RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY AND HICKEY AS JOURNALISTS
Objective of the lesson:
The objective of this lesson is to introduce you to
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a Social Reformer
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a journalist
- Journalism of Hicky
Structure of the lesson :
- Introduction to Raja Ram Mohan Roy
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a Journalist
- James Auguster Hickey
- Hickey as a Journalist
- Summary
- Model Questions
- Refrence Books
| 15.1. Introduction to Raja Ram Mohan Roy |
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s efforts to abolish the despicable practice of sati and the setting up of the Brahmo Samaj is more well-known than the fact that he was also far ahead of his time in interpreting religion.
Much of what he said more than 200 years ago is relevant even today, despite the passage of times and attendant changes in the social fabric.
He mastered Persian and Arabic, read the Qur’an and the works of Sufi Mystics in the original as well as Arabic translations of the works of Aristotle and Plato.
When Raja Ram Mohan Roy was barely 16 years of age, he set out on a journey, through northern India dnd Tibet to get first-hand knowledge of Buddhism. He continued with his travels for three years. He went to Varanasi where he learnt Sanskrit and studied ancient Hindu scriptures. He was also influenced by Western liberal thinkers.
In his first publication Tuhfatual Muwahhiddin in Persian, Roy said, ‘I travelled in the remotest parts of the world, in plains as well as in hilly lands, and I found the inhabitants thereof agreeing generally in believing in the existence of one being who is the source of creation and the governor of it”.
He felt that while it was natural for every human being to look up to an enternal being, conditioned re- sponses from sectarian beliefs passed on from one generation to another caused turmoil between faiths.
Ram Mohan Roy felt that through observing creation and the laws of nature, man ‘has an innate faculty in him by which he can infer that there exists a Being who (with His wisdom) governs the whole universe”.
He emphasised self-reliance rather than blind belief in interpreting texts and wrote, ‘’the fact of God’s endowing each individual human being with intellectual faculties and senses implies that he should not, like other creatures, follow the examples of the fellow brethren of his race, but should exercise his own intellectual power with the help of acquired knowledge, to discern good from bad, so that his valuable divine gift should not be left useless”.
Roy believed that morality cannot be separated from religion and spirituality. He said that the vedas and the Upanishads indicated that moral principle is a part of the adoration of God and quoted from the Katha Upainshed: ‘’No man can acquire a knowledge of the soul without abstaining from evil acts”.
Ram Mohan Roy also studied the Bible and wrote three lengthy tracts on the theme, ‘’An appeal to the Christian public in defence of the precepts of Jesus”.
These tracts focused on love; love of God and of one’s fellow men. A belief in God as a loving father and one’s fellow-men as brothers was a message that echoed Roy’s own convictions. Roy’s efforts in setting up the Brahmo Samaj was with the idea of amalgamating the best in Hinduism and other religions.
His attempts at religious reform were motivated by his desire to see the barriers and antagonisms re- moved between the adherents of world religions. His view was that God is not limited to any one way.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy is often referred to as the father of Indian renaissance. He refused to accept traditions blindly and was willing to give them up if they were found wanting.
He exhorted Indians to be forward-thinking as well as past-oriented. Roy’s most valuable contribution is his belief in the unitarian concept of God and His mercy that is best summed up with the concluding chant of all Brahmo worship: Braham kripa hi kevalam, Brahma Kripa hi kevalant, Brahma kripa hi kevalam. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Hari Om.
Ram Mohan Roy, was the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the first Indian socio-religious reform movements. His remarkable influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and education as well as religion. He is most known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, a Hindu funeral custom in which the widow sacrifices herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word “Hinduism” into the English language in 1816.
In 1828, prior to his departure to England, Rammohan founded, with Dwarkanath Tagore, the Brahmo Samaj, which came to be an important spiritual and reformist religious movements that has given birth to a number of stalwarst of the Bengali social and intellectual reforms. For these contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Bengal Renaissance.
Early life and education
Roy was born in Radhanagore, Bengal, in 1772. His family background displayed an interesting religious diversity. His father Ramkant was a Vaishnavite, while his mother Tarini was from a Shakta background. Rammohan learnt successively Bangla, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit by the age of fifteen.
As teenager, Roy became dissatisfied with the practices of his family, and travelled widely, before returning to manage his family property. He then worked as a moneylender in Calcutta, and from 1803 to 1814 was employed by the British East India Company.
