Vernacular Press Act, 1878 and Later Press Laws

At a Glance

• VPA 1878; repealed by Ripon in 1882
• Tilak Eighteen months in 1897; six years’ transportation in 1908
• Acts Newspaper (Incitement to Offences) Act 1908; Indian Press Act 1910
• Repeal 1921, on the Sapru Committee’s advice
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Press, Education, Peasants and Workers

Where Does It Fit?

This is the second topic of the category on the press, education, peasants and workers. The previous topic covered the early press regulations. This topic covers the Vernacular Press Act and the later press laws. The next topic covers education under Company rule. Previous topic: Development of the Indian Press: Early Regulations and the Struggle for Freedom.

Why Was the Vernacular Press Act Passed?

A bitter legacy of the 1857 revolt was the racial bitterness between ruler and ruled. After 1858 the European press rallied behind the government in political controversies, while the vernacular press was critical. There was strong public opinion against the imperialist policies of Lytton, compounded by the terrible famine of 1876-77 and by the lavish spending on the imperial Delhi Durbar. The Vernacular Press Act (VPA) was designed to better control the vernacular press and to punish and repress seditious writing.

The Act was nicknamed the gagging Act. Its worst features were discrimination between the English and the vernacular press and the lack of appeal. Proceedings were begun against Som Prakash, Bharat Mihir, Dacca Prakash and Samachar, and the Amrita Bazar Patrika turned overnight into an English newspaper to escape it. Later the pre-censorship clause was repealed and a press commissioner was appointed to supply authentic news to the press. After strong opposition, Ripon repealed the Act in 1882. The summary is also in Restrictions on the Press and White Racism.

What Happened Between 1883 and 1898?

In 1883 Surendranath Banerjea became the first Indian journalist to be imprisoned, after an angry editorial in The Bengalee criticising a Calcutta High Court judge for insensitivity to the religious sentiments of Bengalis.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak is most closely associated with the nationalist fight for press freedom. He built up anti-imperialist feeling through the Ganapati festivals (started in 1893), the Shivaji festivals (1896) and his newspapers Kesari and Maharatta. He was among the first to urge bringing the lower middle classes, peasants, artisans and workers into the Congress. In 1896 he organised a campaign across Maharashtra to boycott foreign cloth in protest at an excise duty on cotton, and in 1896-97 a no-tax campaign urging farmers to withhold revenue if their crops failed. When plague broke out in Poona in 1897, Tilak supported the government’s measures against it, but there was large-scale popular anger at harsh methods such as segregation and house searches, and the chairman of the Plague Committee, Rand, was murdered by the Chapekar brothers. Government policies on tariff, currency and famine also lay behind the resentment.

The government wanted to check this militant trend and chose to make Tilak an example. He was arrested after Rand’s murder on the basis of a poem, Shivaji’s Utterances, in Kesari, and a speech at the Shivaji festival that justified Shivaji’s killing of Afzal Khan, which the prosecution presented as an incitement to kill British officials. He was held guilty and sentenced to eighteen months’ rigorous imprisonment, and other editors in Bombay presidency were given similar harsh sentences. There were widespread protests, and overnight Tilak became a national hero and was given the title Lokmanya. In 1898 the government amended Section 124A and added Section 153A, which made it an offence to bring the Government of India into contempt or to create hatred among different classes, that is, against the English in India. This too led to protests across the country. The sedition law and the Chapekar case are also in Revolutionary Activities in Maharashtra and Punjab.

What Were the Swadeshi-Era Laws?

During the Swadeshi and boycott movements and with the rise of militant nationalism, several repressive laws were passed. Tilak is quoted as saying that the government had converted the entire nation into a prison, and that going to prison only meant moving from a big cell to a smaller one.

Tilak, as the leader of the militant nationalists, was tried for sedition and transported to Mandalay for six years, in 1908. This led to countrywide protests. In Bombay textile and railway workshop workers took on the Army in the streets and struck for days, and Lenin hailed this as the entry of the Indian working class on to the political stage. The movement is in Swadeshi and Boycott Movement Under Extremist Leadership and the working class in Working Class Movement: AITUC, Trade Union Act 1926 and Meerut Conspiracy Case.

How Were the Press Laws Used in Wartime and After?

During the First World War the Defence of India Rules were imposed to repress political agitation and free public criticism. In 1921, on the advice of a Press Committee under Tej Bahadur Sapru, the Press Acts of 1908 and 1910 were repealed. The Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act of 1931 gave provincial governments sweeping powers to suppress propaganda for the Civil Disobedience Movement, and in 1932 was expanded to cover all activities meant to undermine government authority. During the Second World War, pre-censorship was imposed under the Defence of India Rules, the Press Emergency Act and Official Secrets Act were amended, and at one time publication of all news about Congress activity was banned. The movements concerned are in Dandi March and the Spread of Salt Law Disobedience and Spread of the Quit India Movement and Government Repression.

As an analytical point, the laws on the press show a steady development: from licensing of printing, through restrictions aimed at the vernacular press, to laws against any content likely to incite, and finally to emergency powers. At each stage the target was the press that reached Indian readers, and the rationale was that it threatened order, which is why the press freedom struggle was part of the wider fight for civil liberties.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• VPA features Provisions and the repeal are stock Prelims facts
• Tilak’s trials 1897 and 1908 are frequently asked
• Later laws Sequence of Acts from 1908 to the Second World War

What Came Next?

The next topic covers education under Company rule, from the Charter Act of 1813 to Macaulay’s Minute. Next topic: Education Under Company Rule: Charter Act of 1813 to Macaulay’s Minute.

Key People and Terms

• Gagging Act Nickname of the Vernacular Press Act
• Section 124A Sedition section of the Indian Penal Code
• Section 153A Added in 1898 on creating hatred among classes
• Lokmanya Title given to Tilak after his 1897 conviction
• Press Committee The Sapru committee that advised repeal in 1921
• Pre-censorship Prior approval of news before printing

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about press repression and the resistance to it. These points add depth.

• VPA Discriminatory and without appeal
• Tilak Press freedom and nationalism
• Later laws Revival of VPA features