REGULATION OF MEDIA BY LAW UNDER COLONIAL RULE

Subject: 1.3. History of Legal and Constitutional Development Submitted to: Prof. Risham Garg Supervisor: Mr. Syed Iqbal Ahmed Submitted by: Nidhi Chikkerur Class-Year-Semester: 2010/1st year/1st Semester Roll no: 45LLB10

National Law University, Delhi

SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION:

The power that the media wields in a free democratic society is apparent from the status it has earned as the Fourth Estate of the society. Although it is the youngest of the four estates, it is the most powerful of all of them and has been constantly growing in power on account of its increasing command over information, its expanding and deepening reach, and its ever strengthening capacity to influence and shape the views and opinions of the people and the policy-makers. India experienced its first statutory regulation of the press in colonial rule. Adams Press Ordinance was the first ordinance brought in by the then Governor General, John Adam. The regulations promulgated by Adam were directed against newspapers published in the Indian languages and edited by the Indians. One of the first regulations can be traced back to 1799 when Lord Wellesley promulgated the Press Regulations which imposed censorship on an infant publishing industry.

From then on, there followed a series of statutory measures to control the Indian press whose power posed a major factor in the countrys struggle for freedom from colonialism. The Gagging Act was passed in 1857 by Lord Canning which introduced compulsory licensing and empowered the government to stop circulation of the concerned publication. This was followed by the Press and Registration of Books Act of 1867. The Vernacular Press Act in 1878 allowed the government to clamp down on the publication of writings thought to be seditious and to impose punitive sanctions on printers and publishers who failed to fall in line.

Therefore, the project will focus on the role of the press in colonial India, especially their importance in the revolutionary movement. The project will also highlight background of the laws passed to curtail the media in colonial India, the laws themselves and their consequences on the media. Another section will focus on the famous instances where Indian leaders have been taken to court the provisions of such laws. The main leaders in this case include M.K. Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. Did the media in colonial India frequently take on the government? 2. How did the various press laws curtail the freedom of the media in colonial India? 3. What are the famous instances of leaders being imprisoned under the provisions of such laws?

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS: The hypothesis for this paper is that the media in colonial India was used to express the sentiments of dissatisfaction with the British government very frequently, as a result of which the latter took stringent measures to control the former. The media was curtailed to a large extent because of which the dissatisfaction only increased. There were various cases of imprisonments under the laws formed. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The research scheme that has been incorporated is the doctrinal methodology of research. The research paper has been prepared using secondary sources of reference, mainly through the use of research cards for lifting relevant information from different sources and compilation under relevant headings. Reliance has been placed on various books, articles, journals, periodicals, weeklies, and judgements decided by the courts of law in India and abroad. RESEARCH SCHEME: The paper will first talk about the role of press in colonial India, then about the overlap between the cases of contempt of court and the media. It will then talk about the various legislations passed by the British government to control the native press. It will then discuss the famous media trials of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Books and Articles: A G Noorani, INDIAN POLITICAL TRIALS 1775-1947, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Information and Democracy in India, Rajeev Dhavan, JILI July-September 2005, Volume 47, No. 3.

M.K. Singh, ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INDIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1857-1947), Vol. 4, Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Rajeev Dhawan, CONTEMPT OF COURT AND THE PRESS, COURT LEGISLATURES MEDIA FREEDOM, K.N. Hari Kumar (ed.)

Internet Sources: http://lexuniverse.com/media-laws/index.html https://rni.nic.in/prbact.asp sify.com/itihaas/fullstory.php?id=13375052. www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/indiannat/source1/index.ht ml www.countercurrents.org/sahi271010.htm www.indhistory.com/vernacular-press-act.html www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/media.htm www.Presscouncil.nic.in/speechpdf/statutory%20regulation%20the%20indian%20experience %20kenya.pdf ABBREVIATIONS: Art. Article No. Ed(s) Editor(s) or Edited Ibid ibidem; in the same place or work used when two or more successive footnotes refer to the same work IPC Indian Penal Code Ltd Limited P., PP. Page, Pages Pvt Private S Section Supra above; used to refer to the text already cited V. Versus Vol. Volume

REGULATION OF MEDIA BY LAW UNDER COLONIAL RULE

ABSTRACT This research paper aims to first analyse the role of the press in colonial India, especially in the revolutionary movement directed against the British. The paper looks into the various legislations passed to curtail the media in India. Then the paper elaborates on how the measure of contempt of court was used by the judiciary to serve its own purposes, and the injustice inflicted by it on Indians. Finally, the two famous media trials of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi are discussed. The comparison between the above cases is also mentioned, which is useful in seeing how changes in the political atmosphere changed the severity of legislations.

