Yesterday’s News
The rising intolerance we see today toward the media goes back 238 years ago to the time of James Augustus Hicky, who became the first editor in India to earn the ire of the State and the Church.
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette is a painstaking documentation of how this Irishman exposed the systemic corruption of GovernorGeneral Warren Hastings, the manipulation of the legal system by Supreme Court Chief Justice Elijah Impey and the shady dealings of Swedish missionary Johann Zacharias Kiernander.
Hicky, a sometime law clerk and printer, sailed to India hoping to strike it rich. Soon afterward, he started a paper to highlight the unsavoury dealings of the Company and question British rule.
Hastings rigged contracts, accepted huge bribes, doled out jobs to his supporters and constantly schemed to usurp all power. Forgery, cheating and looting were acceptable to Company officials. The British could commit any crime and go unpunished. Under their governance, disease and starvation wiped out hundreds of thousands of Indians. Yet, Hastings imposed a tax on the colonised and went after his debtors. His battles against Indian rulers often resulted in the slaughter of Company soldiers.
Hastings also roped in the Court into ignoring his activities, giving lucrative contracts and multiple posts to Impey’s relatives. That both increased Impey’s powers and encouraged him to manipulate the system in favour of Hastings.
The Church was not far behind in questionable acts. Reverend Johann Zacharias Kiernander was sent by a Swedish Lutheran institution to convert heathens in Cuddalore. But his maniacal obsession with proselytising led him to line his pockets. Hicky systematically highlighted the misdeeds of powerful people.
For five years, journalism researcher Andrew Otis pored over yellowing documents in Indian, British and German libraries to show how the Papa of the Bengal Press stood by his principles that every person had the right to express their opinions freely. The book’s 15 colour plates include the entire fourpage newspaper and portraits of the key players. Otis reproduces entire letters, including the satirical poems and plays Hicky used to expose people.
Though Hicky’s targets called him a liar and a madman, readers lapped up every word. He became the voice of the public and actively encouraged Company subalterns to highlight their superiors’ misdeeds. But when Hicky began to also indulge in character assassination, his detractors closed in, shut down his paper and forced him into penury. Hicky was down but not out. His writings caught the attention of the British Parliament, which eventually recalled all the main actors to face trial.