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Hicky's Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India's First Newspaper
Late eighteenth century Calcutta.
The British are well-ensconced in Bengal, but not yet an empire. Indian princes pose a danger to the East India Company’s plans of commerce and domination. Warren Hastings, the British governor-general, is attempting to consolidate his power in the Company.
Johann Zacharias Kiernander is on a mission to convert heathen souls in a land far from his native Sweden though he is not averse to lining his pockets while doing ‘God’s work’.
Into this steaming cauldron of skullduggery and intrigue walks James Augustus Hicky, a wild Irishman seeking fame and fortune. Sensing an opportunity, he decides to establish a newspaper, the first of its kind in South Asia. In two short years, his endeavour threatens to lay bare the murky underside of the early British empire. Does it succeed?
This is the story of the forces Hicky came up against, the corrupt authorities determined to stop him and of his resourcefulness. The product of five years of research by Andrew Otis in the archives of India, UK and Germany, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Story of India’s First Newspaper is an essential and compelling addition to the history of subcontinental journalism.
The British are well-ensconced in Bengal, but not yet an empire. Indian princes pose a danger to the East India Company’s plans of commerce and domination. Warren Hastings, the British governor-general, is attempting to consolidate his power in the Company.
Johann Zacharias Kiernander is on a mission to convert heathen souls in a land far from his native Sweden though he is not averse to lining his pockets while doing ‘God’s work’.
Into this steaming cauldron of skullduggery and intrigue walks James Augustus Hicky, a wild Irishman seeking fame and fortune. Sensing an opportunity, he decides to establish a newspaper, the first of its kind in South Asia. In two short years, his endeavour threatens to lay bare the murky underside of the early British empire. Does it succeed?
This is the story of the forces Hicky came up against, the corrupt authorities determined to stop him and of his resourcefulness. The product of five years of research by Andrew Otis in the archives of India, UK and Germany, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Story of India’s First Newspaper is an essential and compelling addition to the history of subcontinental journalism.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2018
39 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Otis
1 book20 followersAndrew Otis received his PhD in journalism from the University of Maryland in 2022. He was a Fulbright-Fellow to Kolkata, India (2013-2014). Andrew lives in Washington D.C.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 31 reviews
July 12, 2018
A timely, engrossing, and well-researched read about a fascinating figure. Otis’s writing and the dramatic conflicts from Hicky’s life kept me fully engaged in a topic I knew nothing about at the outset.
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November 11, 2018A man takes upon himself to expose corruption in East India company and incurs wrath of Governor General and the missionary anointed to spread Christian knowledge. He suffers losses and discontentment from his peers but pursues a case, fighting for free speech. Tragically however, many years later it was discovered that some of Hicky's news items were based on rumors and gossip heard during luncheons.
October 24, 2018
An excellent account of weal and woe of early modern Bengal, and particularly it's inhabitants - both European and Native. The author's description of Hicky's reports on the corruptions and scandals shows the fearlessly uncompromising principles underlying James Augustus Hicky's journalism and his deep-rooted sympathies towards the working classes of this nation. But, maybe owing to his Irish origin, he seemed to have had an innate antagonism towards British empire in general and it's top-brass functionaries in particular. Considering from an Indian Hindu perspective Hicky's encomium offered to the treacherous Hyder Ali, father of the murderous fanatic Hindu hater Tipu Sultan, who cunningly usurped the throne of the Wodeyars, merely for not beheading British prisoners of war captured after the battle of Pollilur(bungled up by Eyre Coote) seemed a bit over the top. But nevertheless, this riveting account of a journalist, his immortal pioneering efforts and his priceless contributions to journalism in this subcontinent makes for an excellent read. I would recommend it to everyone interested in the history of early modern Bengal.
March 20, 2025
I thought it was good, it was very easy to start reading but it took me a while to finish it. I think it's a good short story about one funny character in India. I like it overall.
September 12, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads # Of Bengal
There is a peculiar thrill in tracing the origins of journalism in India—not to the sober halls of policy or the dignified salons of intellectual debate, but to the sweaty, quarrelsome, scandal-filled lanes of colonial Calcutta in the late 18th century. Andrew Otis’s Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper resurrects this moment with detail, passion, and a storyteller’s instinct, showing us how James Augustus Hicky, a down-on-his-luck Irishman with a printing press and a stubborn streak, ended up launching not just a newspaper, but an ideal: the idea that power must be questioned, that even in a colony, voices could be raised, and that the printed word could be sharper than any bayonet.
