Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 19 (Sociology)
Book Name – Social Background of Indian Nationalism (A.R. Desai)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Press, Its Decisive Social Role
2. Its Absence in Pre-British India
3. Growth of Indian Press, Upto A.D. 1900
4. Indian Press, its Broad Political Trends
5. Its Slow and Meagre Growth and the Reasons
6. Repressive Measures against Press, their History
7. Sir Jenkins on Press Act of 1910
8. Press Acts of 1931 and 1932, their Significance
9. Three News Agencies
10. Indian Press, its Progressive Role
11. Prerequisites of its Sound Development
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LANGUAGE
The Role of Press in the Development of Modern Nationalism
Chapter – 12
Table of Contents
Press, Its Decisive Social Role
- Press is a powerful social institution and has been glorified as the Fourth Estate.
- The Press moulds and mirrors complex processes of modern life, facilitating the exchange of thought on a mass scale.
- The Press helps mobilize conferences, settle controversies, organize movements, and build institutions.
- It serves as a powerful censor of actions by those in power, promoting democratic control over them.
- In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the Press was a formidable weapon for Europeans in nation-building and struggles against feudal disunity.
- The Press played a key role in the formation of the modern national state, society, and culture in Europe.
- In France, intellectuals like Voltaire, Diderot, Holbach, Helvetius used the Press to expose the moral and cultural decline of the feudal ruling class.
- The Press helped spread scientific, social ideas, combating religious superstition and social oppression.
- It advocated for the abolition of serfdom, the overthrow of feudal society, and the creation of a democratic national state.
- Writers such as Mirabeau, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat used the Press to mobilize the people, enlighten them with new ideas, and lead them in the anti-feudal struggle.
- The Press became indispensable in the development of modern bourgeois national democratic society in post-Revolutionary France.
- The Press was critical to the mass mobilization for the anti-feudal struggle, the establishment of the national state, and the development of modern French culture.
- A similar role was played by the Press in England, Germany, Italy, and other European countries.
- The advanced section of society spread democratic ideas through the Press to the masses.
- After the victory over feudal society and its medieval culture, the Press further helped create modern culture, making it accessible to a large portion of the population.
- Ideas became a material force when they reached the people, with the printing press playing a significant role in national awakening and progressive social, political, and cultural movements.
Its Absence in Pre-British India
- The printing press did not exist in the pre-British period in India.
- It was first introduced by Portuguese Jesuits in 1557 to print Christian literature.
- The printing press became a social force only in the first quarter of the 19th century.
- During the Mogul regimes, manuscript newspapers were in vogue.
- The emperor appointed two news-writers in every provincial center:
- A waquia-navis who prepared a manuscript news gazette with information on important public activities.
- A sawanih-navis who prepared a news-sheet detailing significant events.
- Wealthy merchants employed private news-writers to send newsletters with commercial and other news.
- All official and private newspapers and newsletters were handwritten due to the absence of the printing press.
- These manuscripts reached only a small section of the population and were limited in the range of information.