Reformer
Roy advocated monotheism, or the worship of one God.
He denounced rituals, which he deemed meaningless and giving rise to superstitions. He published Bengali translation of the Vedas to prove his points.
In 1814, with the help of young Indians, he set up the Amitya Sabha to propagate rational religious ideas.
Social Reformer
Crusaded against social evils like sati and polygamy. Demanded property inheritance rights for women.
In 1828, he set up the Brahmo Sabha to campaign against social evils.
Due to his efforts, Governor General William Bentinck made sati illegal through an act in 1829.
Educationist
Roy believed education to be an implement for social reform.
In 1817, in collaboration with David Hare and Alexander Duff, he set up the Hindu College at Calcutta.
In 1830, he helped Alexander Duff in establishing the General Assembly’s Institution, by organizing the venue and getting the first batch of students.
He supported induction of western learning into Indian education.
He also set up the Vedanta College, offering courses as a synthesis of Western and Indian learning. He was a polyglot and was well versed in many world languages.
Late life
Statue on College Green, Bristol.
Blue plaque in Bedford Square, LondonIn 1831 Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire to ensure that Lord Bentick’s law banning the practise of Sati was not overturned. He also visited France.
He died at Stapleton then a village to the north east of Bristol (now a suburb) on the 27th September 1833 of meningitis and is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery in southern Bristol. A statue of him was erected in College Green, Bristol in 1997. There is also a blue plaque commemorating him on his house in Bedford Square, London.
Tomb
The tomb built in 1843, located in the Arnos Vale Cemetery on the outskirts of Bristol, is in need to consid- erable restoration and repair. It was built by Dwarkanath Tagore in 1843, 10 years after Rammohaun Roy’s death due to meningitis in Bristol on Sep27, 1833.
In September 2006 representatives from the Indian High Commission came to Bristol to mark the anniver- sary of Ram Mohan Roy’s death, during the ceremony Hindu, Muslim and Sikhi women sang Sanskrit prayers of thanks
Following on from this visit the Mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya (who was amongst the representatives from the India High Commission) decided to raise funds to restore the tomb.
In June 2007 businessman Aditya Poddar donated £50,000 towards the restoration of his grave after being approached by the Mayor of Kolkata for funding.
Epitaph
The epitaph on the late 19th century stone at the tomb reads: “Beneath this stone rest the remains of Raja Rammohan Roy Bahadur, a conscientious and steadfast believer in the unity of Godhead, he consecrated his life with entire devotion to the worship of the Divine Spirit alone.
“To great natural talents, he united through mastery of many languages and distinguished himself as one of the greatest scholars of his day. His unwearied labour to promote the social, moral and physical condi- tion of the people of India, his earnest endeavours to suppress idolatry and the rite of suttie and his constant zealous advocacy of whatever tended to advance the glory of God and the welfare of man lives in the grateful remembrance of his countrymen.”
Given below are the words of three great personalities who held Raja Ram Mohan Roy in high esteem Rabindranath Tagore
“When Rammohan Roy was born in India, the darkness of a moonless night was reigning. Death was
roaming in the skies…… When Rammohan Roy awoke and spread his sight on Bengali society it was an
abode of the spirits…. At that time, only the ghost of the living ancient Hindu religion held its sway in the
funeral grounds. It had no life, it had no vitality, it only had its structures and threats………………………………………………………………………………………….. In the days of
Rammohan, the tattered foundations of Hindu society, with thousands of holes filled with creatures, progressively growing from generation to generation, was bulging with the impact of age and immobility. Rammohan proceeded fearlessly to free society from the serpent-like bondage……………………………………………………………………………… Today even our young-
sters will kick such dead serpents with a smile on the face, we will laugh them off as common field snakes without any poison – we have forgotten their enormous power, the magnetic attraction of their eyes and the dangerous embrace of their long tails When the Bengali students came out of Hindu College, imbibed
with the news English education, a certain type of intoxication grew in them They took the blood that
oozed from the deeply injured heart of the ancient Hindu society and used it as a plaything To them
nothing was good or sacred in Hindu society, they did not even have that respect for ancient Hindu society that they should pick up its skeletons, scattered hither and thither, cremate them properly and return home with a heavy heart after sprinkling the ashes in the waters of the Ganges Considering the conditions of
the period, they cannot be blamed that much But the man who scotched the first flames of revolutionary
fire in the present Bengali society, that Rammohan Roy was not intoxicated in that manner. He observed everything, good and bad, patiently. He enlightened the dark Hindu society of those days, but did not light the all-consuming fires of cremation. That was the greatness of Rammohan Roy.”