CONTENTS 1. Role of Press 1.1 Notable role 1.2 Newspapers and the Government 1.3 Revolutionary Movement and the Press 2. Press Legislations 2.1 Overview 2.2 Gagging Act, 1857 2.3 Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 2.4 Section 124A IPC 2.5 Vernacular Press Act, 1878 3. Contempt of Court and the Media 3.1 Early Cases of Contempt 3.2 Contempt of Courts Act, 1926 3.3 The Government and Contempt of Court 4. Media Trials 4.1 Tilaks trial in 1897 4.2 Gandhis trial in 1922 4.3 Comparison between the trials of Tilak and Gandhi 5. Media and Colonial Rule

1. ROLE OF PRESS 1.1 Notable role: In the struggle against the British, some newspapers played a notable role. This included Hindu Patriot, which published a play called Neel Darpan that launched a movement urging people to stop cultivating crops for the Britishers.1 The paper strongly opposed the governments excesses and demanded that Indians be appointed to top government posts. The Indian Mirror was another popular paper during this time. 1.2 Newspapers and the Government: At the time of the first war of independence, there were many papers in the country, such as the likes of Bangadoot of Ram Mohan Roy, Rastiguftar of Dadabhai Naoroji and Gyaneneshun helped advance social reforms and bring about national awakening. 2 Governmental action on media was seen from that time itself, when Payam-e-Azadi - which called on the people to fight against the British was confiscated and anyone found with a copy of the paper was persecuted for sedition.3 The first Hindu daily, Samachar Sudhavarshan, and Urdu and Persian newspapers like Doorbeen and Sultan-ul-Akhtar, faced trial in 1857 for having published a firman by Bahadur Shah Zafar that urged people to drive the British out of India.4 Amrita Bazar Patrika, a weekly published from Jessore, was critical of the government, because of which its proprietors faced trial and conviction.5 1.3 Revolutionary Movement and the Press: The revolutionary movement did not begin with guns and bombs but started with the publication of newspapers.6 When the Ghadar party was organised in America, Lala Hardayal started publication of the journal 'Ghadar'. Within a year, millions of copies of this journal were published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and English and sent to India and to all parts of the world where Indians were residing. In the beginning the copies of the journal were concealed in parcels of foreign cloth sent to Delhi.7 Lala Hardayal was arrested in America and deported to India. One of his followers Pandit Ramchandra started publishing
1 2

M.K. Singh, ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INDIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1857-1947), Vol. 4, p. 168. Ibid, p. 168. 3 Ibid, p. 168. 4 Ibid, p. 168. 5 Ibid, p. 168. 6 Ibid, p. 170. 7 Ibid, p. 170.

Hindustan Ghadar in English. With the U.S. joining the war that had just broken out, the Ghadar party workers were arrested by the American Government. During the trial, one of the rivals of Pandit Ramchandra shot him dead in the jail itself. The death of Ramchandra led to the closure of this paper.8 In Paris, Lala Hardayal, in collaboration with Madam Cama and Sardar Singhraoji Rana, brought out Vandematram and Talwar.

In 1905 Shyamji Krishna Verma started publication of a journal Indian Sociologist from London. It reported political activities taking place at the India House in London. In 1909 two printers of this journal were convicted.9 Shyamji Krishna Verma left England for Paris from where he started the publication of the journal. Later on, he had to leave for Geneva. He continued to bring out the journal from there for two or three years more.