To most people who have heard of Hicky, he is remembered as a sort of scandal-mongering eccentric—a printer who filled his pages with gossip, invective, and personal feuds. Otis takes that reputation and complicates it. He neither sanitizes nor romanticizes Hicky. Instead, he offers us a portrait of a man who was messy, contradictory, and often vindictive—but also, crucially, brave and pioneering. In doing so, he asks us to rethink the foundations of Indian journalism itself: born not in calm respectability but in the heat of controversy, satire, defiance, and dangerous truth-telling.
Otis’s reconstruction of Calcutta in the 1780s is one of the book’s pleasures. We see a city swelling under the weight of empire—European traders, Company officials, Indian merchants, and a teeming population of workers, soldiers, and clerks. The East India Company’s hold on Bengal was tightening, and with it came the arrogance of unchecked power. Warren Hastings, the Governor-General, epitomized this authority, ruling with both pragmatism and suspicion. Into this charged atmosphere wandered Hicky, an Irish printer who, through grit and necessity, acquired a press.
It’s important to remember: a press in that era was a weapon. To own one was to control the means of disseminating opinion, rumor, criticism, and information. The East India Company wanted presses to serve them—to print proclamations, edicts, and occasionally, flattery. Hicky, however, had other ideas. With little to lose and much to prove, he launched Hicky’s Bengal Gazette in 1780, declaring it to be “a free press.” And so began a story both quixotic and profound.
Reading Otis’s description of the Gazette is to glimpse journalism in its raw, unfiltered infancy. Hicky published gossip about the elite, attacked Company officials, and occasionally indulged in personal vendettas. His writing was often vindictive, sometimes vulgar, and rarely restrained. Yet, beneath the surface noise, there was something radical. Hicky dared to criticize Hastings himself. He exposed corruption, called out hypocrisy, and voiced what few dared to say aloud: that the empire was not built on benevolence but on greed and power.
Otis is careful to show us that the Gazette was not a polished journal of record—it was closer to a scrappy pamphlet, a tabloid with teeth. But therein lies its significance. Journalism in India did not begin as a polite conversation; it began as dissent. Hicky’s paper became the prototype for a press that would later hold colonial and post-colonial governments to account, that would play roles in independence struggles, and that would continually test the boundaries of censorship.
Otis does not flinch from portraying Hicky’s flaws. He was impulsive, thin-skinned, and often careless with his accusations. His editorials could descend into personal attacks. He lacked the restraint that might have preserved his career. And yet, it is precisely this reckless energy that made him who he was. To read about Hicky is to see a man who was willing to risk jail, financial ruin, and exile for the right to print what he believed should be public.
Otis frames Hicky not as a saint but as a pioneer. He wasn’t the model journalist, but he was the first to stake a claim for press freedom in India. His contradictions—courage and pettiness, principle and spite—make him human. They also remind us that progress is often made not by paragons of virtue but by flawed individuals who, in their stubbornness, push boundaries no one else dares to test.
At the heart of Otis’s narrative lies the escalating battle between Hicky and Hastings. The Gazette’s criticism of Company officials quickly drew retaliation. Censorship was attempted, lawsuits were filed, and eventually, Hicky was jailed. His presses were seized. Yet even from prison, Hicky continued to write, sending out issues of the Gazette until the very end.
These chapters in Otis’s book are both thrilling and sobering. Thrilling, because we see a lone printer daring to stand against one of the most powerful empires on Earth. Sobering, because the weight of authority eventually crushed him. Hicky’s story is, in a sense, a tragedy: he lit the torch of free expression but was consumed by it.
And yet, the flame survived. Others would take up the mantle of journalism in India, inspired or at least emboldened by the path he carved. If today we debate press freedom in India—as indeed we do, passionately—it is worth remembering that Hicky was the first to show how precarious, how necessary, and how dangerous that freedom can be.
One of the reasons Hicky’s Bengal Gazette succeeds is Otis’s narrative style. He writes with clarity and energy, weaving archival research into a flowing story. His command of detail is impressive—courtroom transcripts, personal letters, fragments of the Gazette itself—all are brought together to recreate both the man and his milieu. Yet Otis never drowns us in data. The prose is accessible, the pacing brisk, and the tone often novelistic.
There are moments when one almost forgets this is history—it reads like a drama, with Hicky as the defiant protagonist and Hastings as the looming antagonist. This is not to say Otis sacrifices rigor; rather, he understands that history must live on the page, not suffocate under footnotes. In this sense, the book straddles two audiences: the academic who seeks accuracy and the general reader who craves a story.
My admiration for the book lies in how it rescues Hicky from obscurity. Too often, histories of Indian journalism begin with later figures, bypassing this eccentric Irishman. Otis insists that Hicky matters, not despite his flaws but because of them. The Gazette, imperfect though it was, set a precedent.