Brajendra Nath Seal
“The period in which the Raja was born and grew up was, perhaps, the darkest age in modern Indian history. An old society and polity had crumbled down, and a new one had not yet been built in its place. Devastation reigned in the land. All vital limbs of society were paralysed; religious institutions and schools, village and home, agriculture, industry and trade, law and administration, all were in a chaotic condition. An all-round reconstitution and renovation were necessary for the continued existence of social life and order. But what was to be the principle for organisation? for there were three bodies of culture, three bodies of civilisations, which were in conflict, the Hindu, the Moslem, and the Christian or Occidental; and the question was, how to find a rapport, of concord, of unity, amongst these heterogeneous, hostile and warring forces. The origin of Modern India lay there. The Raja by his finding of this point of concord and convergence became the Father and Patriarch of Modern India, an India with a composite nationality and a synthetic civilisation; and by the lines of convergence he laid down, as well by the type of personality he developed in and through his own experiences, he pointed the way to the solution of the larger problem of international culture and civilisation in human history, and became a precursor, an archetype, a prophet of coming Humanity.
Friedrich Max Muller
“Rammohan Roy was to my mind a truly great man, a man who did a truly great work, and whose name, if it is right to prophesy, will be remembered for ever, with some of his fellow-labourers and followers, as one of the great benefactors of mankind And, therefore, whatever narrow-minded critics may say, I say once
more that Rammohan Roy was an uselfish, an honest, a bold man, – a great man in the highest sense of the word.
| 15.2. Roy as a Journalist |
Roy retired from the Company service in 1814 and published his first book of prose called Vedantasar in 1815. A well deserved break with the tradition was established in Bengali prose style. The influence of Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian words was minimised. Rammohun, for his time, was a fiereely independent journalist. In 1821 he published his first Bengali Newspaper – Sambad Kaumudi.
In a speech in the Kolkata Press Club, the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, regarded Rammohun as “the father of the Indian press and of Bengal renaissance”. PM stated that:
“He published newspaper in Bengali and Persian languages and remained at the forefront of the struggle for a free press. Raja Ram Mohan Roy brilliantly expounded the importance of the freedom of the press as early as in 1823.”
PM quoted from Rammohun’s won thoughts on freedom of press:
“……a free press has never yet caused a revolution in any part of the world……………………………………………………………………………….. whereas, where no free-
dom of the press existed and grievances consequently remained unrepresented, innumerable revolutions have taken place in all parts of the globe.”
‘…….. ever since the art of printing has become generally known among the Natives of Calcutta numerous
Publications have been circulated in the Bengalee Language which by introducing free discussion among the Natives and inducing them to reflect and inquire after knowledge, have already served greatly to improve their minds and ameliorate their condition’.
In the space of 15 years, from 1815 to 1830, Rammohun wrote thirty books in Bengali. According to Soumendranath Tagore, “the excellence that the Bengali prose [later] achieved in literary from under Bankim Chandra and Rabindranath owes its beginning to the Bengali prose developed by Rammohan”.
The major publications during this period includes the following – note all those mentioned here are in Bengali:
Vedantasara 1815,
Translation of an Abridgment of the Vedant 1816, Ishopanishad 1816,
Kathopanishad 1817,
A Conference between an Advocate for, and an Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive (Bengali and English) 1818,
Munduk Upanishad 1819,
A Defence of Hindu Theism 1820,
A Second Defence of the Monotheistical System of the Veds 1820, A Second Conference, 1820 (the case for women’s rights),
The Precepts of Jesus – Guide to Peace and Happiness 1820, Sambad Kaumudi – a Bengali newspaper 1821,
Mirat-ul-Akbar – Persian journal 1822, Padari Sisya Sambad (Bengali satire) 1823, Bengali Grammar 1826,
Brahmapasona 1828,
Brahmasangeet 1829 and The Universal Religion 1829
Rammohun composed a large number of Bengali songs (hymns) called BrahmaSangeet that are still popular in Brahma Churches.