Vandematram, that played a significant role in the freedom struggle, was established by Subodha Chandra Malik, C.R. Das and Bipin Chandra Pal on August 6, 1906. Its editor, Aurobindo Ghosh, the editor of Sandhya, B. Upadhyay and editor of Yugantar, B. N. Dutt had to a face a trial for espousing the cause of freedom.10

Bhartendu Harish Chandra was the first to start a journal in Hindi - called Kavi Vachan Sudha - in 1868. Its policy was to give vent to the miseries of the people of India. When the Prince of Wales visited India, a poem was published in his honour. The British authorities were given to understand that the poem had two meanings and that one word used in the peom could also mean that the Prince of Wales should get a shoe-beating.11

The government aid to journals like Kavi Vachan Sudha was stopped for publishing what was objectionable from the government point of view. Harish Chandras two friends, Pratap Narain Mishra and Bal Krishna Bhatt started publication of two important political journals Pradeep from Allahabad, and Brahman from Kanpur. The Pradeep was ordered to be closed down in 1910 for espousing the cause of freedom.12

8 9

Ibid, p. 170. Ibid, p. 170. 10 Ibid, p. 171. 11 Ibid, p. 171. 12 Ibid, p. 171.

There is not a single province in India which did not produce a journal or newspaper to uphold the cause of freedom struggle. A. G. Horniman made the Bombay Chronicle a powerful instrument to promote militant nationalism. He himself took part in the meetings where Satyagraha used to be planned.13 He published vivid accounts of Jallianwala Bagh carnage for which one correspondent of his paper, Goverdhan Das, was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a military court.14 Horniman too was arrested and deported to London even though he was ill at that time. Similarly another Gujarati journal Saanjvartman played a prominent role under the editorship of Sanwal Das Gandhi, who played a very significant role in the Quit India Movement in 1942. The three editors of the Sindhi journal Hindi Jairam Das Daulatram, Dr. Choithram Gidwani and Hiranand Karamchand, were arrested, their press closed and the property of the paper confiscated.15

2. PRESS LEGISLATIONS 2.1 Overview: India experienced its first statutory regulation of the press in colonial rule. Adams Press Ordinance was the first ordinance brought in by the then Governor General, John Adam.16 The regulations promulgated by Adam were directed against newspapers published in the Indian languages and edited by the Indians. It is now known that the Adam regulations were the forerunner of the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 and other statutory measures to control the Indian press whose power posed a major factor in the countrys struggle for freedom from colonial yoke.17 One of the media and communication laws in India was the Press Regulation. It imposed precensorship on the newspaper publishing industry. The Press Act of 1835 annulled all the previous repressive laws on media and communication. Then came the gagging Act on 18th June 1857. It introduced compulsory licensing for the owning or running of printing presses, empowered the government to prohibit the publication or circulation of any newspaper, book or other printed material and banned the publication or dissemination of statements or news stories which had a tendency to cause furore against the government, thereby undermining its
13 14

Ibid, p. 172. Ibid, p. 172. 15 Ibid, p. 173. 16 Presscouncil.nic.in/speechpdf/statutory%20regulation%20the%20indian%20experience%20kenya.pdf. Visited on 20 October 2010. 17 Ibid.

authority.18 The Press and Registration of Books Act was passed in 1867 and till today this Act is in force. The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was promulgated by General Lord Lytton, which authorized the government to repress the publication of seditious writings and to impose punitive sanctions on printers and publishers failing to conform the law. 19 The Newspapers (incitement to offences) Act was passed in 1908 with the initiation of Lord Minto to prohibit publication deemed to incite rebellion. 2.2 Section 124A IPC: The original section was inserted in the IPC in 1870 and it made sedition a criminal offence for the first time. The section takes into its ambit disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. The most celebrated case under this section was against Mahatma Gandhi in 1922, called the Great Ahmedabad Trial. The British abused this section to suppress the peoples struggles for their legitimate democratic rights.20 2.3 Gagging Act, 1857: On 18th June 1857, the government passed the Gagging Act, which among various other things, introduced compulsory licensing for the owning or running of printing presses; empowered the government to prohibit the publication or circulation of any newspaper, book or other printed material and banned the publication or dissemination of statements or news stories which had a tendency to cause a furore against the government, thereby weakening its authority.21 2.4 Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867: The Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 had been enacted for the regulation of printing-presses and newspapers, for the preservation of copies of books and newspapers printed in India and for the registration of such books and newspapers. This regulatory law was aimed to enable the government to regulate printing presses and newspapers and other matter printed in India.22 The Act contains the particulars to be printed on books and papers, rules as to publication of newspapers and requires the keeper of printing press to make certain
18 19

http://lexuniverse.com/media-laws/index.html Visited on 18 October 2010. Ibid. 20 www.countercurrents.org/sahi271010.htm. Visited on 12 November 2010. 21 legalserviceindia.com/articles/media.htm. Visited on 20 October 2010. 22 https://rni.nic.in/prbact.asp. Visited on 16 October 2010.

