By the late 18th century, the
British East India Company had transformed itself from a trading body into a powerful political entity in
Bengal, functioning virtually as a surrogate government for the
British Crown. Revenue extracted from Indian lands significantly boosted Britain’s economy, which had been less than 1% of global GDP when the Company first arrived. This period also witnessed the arrival of
European missionaries—many driven by evangelical zeal, but some not averse to commercial gain. Into this complex colonial world, rife with corruption, exploitation, and moral ambiguity, arrived
James Augustus Hicky, an eccentric and sharp-tongued Irishman who would unexpectedly pioneer journalism in India.
On 29 January 1780, Hicky launched Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, first called the Original Calcutta General Advertiser. This modest weekly—priced at one rupee and published every Saturday—had a readership of about 400, mostly Europeans and elite Indians. It has the distinction of being the first printed newspaper in Asia, predating all later colonial and vernacular papers. Hicky promised readers that nothing would be printed without authentication and that the paper would remain “open to all parties, influenced by none.”
Twelve years earlier, the Dutch adventurer William Bolts had proposed starting a newspaper in Calcutta, but nothing materialized. Hicky succeeded where others failed, though his personal life was chaotic—he had spent two years in jail for debt and carried an air of defiant independence into his journalism.
Initially neutral, Hicky shifted rapidly to a more confrontational stance when the East India Company supported a rival paper, The India Gazette. His clashes with Company officials—particularly Simeon Droz—and his criticism of Marian Hastings, wife of Governor-General Warren Hastings, led the postal service to block the mailing of his paper. Undeterred, Hicky boldly renamed it Hicky’s Bengal Gazette on 18 November 1780 and intensified his scrutiny of the colonial administration.
What made the Gazette revolutionary was its fearless exposure of corruption, scandals, and moral hypocrisy among Company officers, judges, missionaries, and military commanders. It reported bribery involving
Chief Justice Elijah Impey, misuse of orphanage funds by the
Protestant missionary Johann Zacharias Kiernander, and the clandestine affairs of influential officials. Hicky, surprisingly modern in his liberal attitude toward sexuality, nevertheless retained conservative views about women’s societal roles. He famously coined humorous, biting nicknames for the colonial elite, offering readers both entertainment and a window into the private vices of the ruling class.
Hicky endured four dramatic trials in 1781, was convicted of libel, and repeatedly jailed. Yet even from prison, he kept writing and publishing. His relentless attacks on Warren Hastings—already facing impeachment in London—eventually prompted new lawsuits. On 23 March 1782, the Supreme Court ordered the seizure of his press, and the Gazette ceased publication.
Though short-lived, Hicky’s newspaper was anti-war, anti-imperialist, and fiercely critical of colonial abuse—extraordinary positions for its time. It inspired later
Indian-owned newspapers and established the foundation of investigative journalism in India. With Hicky’s Gazette, the age of the Indian press truly dawned in 1780, challenging power with truth in an era when such courage was rare.
https://www.ndtv.com/webstories/feature/hicky-s-bengal-gazette-india-s-first-newspaper-17329
https://www.facebook.com/indiatodaygroupeducation/posts/onthisday-in-1780-indian-journalism-was-born-with-hickys-bengal-gazette-the-coun/647509064515333/
https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-hicky-s-bengal-gazette-the-untold-story-of-india-s-first-newspaper-by-andrew-otis/story-wxRjvgcptQeIT95B93XH5O.html
https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-hicky-s-bengal-gazette-the-untold-story-of-india-s-first-newspaper-by-andrew-otis/story-wxRjvgcptQeIT95B93XH5O.html
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2018/10/hickys-bengal-gazette-indias-first.html
