What was the contribution of print culture in the growth of nationalism in India ? How did the British attempt to check them ?
(1) Nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities. Government’s attempts to censor nationalist criticism provoked militant protest. For example, when Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari. He was arrested and this provoked widespread nationalist protests. The vernacular press brought cases of misrule to the notice of the masses. (2) After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press. As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the British government passed the Vernacular Press Act in 1878. It was based on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press.