declarations.23 It allowed the government to clamp down on the publication of writings deemed seditious and to impose punitive sanctions on printers and publishers who failed to fall in line.24 In 1908, Lord Minto promulgated the Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908 which authorized local authorities to take action against the editor of any newspaper that published matter deemed to constitute an incitement to rebellion.25 2.5 Vernacular Press Act, 1878: 2.5.1 Background: With the indigo riots, the agitation for freedom acquired greater momentum. 26 Meanwhile the spread of English education brought into being a new generation imbued with liberal ideas and willing to fight a long drawn battle with the British for independence. At the same time, a vernacular Fourth Estate was slowly taking shape to express Indian aspirations. 2.5.2 Purpose of the Act: This resulted in the promulgation of the Vernacular Press Act in 1878 intended to muzzle the periodicals in Indian languages. The reason advanced by Lord Lytton, the then Viceroy, was that the increasingly violent native press was directly provocative of rebellion.27 The viceroy Lord Lytton strongly denounced newspapers published in the vernacular languages as "mischievous scribblers preaching open sedition". He remarked that the avowed purpose of most of the vernacular newspapers was an end to the British raj.28 2.5.3 Effects of the Act: The papers that made the government worried were Somprakash, Sulabh Samachar, Halisahar Patrika, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Bharat Mihir, Dacca Prakash, Sadharani and Bharat Sanskarak. All these papers were said to have been leading the seditious movement against the government. The Act provided for submitting to police all the proof sheets of contents of

23 24

Ibid. legalserviceindia.com/articles/media.htm. Visited on 20 October 2010. 25 Ibid. 26 sify.com/itihaas/fullstory.php?id=13375052. Visited on 15 October 2010. 27 Ibid. 28 indhistory.com/vernacular-press-act.html. Visited on 16 October 2010.

papers before publication.29 It also empowered local governments to demand deposits from the editors and publishers of Indian-language newspapers as guarantees against the publication of seditious articles.30 What was seditious news was to be determined by the police, and not by the judiciary. Under this Act many of the papers were fined, their editors jailed. Surendranath Banerjee was arrested for an article he wrote in the Bengali. 31 Soon arrests of other persons for seditious articles followed. This accumulation of discriminatory laws, arrests and prosecutions, roused the masses. 2.5.4 Repeal of the Act: The whole of India protested against the Act and appealed to the British government to repeal it. All the native associations irrespective of religion, caste and creed denounced the measure and kept their denunciations and protestations alive.32 All the prominent leaders of Bengal and of India condemned the Act as unwarranted and unjustified, and demanded for its immediate withdrawal. The newspapers themselves kept on criticizing the measure without an end. The succeeding administration of Lord Ripon reviewed the developments consequent upon the Act and finally withdrew it in 1882.33

3. CONTEMPT OF COURT AND THE MEDIA 3.1 Early Cases of Contempt: The advent of a volatile and critical media made judges create a powerful law by which punishment for contempt of court would be dealt with by a summary process.34 Most early Indian cases were concerned with following the orders of the court.35 The first dramatic controversy was the Englishman case (1868)36 in which a journalist commented on

29 30

Ibid. www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/indiannat/source1/index.html. Visited on 18 October 2010. 31 Supra Note 26. Visited on 15 October 2010. 32 Supra Note 28. Visited on 21 October 2010. 33 Ibid. 34 Rajeev Dhawan, CONTEMPT OF COURT AND THE PRESS, COURT LEGISLATURES MEDIA FREEDOM, K.N. Hari Kumar (ed.), p. 36. 35 Ibid, p. 36. 36 AIR 1918 Cal 713.

