.Lord Metcalfe
d.Lord Macaulay

Answer 1

Hint: It was the success of a monthly Bengali magazine which motivated the Baptist Missionary Society to venture into this business of newspapers,which was very successful.

Complete answer: Published on 23rd May 1818 by the Baptist Missionary Society, Samachar Darpan was a Bengali weekly newspaper from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore in the first half of the 19th century. We need to remember that the initiative was taken by Joshua Marshman and William Ward.

The paper covered seven major sections: news of the government officials, government circulars, news of the European countries other than Britain, new events, birth, obituary and wedding, news of England, history of India and its scholarly books.

Priced at 4 annas per copy, the newspaper was published every saturday and its coverage of local news was certainly better than any other English or Indian language newspaper. The paper covered almost all important topics of concern, including certain advertisements and obituaries as well.
Since we know that the newspaper was published in 1818, let us recall who amongst the given four alternatives was in power at that time.
Very clearly, in the years of 1813 to 1823, the Governor General of India was Lord Warren Hastings, so option ‘a’ is the correct answer.

Note: The missionaries were eventually requested by the government to bring out a Persian edition of samachar Darpan so that the newspaper appeals to the so-called ‘upper section’ of the society. So, the persian version was named as Akhbar-i- Serampur, although insufficient patronage caused the shutdown of both the versions.