His translations of Kenopanishad and Ishopanishad into English and Bengali came out in 1816, followed by the translations of Kathopanishad and Mundakopanishad in 1817. These were part of his major attempt to place the vedantic knowledge within the grasp of common man. An abridgement of the Vedanta (1816) was another notable work in this regard. In 1817 he published his English pamphlet, The Defence of Hindoo Theism which was a strong vindication of monotheism. Interestingly, Ram Mohan never attacked Hindu religion but only its superstitions and blind beliefs. He admired the true spirit of Christianity in his books. Most of Ram Mohan’s Bengali writings were prompted not only by socio-religious controversies but also by a spirit of truth and knowledge. Ram Mohan’s books on the anti-sati campaign were written with a deep sense of respect for women. Apart from his socio-political writing, Ram Mohan published a grammer of Bengali language. He was the first to write Brahma songs in Bengali. Ram Mohan Roy is a unique personality in India literature. He happens to be the first English prose writer of his time in Indian-English literature. He will be ever remembered as the father of Bengali prose also.
First Editor of Newspaper in Indian Language
It was Rammohan Roy who first published a newspaper in an Indian language. Newspapers are absolute necessary to reform the people. It is possible to make thousands of people understand many things in their own language. Rammohan made the newspaper the means of bringing home his views to many people.
‘Atmiya Sabha’ used to publish a weekly called ‘Vangal Gazette’. Besides, Rammohan was himself bringing out a newspaper in Persian called ‘Miratul-Akhbar’ (the Mirror of News) and a Bengali weekly called ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ (the Moon of Intelligence).
In those days, items of news and articles had to be approved by the government before being published. So, there was no freedom of the press. Rammohan protested against this control.
He argued that newspapers should be free and that the truth should not besuppressed simply because the government did not like it. Newspapers should have the right to uphold the truth. It needed much courage to speak out like this 150 years ago, when India was under the British rule. The press secured freedom by the constant efforts of Rammohan. In his articles in the papers. Rammohan explained his views and replied to his opponents. He made his words very carefully. He made his comments with tolerance and without wounding anybody’s feelings. He thus set a good example to later editors of newspapers.
RamMohan and the Struggle for the Freedom of the Press
The upsurge that came in the wake of the manifold reform movements – social, educational, economic, political and religious – initiated by Rammohun underlined the need for a liberal press. The origin and the development of the press in Bengal can be traced to this important need.
The first liberal paper to be published was the Bengala Gazette, a Bengali weekly started in Calcutta in 1816 by the enthusiastic members of Rammohun’s “Atmiya Sabha”. This newspaper was in existence till 1820. The Serampore Christian Samachar Mission started another Bengali weekly, the Samachar Darpan, in 1817, and also published an English journal, The Friend of India. The first liberal newspaper in English, the Calcutta Journal, was brought out by James Silk Buckingham in October, 1818.
The Sambad Kaumudi, a Bengali weekly, was started by Tarachand Dutta and Bhabani Charan Bandopadhyay. When Bhabani Charan resigned from the editorship of this publication in December 1821, Rammohun took charge of it. The Sambad Kaumudi being intended for the common people, Rammohun used the new Bengali prose style for the man in the street.
The first issue of Sambad Kaumudi under Rammohun’s editorship appeared on December 4, 1821. Though Bhabani Charan Banerjee was nominally in charge of this weekly till the publication of its thirteenth issue, Rammohun was its promoter, and for all practical purposes, also its editor. The Reverand William Adam, while delivering his well-known lecture “The life and Labours of Rammohun” at Boston, said : “He established and conducted two native papers, one in Persian and the other in Bengali, and made them the medium of conveying much valuable political information to his countrymen.
In a prospectus for the Sambad Kaumudi, published in English and Bengali in November 1821, Rammohun appealed to his countrymen to lend him “the support and patronage of all who feel themselves interested in the moral and intellectual imporvement of our countrymen”. In the same prospectus, he further stated that religious, moral and political matters, domestic occurrence, foreign as well as local intelligence including original communications on various hitherto unpublished interesting local topics, etc. would be published in the Sambad Kaumudi every Tuesday.