And yet, the book also invites critique. One could argue that Otis occasionally overstates Hicky’s role—as if the history of Indian journalism began and ended with him. In truth, the press in India developed in fits and starts, influenced by many others, Indian and European alike. Similarly, some readers may find Otis too sympathetic to Hicky, forgiving his pettiness in the name of his principles. But then again, history often requires us to balance admiration with scepticism, and Otis manages this with more nuance than most.
What gives Hicky’s Bengal Gazette an added layer of relevance is its resonance with our own times. The battles Hicky fought—over censorship, defamation, state retaliation, and the right to criticize power—are battles that echo loudly in the 21st century. In an age of “fake news,” media trials, corporate ownership of press outlets, and rising pressures on journalists, Hicky’s struggles feel startlingly contemporary. The technology has changed; the dynamics of power and press have not.
To think of Hicky, printing his paper in a colonial city two centuries ago, is to see the roots of today’s debates about free speech in India. It is also to recognize that the freedom of the press is never handed down from above; it is seized, defended, and often punished into existence.
In the end, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette is more than a biography of a man or a chronicle of a newspaper. It is a meditation on the meaning of journalism itself. What is a free press if not the willingness to print what power does not want printed? What is the role of the journalist if not to risk, at least occasionally, their own comfort to speak for the truth? Hicky may not have articulated these ideals in lofty language, but he lived them, however chaotically.
Otis gives us a story that is both inspiring and cautionary. Inspiring, because it shows that even one press can unsettle an empire. Cautionary, because it reminds us how easily the press can be silenced. For readers of history, journalism, or politics, this book is indispensable. For anyone who has ever felt the thrill of seeing power held to account in print, it is also oddly personal.
Hicky is not a hero in the conventional sense. He is something more interesting: a flawed, stubborn man whose fight gave birth to an idea bigger than himself. Thanks to Andrew Otis, that idea—and that man—are once again visible, ink fresh on the page, reminding us that freedom always begins noisily, dangerously, and imperfectly.
There is a peculiar thrill in tracing the origins of journalism in India—not to the sober halls of policy or the dignified salons of intellectual debate, but to the sweaty, quarrelsome, scandal-filled lanes of colonial Calcutta in the late 18th century. Andrew Otis’s Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper resurrects this moment with detail, passion, and a storyteller’s instinct, showing us how James Augustus Hicky, a down-on-his-luck Irishman with a printing press and a stubborn streak, ended up launching not just a newspaper, but an ideal: the idea that power must be questioned, that even in a colony, voices could be raised, and that the printed word could be sharper than any bayonet.
To most people who have heard of Hicky, he is remembered as a sort of scandal-mongering eccentric—a printer who filled his pages with gossip, invective, and personal feuds. Otis takes that reputation and complicates it. He neither sanitizes nor romanticizes Hicky. Instead, he offers us a portrait of a man who was messy, contradictory, and often vindictive—but also, crucially, brave and pioneering. In doing so, he asks us to rethink the foundations of Indian journalism itself: born not in calm respectability but in the heat of controversy, satire, defiance, and dangerous truth-telling.
Otis’s reconstruction of Calcutta in the 1780s is one of the book’s pleasures. We see a city swelling under the weight of empire—European traders, Company officials, Indian merchants, and a teeming population of workers, soldiers, and clerks. The East India Company’s hold on Bengal was tightening, and with it came the arrogance of unchecked power. Warren Hastings, the Governor-General, epitomized this authority, ruling with both pragmatism and suspicion. Into this charged atmosphere wandered Hicky, an Irish printer who, through grit and necessity, acquired a press.
It’s important to remember: a press in that era was a weapon. To own one was to control the means of disseminating opinion, rumor, criticism, and information. The East India Company wanted presses to serve them—to print proclamations, edicts, and occasionally, flattery. Hicky, however, had other ideas. With little to lose and much to prove, he launched Hicky’s Bengal Gazette in 1780, declaring it to be “a free press.” And so began a story both quixotic and profound.
Reading Otis’s description of the Gazette is to glimpse journalism in its raw, unfiltered infancy. Hicky published gossip about the elite, attacked Company officials, and occasionally indulged in personal vendettas. His writing was often vindictive, sometimes vulgar, and rarely restrained. Yet, beneath the surface noise, there was something radical. Hicky dared to criticize Hastings himself. He exposed corruption, called out hypocrisy, and voiced what few dared to say aloud: that the empire was not built on benevolence but on greed and power.
