RAS question
The Amrita Bazar Patrika converted from Bengali to English overnight to evade the:
Correct answer: (D) Vernacular Press Act, 1878.
The Amrita Bazar Patrika shifted from Bengali to English almost overnight to evade the Vernacular Press Act, 1878, which targeted the vernacular Indian-language press.
Explanation
The Vernacular Press Act, 1878 was aimed at controlling newspapers published in Indian languages, after vernacular papers had repeatedly criticised British policies and exposed official conduct. Amrita Bazar Patrika was a Calcutta paper run by the Ghosh brothers, and Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Ministry of Culture, Government of India links the crucial response: the Patrika believed the Act was meant to gag it and became an English newspaper almost overnight while continuing to criticise the government. That move worked because the Act was directed at vernacular papers, not English-language newspapers. The question therefore tests both the repressive intent of the Act and the tactical response of a nationalist newspaper.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The episode belongs to 1878, and the question data itself notes that there was no specific 1920 censorship act behind this overnight language shift.
- (B) The Indian Press Act, 1910 came later, whereas Amrita Bazar Patrika's shift was a response to the Vernacular Press Act passed in 1878.
- (C) Sedition law dealt with seditious offences, but the paper's overnight conversion addressed the Vernacular Press Act's specific pressure on Indian-language newspapers.
Concept
This tests colonial press restrictions and nationalist press resistance in Modern Indian History. RAS repeatedly asks it because the Vernacular Press Act links policy, repression, and the political role of newspapers in the freedom struggle.