On December 20, 1821, the Calcutta Journal brought out an editorial, commenting on the publication of the “new Bengali newspaper edited by a learned Hindoo”. It also reproduced the prospectus, and pub- lished the ‘Appeal to the Bengali public” written by Rammohun in the first issue of the Sambad Kaumudi, dated December 4, 1821. In the appeal, Rammohun said :
“It is our intention hereafter to give further currency to the Articles inserted in this paper, by translating the most interesting parts in the different languages of the East, particularly Persian and Hindoostanee; but all this will entail considerable expense, the accomplishment of it will, of course, depend upon the encourage- ment which we may be able to obtain. The foregoing being an outline of what we are desirous of perform- ing, our countrymen will readily conclude that although the paper in question be conducted by us, and may consequently be considered our property, yet virtually it is the ‘paper of the public’ since in it they can at all times have inserted, anything that tends to the public good…”
Although under Rammohun’s editorship the Sambad Kaumudi was in existence only for six months till May 1822, its impact on the public mind can be assessed by the following passage of the editorial of the Calcutta Journal of February 14,1823 :
“The paper which was considered so fraught with danger and likely to explode over all India like a spark thrown into a barrel of gunpowder, has long since fallen to the ground for want of support; chiefly we understand because it offended the native community by opposing some of three customs, and particularly the burning of Hindoo widows, etc.”
The Sambad Kaumudi dealt with various subjects of public interest; for example:
- an appeal to the Government for the establishment of a seminary for the ‘gratuitous instructions’ of the children of the poor;
- an appeal to the Government to extend the boon of trial by jury to the moffussil, zillah and provin cial courts of
- an address to the Hindu community, stressing the need of giving their children instructions in the grammar of their own languages before imposing upon them the study of foreign languages;
- an article describing the miserable condition of the Hindus suffering from the prejudices of caste, and
- an article requesting Hindus to become tradesman rather than mere copyists or
In April 1822, Rammohun started a weekly in Persian, the Mirat-ul-Akhbar the Mirror of News – which was the first Persian periodical to be published in India, with a view to communicating his political and social views to the educated elite in a manner and form suited to their needs.
….In the second issue of the Mirat-ul-Akbar, Rammohun published an article written by him on the English Constitution. In 1822, Rammohun wrote an editorial about the trial of one Pratap Narayan Das who had succumbed to the injuries caused by whipping ordered by one Mr John Hayes, Judge of Comilla, for the breach of internment order passed by the Judge. Pratap Narayan got 20 stripes, and was then thrown in jail where he was found dead. The trial of Hayes by the Supreme Court took place in April 1822.
Rammohun’s editorial was translated into English and published in the Calcutta Journal of May 14,1822, by James Silk Buckingham, the editor of the Journal who was a great friend of Rammohun, and was well- versed in quite a few oriental languages. In this editorial, the following observations of Rammohaun are noteworthy: “It is necessary that the local Magistrate should be vested with more efficient authority for carrying the orders of the Government into execution, and likewise, for preventing the powerful from tyrannizing over the weak. But there is no remedy whatsover for the abuse, which is noticed in this case arising from their being invested with such powers, except the Government should adopt such measures as might enable it to become acquainted with the proceedings of its executive officers without the interven- tion of favor or partiality to screen them. It is probable that this superintendent of the Government would be a sufficient check upon the police officers and put them upon their guard.
Although the mode of establishing Courts of Appeal may be considered as in some degree a substitute for their restraints. yet it fails in some instances to produce the desired effect. For example, after one has been punished with rattan and thrown into jail, and put in irons by order of a local Magistrate, he cannot recover from that disgrace although the sentence passed upon him by the local Magistrate should be reversed at a subsequent period. If the execution of the sentence passed by the local Magistrate for inflicting corporal punishment upon a person……………….. be deferred in case the person condemned appealed
against the order of the local Magistrate and paid the regular fees, until the order of the Supreme Court of Appeal be issued, this might pepreventive of excesses on the part of the police officers and might secure the subject from the injurious consequences arising from their passion or error.”
…[Rammohun’s] criticisms off popular Christian faith, then English foreign policy and of the British inso- lence on public roads towards the common people was too much for the British administration in India to swallow.
Soon, the acting Governor-General came down with a heavy hand for the suppression of the liberty of the press, and promulgated a new Press Ordinance, drastically curtailing free expression of opinion through the press. Immediately after the enactment of the ordinance, Rammohun closed down the Mirat-ul-Akbar as a mark off protest, In the last issue of his paper, he “declared his inability to go on publishing under.” What he considered were “degrading conditions”, and he lamented that he, “one of the most humble of
men, should be no longer able to contribute towards the intellectual improvement of his countrymen.”
| 15.3. James Augustus Hickey |
An expatriate Irishman and a fiercely independent journalist, James Augustus Hicky published India’s first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta Advertiser in 1780. This paper narrates little-known fact about Hicky’s journalistic career, the influence of his newspaper on society and other issues not probed by earlier researchers.