Otis is careful to show us that the Gazette was not a polished journal of record—it was closer to a scrappy pamphlet, a tabloid with teeth. But therein lies its significance. Journalism in India did not begin as a polite conversation; it began as dissent. Hicky’s paper became the prototype for a press that would later hold colonial and post-colonial governments to account, that would play roles in independence struggles, and that would continually test the boundaries of censorship.
Otis does not flinch from portraying Hicky’s flaws. He was impulsive, thin-skinned, and often careless with his accusations. His editorials could descend into personal attacks. He lacked the restraint that might have preserved his career. And yet, it is precisely this reckless energy that made him who he was. To read about Hicky is to see a man who was willing to risk jail, financial ruin, and exile for the right to print what he believed should be public.
Otis frames Hicky not as a saint but as a pioneer. He wasn’t the model journalist, but he was the first to stake a claim for press freedom in India. His contradictions—courage and pettiness, principle and spite—make him human. They also remind us that progress is often made not by paragons of virtue but by flawed individuals who, in their stubbornness, push boundaries no one else dares to test.
At the heart of Otis’s narrative lies the escalating battle between Hicky and Hastings. The Gazette’s criticism of Company officials quickly drew retaliation. Censorship was attempted, lawsuits were filed, and eventually, Hicky was jailed. His presses were seized. Yet even from prison, Hicky continued to write, sending out issues of the Gazette until the very end.
These chapters in Otis’s book are both thrilling and sobering. Thrilling, because we see a lone printer daring to stand against one of the most powerful empires on Earth. Sobering, because the weight of authority eventually crushed him. Hicky’s story is, in a sense, a tragedy: he lit the torch of free expression but was consumed by it.
And yet, the flame survived. Others would take up the mantle of journalism in India, inspired or at least emboldened by the path he carved. If today we debate press freedom in India—as indeed we do, passionately—it is worth remembering that Hicky was the first to show how precarious, how necessary, and how dangerous that freedom can be.
One of the reasons Hicky’s Bengal Gazette succeeds is Otis’s narrative style. He writes with clarity and energy, weaving archival research into a flowing story. His command of detail is impressive—courtroom transcripts, personal letters, fragments of the Gazette itself—all are brought together to recreate both the man and his milieu. Yet Otis never drowns us in data. The prose is accessible, the pacing brisk, and the tone often novelistic.
There are moments when one almost forgets this is history—it reads like a drama, with Hicky as the defiant protagonist and Hastings as the looming antagonist. This is not to say Otis sacrifices rigor; rather, he understands that history must live on the page, not suffocate under footnotes. In this sense, the book straddles two audiences: the academic who seeks accuracy and the general reader who craves a story.
My admiration for the book lies in how it rescues Hicky from obscurity. Too often, histories of Indian journalism begin with later figures, bypassing this eccentric Irishman. Otis insists that Hicky matters, not despite his flaws but because of them. The Gazette, imperfect though it was, set a precedent.
And yet, the book also invites critique. One could argue that Otis occasionally overstates Hicky’s role—as if the history of Indian journalism began and ended with him. In truth, the press in India developed in fits and starts, influenced by many others, Indian and European alike. Similarly, some readers may find Otis too sympathetic to Hicky, forgiving his pettiness in the name of his principles. But then again, history often requires us to balance admiration with scepticism, and Otis manages this with more nuance than most.
What gives Hicky’s Bengal Gazette an added layer of relevance is its resonance with our own times. The battles Hicky fought—over censorship, defamation, state retaliation, and the right to criticize power—are battles that echo loudly in the 21st century. In an age of “fake news,” media trials, corporate ownership of press outlets, and rising pressures on journalists, Hicky’s struggles feel startlingly contemporary. The technology has changed; the dynamics of power and press have not.
To think of Hicky, printing his paper in a colonial city two centuries ago, is to see the roots of today’s debates about free speech in India. It is also to recognize that the freedom of the press is never handed down from above; it is seized, defended, and often punished into existence.
In the end, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette is more than a biography of a man or a chronicle of a newspaper. It is a meditation on the meaning of journalism itself. What is a free press if not the willingness to print what power does not want printed? What is the role of the journalist if not to risk, at least occasionally, their own comfort to speak for the truth? Hicky may not have articulated these ideals in lofty language, but he lived them, however chaotically.
Otis gives us a story that is both inspiring and cautionary. Inspiring, because it shows that even one press can unsettle an empire. Cautionary, because it reminds us how easily the press can be silenced. For readers of history, journalism, or politics, this book is indispensable. For anyone who has ever felt the thrill of seeing power held to account in print, it is also oddly personal.