Dwarkanath Mitters comments on the journalists honesty.37 Sir Barnes Peacock fined the journalist, but protected him from imprisonment.38 In 1883, Surendranath Banerjee was found guilty of contempt for publishing a comment on a judges zubberdusty (obstinacy) in summoning a Hindu idol into court.39 This indicated the firm establishment of the power of the summary trial in cases of contempt.40 Criticism of the judiciary increased, as did complaints about corruption and expensiveness of the judicial system.41 3.2 Contempt of Courts Act, 1926: By the first decade of the 20th century the British had begun to feel the onslaught of the press on the judicial system.42 The Contempt of Courts Act 1926 was drafted with the view to give High Courts and Chief Commissioners courts the power to punish for contempt of their respective courts.43 This bill attracted a lot of criticism from Indian political leaders like Jinnah and Motilal Nehru, and journalists like Kelkar, who commented on the misbehaviour of judges and urged the government to permit criticism of the judiciary.44 However, the judges wanted more power in this regard, as the instance of Lahore High Court shows, where it claimed that it was not bound to restrict punishment for contempt to six months as indicated in the Act of 1926.45 Nothing more was done after that except extending the contempt power to all High Courts of all States and territories.46 3.3 The Government and Contempt of Court: But, if censorship destroys truth, propaganda machines distort and create falsities.47 For the British the answer lay in creating a media which the government owned, controlled, sponsored and directly manipulated.48 In 1780, Governor General Hastings created the India Gazette, which was followed by the Calcutta Gazette, Madras Courier and Bombay

37 38

Supra note 17, p. 36. Ibid, p. 36. 39 Ibid, p. 37. 40 Ibid, p. 37. 41 Ibid, p. 37. 42 Ibid, p. 38, Sir Williams speech in (1921) 1 LAD 340. 43 Ibid, p. 38. 44 Ibid, p. 39. 45 Ibid, p. 39. 46 Ibid, p. 39. 47 Information and Democracy in India, Rajeev Dhavan, JILI July-September 2005, Volume 47 No. 3, p. 301. 48 Ibid, p. 301.

Gazette.49 Along with these, the Pioneer from Allahabad and Civil and Military Gazette from Lahore became sources of government information.50 However, the link with the government was not accepted easily.51 The nationalist movement developed its media along with the government.52 Among Indians there were political persons like Gandhi and Nehru (through National Herald), Lala Lajpat Rai (through the Punjabee) and Madan Mohan Malviya (through Leader).53

4. MEDIA TRIALS 4.1 Tilaks trial in 1897: On 12th June 1897, Poona celebrated the Shivaji festival. The proceedings of this festival were published in the Kesari, Tilaks newspaper on 15th June. A week later, Rand and Ayerst were murdered at midnight. The Anglo-Indian press went up in arms and said that Tilaks speeches had created the atmosphere of unrest which had instigated the murderers. 54 The government stepped in and sanctioned Tilaks prosecution for sedition. Bombay was chosen as the place for trial as it provided a pliable European jury and a hostile atmosphere for Tilak.55 The case was committed to the sessions in the High Court. The case came up for hearing on 8th September 1897 and lasted a week.56 The jury was decided on racial lines five Europeans Christians and a European Jew found Tilak guilty, whereas the three Indians found him not guilty.57 The majority opinion was taken. There were two charges against Tilak as the proprietor and publisher of Kesari. One was publication of two articles, the poem entitled Shivajis utterances on 15th June and the report of the meeting on 13th June, which allegedly excited feelings of disaffection to the

49 50

Ibid, p. 301. Ibid, p. 301. 51 Ibid, p. 301. 52 Ibid, p. 301. 53 Ibid, p. 301. 54 A G Noorani, INDIAN POLITICAL TRIALS 1775-1947, p. 116. 55 Ibid, p. 116. 56 Ibid, p. 117. 57 Ibid, p. 117.