Hicky quickly realized that truly distinguished newspapers should serve society, even at the risk of official dispreasure.
Hicky’s newspaper made interesting reading with its ample dose of scurrilous reporting, risque advertise- ments reflecting the low morality in society, and scandalous accounts of the misdeeds of British adminis- trators in India.
Soon enough, the British rulers charged him of libel. Hicky was harassed, attacked and jailed. Undaunted, Hicky continued to edit his newspaper from prison. But his publication did not survive long and the British rulers caused him immense harm and Hicky died a pauper.
The Hicky’s Gazette was forced to wind up in March 1782 as the printing press was seized and Hicky jailed and externed. This poineer of Indian journalism died an obscure death.
Publishing a newsapaper is an expensive business as Hickey realised to his cost. He was losing money faster than the newspaper came out of the printing press. To make ends meet, Hickey decided to take on advertisements or ads.
The earliest ads consisted of simple messages ‘classified’ into different categories for easy reference with a mailing address from where they could be ordered. These became the forerunner of today’s classified advertisements in newspapers. For instance, today’s newspaper carry sale of autos, electronic items, domestic services, pets, etc under these headings.
Hickey’s paper was the first to carry such advertisements but these were mostly from ‘patent’ medicine manufacturers. The concept of chemists or druggist shops as we know today, came much later. Most medicines then were grandma’s recipes, or were concoctions made by so called ‘doctors’ and were thus sold (patented) under their own names.
| 15.4. Hickey as a Journalist |
The first Indian newspaper, a weekly, was published from the capital of the rising (although still far from preeminent) power of the subcontinent, the British Raj.
It was in the language that would soon become the lingua franca of power, English. Its owner was egoistic enough to name the paper after himself, which made him suitable for media. The owner was also its editor, which makes him a contemporary spirit. And it might be of some comfort to present-day newspaper owners to realise that Hickey Bengal Gazette had a second name, the Calcutta General Advertiser.
It apperare on January 29, 1780, the year in which Writer’s Building was completed in Calcutta to serve as the office of the junior civil servants of the East India Company; Gwalior became a feudatory state of the British; Haidar Ali an ally of the French when they declared war on Britain; and governor general Warren Hastings fought a duel in Calcutta with the aspirant for his job, Sir Philip Francis (neither died, though Hastings had the better of the encounter).
No line has better summed up the nature of the media business than the Gazette’s motto: “A Weekly Political and Commercial Paper, Open to all Parties, but influenced by None.” News must be political and commercial. A newspaper must be open to all interests but subjects to none. It must offer due respect to advertising. When you consider that there was a spelling mistake in the title, and lots of Calcutta gossip on its pages, then all the components of a modern newspapers may be found in the path breaker. After all, what is a newspaper without a typo?
The Gazette was launched by James Augustus Hickey, one of the most exotic stars of a multicoloured era. We think of the British as staid Victorian gentlmen with stiff necks and stiffer upper lips. But they stiffened after the uprising of 1857, when India was incorporated formally into the British Empire. As long as the buccaneers of the East India Company, who created British rule, were in charge, life was not only more flexible but also more interactive with Indians. The officials of John Company were different breed whose favourite toast after victory at Plassey (Palashi) was to hope for “a lass and a lakh a day”. After the ex- cesses of Robert Clive and the corruption charges against Hastings, a lakh a day became more difficult, but the former option flourished. Many of the Sahibs were delighted to turn “native” as they discovered the pleasures of not merely living in India, but living in India like Indians.
Job Charnock, who founded Calcutta, married Leela, a beautiful Brahmin girl he rescued from suttee. Francis Day chose the site of the Madras fort only because it was near his Indian mistress’ home. The first British resident after the capture of Delhi in 1803, David Ochterlony, popularly known as “Loony Akhtar”, deserves all the legends attached to his name; he was accompanied by all 13 of his wives when he went out to “take the air” every evening in Delhi, each wife on a separate elephant, Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta between 1823 and 1826, could not take his eyes off Bengali beauties bathing in the river at five in the morning and confessed that “the deep bronze tint was more naturally agreeble to the human eyes than the fair skins of Europe”.
