Native Opinion
Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
Native Opinion was an Indian newspaper in the Bombay Presidency in the 1870s. It reported on the Deccan ryots' fight against moneylenders after the riots of 1875. It matters to historians because it gives a view from outside government records. Students can use it to check official reports, which often wrote events from the rulers' side.
Example
On 6 June 1876, Native Opinion printed a report called "The ryot and the moneylender". It said the ryots posted spies at their village boundaries to warn when government officers were coming. Then they went in groups to their creditors and forced them to hand over their debt bonds. The British copied the report into their official reports on Indian newspapers.
Don't confuse with
- Deccan Riots Commission report: This was the government's own enquiry, sent to the British Parliament in 1878. Native Opinion was a newspaper, an unofficial source that could be read against the official version.