IAS Mains General Studies Sample Answer

Discuss the major regulations enacted by the British rulers to curb the freedom of Press in India.

During the early period of British rule in India the circulation of newspapers never exceeded hundred or two hundred. Any danger of public opinion being subverted in India was hardly there. These newspapers might reach London and expose their misdoing as well as could ignite the public of India for the freedom. The newspapers were at the merely of the company’s official in the absence of Press law. Lord Wellesley brought the cnsorship of the Press Act which imposed almost wartime Restrictions on the Press. John Adams, an acting Governor General brought the Licensing Regulation, 1828 which require every printer and publisher to obtain a license for starting a press.

William Bentick adopted a liberal attitude towards pres and Metcalf ‘the Liberator of Indian Press’ repeated the ordinance of 1823. But the emergency caused by the revolt of 1857, led the government to raimose restrictions on the press through the Licensing Act, 1857 which prohibited keeping or using of printing presses without a license from the Government. The Registration Act, 1867 required every book or newspaper to have printed legibly on it the name of printer and publisher and the place of printing. During the Lyton Governor Generalship the infamous ‘Vernacular Press Act was designed to’ better control’ and to empower the government with more effective means of punishing and repressing seditious writings.

The Newspaper Act, 1908 empowered the magistrates to confiscate printing press and the Local Government was empowered to annual any declaration made by the printer and publisher of an offending newspaper. The Indian Press Act, 1910 empowered the Local Government to demand at the time of registration security money of not less than Rs.500 and not more than Rs. 2000.

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