Hickey, a good journalist, wrote a splendid account of his Indian Bibi, the superbly named Jemdance who “lived with me, respected and admired by all friends for her extraordinary sprightliness and great humour. Unlike the women in Asia she never secluded herself from the sight of strangers: on the contrary she delighted in joining my male parties, cordially joining in the mirth which prevailed though never touching wine or spirits of any kind”.
So it was an exercise in double standards (typical, did I hear?) when Hickey sent the circulation of his paper up by sensational reporting on the first adultery case to reach the Calcutta High Court. The principal accused were Madame Grand, a young Dutch-English woman of exceptional beauty, who was born near Pondicherry and blossomed in Chandernagore, and astonishingly, went on to marry Napoleon’s brilliant foreign minister Prince Talleyrand; and Philip Francis, Hastings quarrelsome deputy, who was caught by unobliging servants while clambering over the wall of her compound while her husband was away at dinner. (The servants refused to accept a bribe for letting their prisoner get away.) The first sittings of the trial commenced on 8 February 1779, just in time for circulation growth. There is something to be said for the theory that Francis left India not because of his duel with Hastings, but because of the scandal.
If the laws of libel made it difficult to publish a story, Hickey happily switched to transparent pseudonyms like “Pomps” or “Turban Conquest” or “Hooka Turban” or “Chinsurah Belle”. Here is an example of journal- ist double entendre: “March, 1781. Public Notice: Lost on the Course, last Monday evening, Buxey Clumsy’s heart, whilst he stood simpering at the footstep of Hooka Turban’s carriage: as it is supposed to be in her possession, she is desired to return it immediately, or to deliver up her own as a proper acknowledgement.”
There is nothing new about Page 3.
As one commentator noted, Hickey “admitted contribution which, while hypocritically affecting to teach and uphold public and private morality, in reality pandered to the impulses of the prurient and the vicious”.
Anyone recognise anything familier? The owner-editor, of course, never descended from his high pedestal, pompously noting, in one instance, “Lothario’s letter and poetry is received, but is not fit for insertion, nor will anything ever be inserted in the Bengal Gazette that can possible give offence to the ladies”.
He was always happy, though, to give offence to the men.
Success, but naturally, encouraged competition. Success was not necessarily financial success, but Hickey’s power became phenomenal. And so a salt agent called Peter Reed, in partnership with a theatre- person named B.Messink (I could not have made up a name like Messink for a fictional newspaper proprietor even if I had tried), started the India Gazette in 1781. Hastings, who hated Hickey’s guts, helped the new paper. It was “well-printed,” with four pages of 16 inches long, died into three columns. Hickey joyfully nicknamed his rivals “Peter Nimmuck” (as in salt, of course) and “Barnaby Grizzle” (for reasons I have not been able to discover, but perhaps, Messink was fat and bearish). Hickey was in rapture when the India Gazette closed down because Grizzle cheated Nimmuck.
Hickey’s own publication did not survive much longer, but it was not “scurrilous” journalism that brought him down. He lost the battle of power with Hastings. On 14 November 1780 a diktat was issued from Fort William: “Public notice is hereby given that as a weekly newspaper called the Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser, printed by J.A.Hicky, has lately been found to contain several improper paragraphs tending to vilify private characters and to disturb the peace of the Settlement, it is no longer permitted to be circulated through the channel of the General Post Office.” In a private letter to a friend in England, Hastings explained why he had been emboldened to act against Hickey, Hastings wrote that since his formidable enemy, Philip Francies, announced he would leave India, “I shall have no competitor to oppose my designs, to encourage disobedience to my authority, to excite and foment popular odium against me. In a word, I shall have power, and I will employ it.”
I shall have power, and I will employ it. How many rulers of India have though the same since!
And how many journalists have responded in the manner Hickey did? Enough to ensure the honour of the profession. His paper was more noble in death than it had been in life.
Talking in the third person, Hickey responded: “Before he will bow, cringe, or fawn to any of his oppres- sors… he would compose ballads and sell them through the streets of Calcutta as Homer did. He has now but three things to lose: his honour in the support of his paper, his liberty, and his life; the two latter he will hazard in defence of the former, for he is determined to make it a scourage of all schemers and leading tyrants; should these illegally deprive him of his liberty and confine him in a jail, he is determined to print there with every becoming spirit to his care and the deserts of his oppressors… Shall I tamely submit to the yoke of slavery and wanton oppression? No!” Enough said.
