Hindu Patriot
Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Hindu Patriot was an English weekly from Calcutta. Harish Chandra Mukherjee edited it from the mid-1850s. It became a strong voice of educated Bengalis against unjust colonial practices. It matters because it shows Indian-owned English papers taking up the cause of peasants.
Example
Indigo planters forced Bengal's ryots (peasant cultivators) to grow indigo. When the ryots revolted against them in c. 1859–60, Hindu Patriot reported the planters' cruelty. It stood firmly with the cultivators. After Mukherjee died, Kristo Das Pal edited the paper.
Don't confuse with
- Bengal Gazette: the earlier papers of Hickey (1780) and Gangadhar Bhattacharya. They were not linked to the indigo question.
Related concepts
- Censorship of Press Act 1799
- Licensing Regulations 1823
- Press Act of 1835
- Licensing Act 1857
- Som Prakash
- Press and Registration of Books Act 1867
- Amrita Bazar Patrika
- Vernacular Press Act
- The Hindu
- Swadesamitran