Vernacular Press Act

Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"

Meaning

The Vernacular Press Act, 1878 was a law passed under Viceroy Lord Lytton [2]. It gave the colonial government wide power to censor newspapers printed in Indian languages. It could warn them for "seditious" writing and seize their presses if they did not obey. It matters because it treated Indian-language papers more harshly than English ones. This made Indians angry, and that anger fed organised political opposition. It is a key example of the "cycle of persecution and protest" in the freedom struggle. [2]

Explanation

Background: why the Act came

• Early on, the target was Englishmen, not Indians.
• Before 1798 the East India Company worried about Englishmen who wrote against Company misrule.

• Such writing could reach England and help those who wanted to end the Company's trade monopoly (its sole right to trade).

• 1820s: the Calcutta Supreme Court passed rules to control press freedom. The Company also supported newspapers that praised British rule.

• 1835: after petitions from editors, Governor-General Bentinck agreed to review the rules. Thomas Babington Macaulay framed new rules that restored the earlier freedoms.
• The Revolt of 1857 changed everything.
• English opinion in India turned against the "native" press (papers in Indian languages).
• Englishmen demanded a clampdown.

• As nationalist writing grew, the state looked for a legal weapon.

• The press had grown large. By the 1870s there were over 150 vernacular newspapers, read by about 100,000 people across British India. [2]

Main features

• Modelled on the Irish Press Laws (the laws Britain used to control the press in Ireland).
• Covered only the vernacular press, meaning papers in Indian languages. English-language papers were exempt. [2]
• Government watched vernacular papers province by province.
• Powers of district magistrates: [2]
• make publishers sign bonds (written promises of good behaviour, backed by money)
• make them send matter for official checking before printing

• punish with warnings, seizure of the press, fines or jail

• "Seditious" meant writing that stirred up hatred of the government.

How it worked

• Step 1: officials read a report and judged it "seditious".
• Step 2: the newspaper got a warning.
• Step 3: if it ignored the warning, the press could be seized and its printing machinery confiscated.
• The Amrita Bazar Patrika escape: this paper switched from Bengali to English overnight, so the Act no longer applied to it. This showed the law was aimed at Indian languages, not at criticism as such. [2]

Results

• Repeal: Viceroy Lord Ripon repealed the Act. The note gives the year as 1881 [2]. Some Indian textbooks give 1882, so check which year your options use.
• The bitterness lasted and fed organised political opposition. [2]
• Repression did not silence the press. It did the opposite.
• Nationalist newspapers multiplied across India.

• Each attempt to crush them provoked more protest and won more readers.

• Later repression followed the same pattern:

• Section 124A cases, such as Tilak's 1908 jailing [3]
• the Defence of India Rules in World War I: of 22 papers told to deposit securities, 18 shut down
• the Rowlatt Sedition Committee Report (1919), which recommended tighter control

Time, place and evidence

• Period: late nineteenth century, between the Revolt of 1857 and the rise of organised nationalism.
• Ruler: proposed under Viceroy Lord Lytton (1878) and repealed by Viceroy Lord Ripon (1881 according to [2]).
• Region: all of British India. Papers were tracked province by province.
• Key people and papers:
• Lord Lytton, who proposed the Act [2]
• Lord Ripon, who repealed it [2]

• Amrita Bazar Patrika, which escaped the Act by switching from Bengali to English [2]

• How we know:

• the Act itself and government records of tracking newspapers
• the NCERT Class 10 chapter "Print Culture and the Modern World"
• figures on the number of vernacular papers and their readers (over 150 papers, about 100,000 readers) [2]

Don't confuse with

• Irish Press Laws: these were the model for the 1878 Act. They were not an Indian law.
• Section 124A (sedition), IPC: this is a section of the Indian Penal Code, inserted around 1870 [4]. It applied to everyone, including Tilak's Kesari and Gandhi's Young India. The Vernacular Press Act was a separate law that covered only Indian-language papers.
• Macaulay's 1835 press rules: these restored press freedom under Bentinck. The 1878 Act took freedom away.
• Defence of India Rules (WWI) and Defence of India Act (WWII): these were wartime controls. In WWI, 18 of 22 papers shut down. In August 1942, about 90 papers were suppressed. The Vernacular Press Act was a peacetime law from 1878.

Prelims Hooks

• Vernacular Press Act, 1878 was modelled on the Irish Press Laws and proposed by Lord Lytton. [2]
• It was repealed by Lord Ripon in 1881 according to [2]. Many Indian textbooks say 1882.
• English-language newspapers were exempt from the Act. [2]
• Amrita Bazar Patrika escaped the Act by changing from Bengali to English. [2]
• Under the Act, a seditious report brought a warning first. If the paper ignored it, the press and machinery could be seized.
• Chronological order: Macaulay's press rules (1835) → Section 124A (c. 1870) [4] → Vernacular Press Act (1878) → Rowlatt Sedition Committee Report (1919).

Mains Points

• The law showed what the colonial state really feared.
• It exempted English papers and tracked Indian-language papers province by province.

• So the danger was not criticism as such. It was criticism reaching ordinary Indians in their own languages. [2]

• Repression backfired.

• The Act angered educated Indians, and this anger lasted after its repeal. [2]
• It fed organised political opposition, and nationalist papers multiplied.

• The same cycle of persecution and protest came back with Tilak's 1908 jailing [3] and Gandhi's 1922 trial [5].

• Continuity and change in press control.

• Censorship first protected the Company's trade monopoly, which is why it aimed at Englishmen.
• After 1857 it was turned against the vernacular press.
• Later it came through Section 124A and wartime laws.
• By 1922 Gandhi called press freedom part of the very meaning of Swaraj. This links to later debates on Article 19(1)(a). [5]

Related concepts

• Censorship of Press Act 1799
• Licensing Regulations 1823
• Press Act of 1835
• Licensing Act 1857
• Hindu Patriot
• Som Prakash
• Press and Registration of Books Act 1867
• Amrita Bazar Patrika
• The Hindu
• Swadesamitran

Read more

• Print, censorship and nationalism