Government established by law in British India. The other was that he attempted to do so.58 Keshav Mahadeo Bal was charged as the printer. Tilak was sentenced to eighteen months rigorous imprisonment, while Bal was found not guilty and was discharged.59 4.2 Gandhis trial in 1922: Gandhi was arrested on 3 October 1922 and put on trial a week later. The charge was based on an article entitled Tampering with Loyalty, written by Gandhi in his newspaper Young India on 29th September 1922.60 At this time, there was a steep decline in the prestige of Gandhi. The case was filed under two sections s.124A and s.505, for sedition and instigating mutiny in the army of the Penal Code respectively. 61 In spite of many warnings from the Councillors of the Governor, and other leaders, the governor persisted.62 The growth of the Non-Cooperation Movement was worrying Bombay.63 Bombay was permitted to launch a prosecution without reference to Delhi if Gandhi should embark on an active campaign of civil disobedience, but not otherwise.64 On 10th March 1922, Gandhi was arrested with his friend Shankerlal Banker. The trial failed to deflect Gandhi from his course; instead, it only highlighted his qualities of dignity and felicity of expression. 65 Never in the annals of history has a judge spoken more nobly to a prisoner in a political trial.66 The prosecution was conducted by Rao Bahadur Girdharilal, Public Prosecutor. Charges were framed on three counts under Section 124-A; and the accused were committed to the sessions court. Gandhi and Banker both pleaded guilty to the charges. Gandhi was sentenced to two years simple imprisonment on all three charges, making it a total of six years. Banker was sentenced to simple imprisonment for a year and a fine of Rs 1000. 4.3 Comparison between the trials of Tilak and Gandhi: It is worth contrasting this trial of Tilak by Davar J. with the later trial of Mahatma Gandhi before Judge Broomfield. Both were tried for publication of seditious articles in their papers.

58 59

Ibid, p. 117. Ibid, p. 121. 60 Ibid, p. 223. 61 Ibid, p. 224. 62 Ibid, p. 224. 63 Ibid, p. 225. 64 Ibid, p. 226. 65 Ibid, p. 227. 66 Ibid, p. 227.

Both were convicted, and both were given the same sentence. But a dozen years had made a world of difference between the political atmospheres of the two periods.67 The World War and its aftermath had made an enormous difference in the temper of the people, and the tempo of political unrest and agitation in India. This is reflected in what Tilak wrote in 1908 and what Gandhi wrote in 1921. Tilak's sedition was guarded, cautious and veiled. It is on the whole moderate in terms and tone.68 Gandhi's is open, strident, flagrant, and virulent. Tilak demands change in the methods and attitude of Government. Gandhi preaches open overthrow and destruction of the British Raj. Tilak still left the court with the stigma of a dangerous convict, reprimanded and admonished by the judge in strong scathing terms.69 Gandhi took his departure in an odour of sanctity and a blaze of glory. The latter committed a more serious crime from the standpoint of law but was treated with restraint and respect, bordering on veneration. This is the difference in treatment which the personality of the accused persons and the spirit of the times make even in the administration of law. Whereas Broomfield's observations on passing sentence were marked by perfect judicial restraint, poise, and due respect for the personality of the person charged, Davar's final observations addressed to the accused were ill-timed and intemperate, entirely lacking in judicial restraint and dignity.70

5. MEDIA AND COLONIAL RULE We have seen in this paper that intense political unrest in the country at different times was expressed by Indians through media. Leaders used the press as a means to communicate dissatisfaction and mobilise people against policies of the government. Due to this, the Britishers brought into existence a number of press laws such as Gagging Act, Press and Registration of Books Act and Vernacular Press Act. These acts sought to regulate the media in India and prevent publishing of items thought to be against the interests of the Crown. The insertion of Section 124-A into the IPC made sedition a crime for the first time. A great number of leaders were arrested and penalised under these laws. Prominent examples are Tilak and Gandhi, who were sentenced to imprisonment for different durations of time for

67

http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/libweb/historicalcases/cases/Second_Tilak_Trial_-1909.html. Visited on 22 October 2010. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid. 70 Ibid.

writing and publishing articles of a seditious nature. They were charged for publishing articles in Kesari and Young India respectively. Today, due to the recognition of freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right under Art. 19 of the Constitution, the media are not constrained as much as in colonial India. Citizens are free to criticise the policies of the government and to do so publicly, without fear of retribution. Knowing the history of press laws makes us more grateful toward the system currently in place in our country.