Hicky is not a hero in the conventional sense. He is something more interesting: a flawed, stubborn man whose fight gave birth to an idea bigger than himself. Thanks to Andrew Otis, that idea—and that man—are once again visible, ink fresh on the page, reminding us that freedom always begins noisily, dangerously, and imperfectly.
July 16, 2020
Hicky's Bengal Gazette brings to light a history so incredibly replete with drama that one would hesitate believing in its twists and its turns, had Otis not meticulously attached a sincere citation to each of them. As a Zoomer born and raised in the very city which is at the heart of this book, this book appealed to both the history buff and the nostalgic teenager within me.
As is the case with all good history books for the general reader, the romantic storytelling easily outweighs any cause of concern over academic prudishness. In reading this book, the general reader loses oneself in a world and in a time which are so unlike the preconceptions that they are subjected to.
Researching such a story to weave the illusion of continuity does, however, take its toll on the author, and there are places, negligible in number, where it either hastens too much, or slacks far too long. However, that must be credited to the gross shortage of uniform documentation of every development in the story. Moreover, Hicky reveals himself to be generous in terms of providing humour for his future chronicler, which cheers the reader up from time to time.
Detailed revelations on such historical figures of colonial rule in India as Sir Elijah Impey and the multifaceted Warren Hastings, whose name still christens the district at the very heart of Kolkata, take a lively form which leaves one both awed and shocked.
If you possess even the faintest interest in reading history that resembles fiction but is as true as two and two gives four, go ahead.
This book will be a treat for you.
P.S. The publishers didn't seem to find an Index necessary, so that calls for occasional attention. Not involving any of the central characters,of course, but just in case you prefer attention to detail!
As is the case with all good history books for the general reader, the romantic storytelling easily outweighs any cause of concern over academic prudishness. In reading this book, the general reader loses oneself in a world and in a time which are so unlike the preconceptions that they are subjected to.
Researching such a story to weave the illusion of continuity does, however, take its toll on the author, and there are places, negligible in number, where it either hastens too much, or slacks far too long. However, that must be credited to the gross shortage of uniform documentation of every development in the story. Moreover, Hicky reveals himself to be generous in terms of providing humour for his future chronicler, which cheers the reader up from time to time.
Detailed revelations on such historical figures of colonial rule in India as Sir Elijah Impey and the multifaceted Warren Hastings, whose name still christens the district at the very heart of Kolkata, take a lively form which leaves one both awed and shocked.
If you possess even the faintest interest in reading history that resembles fiction but is as true as two and two gives four, go ahead.
This book will be a treat for you.
P.S. The publishers didn't seem to find an Index necessary, so that calls for occasional attention. Not involving any of the central characters,of course, but just in case you prefer attention to detail!
August 7, 2018
Late eighteenth century Calcutta was an unholy place. The ambitious and thoroughly unprincipled men at the helm of the East India Company indulge in a free-for-all loot of the newly won territories through blatant corruption. Yet not everyone will become rich. Some will be claimed by tropical diseases and some will languish in destitution and evil luck. Bursts forth in these bleak times a virulent Irishman James Augustus Hicky. His Bengal Gazette is often scandalous, lewd (insinuating Governor General Warren Hastings of erectile dysfunction) and makes unsubstantiated wild allegations - but is never afraid to holler truth to vicious power. Hicky is not always an unabashed upholder of the imperial project of his countrymen as he exposes the muck of deceit and corruption. A warrior for free speech much ahead of his times.
Otis' book is very neatly done. He is successful in bringing alive the bleak times and provides a balanced assessment of the protagonist. Digs into the patchily recorded history tenaciously (deciphering secret shorthand notes of a judge, tracing Hicky's descendants). The result is a delightful read.
Otis' book is very neatly done. He is successful in bringing alive the bleak times and provides a balanced assessment of the protagonist. Digs into the patchily recorded history tenaciously (deciphering secret shorthand notes of a judge, tracing Hicky's descendants). The result is a delightful read.
April 6, 2022
The name of Warren Hastings looms in the shadows along the lanes, as old as when time was created. Calcutta was the powerful seat of the British Empire, in the 18th Century, that bears testimony to the barbaric policies and tyrannic colonialism which shook the socio-economic fabric of the city, and subsequently led to the freedom struggles which is today, an independent India. But much before, this, around the late 18th century, when the British were just in the game, with monumental aspirations about consolidating power across the subcontinent, an Irishman, challenged their authority and went as far as to call Hasting, ‘an incompetent successor to Clive’, shocking yet honest in the most historical sense.
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette by Andrew Otis, is certainly as the cover betrays, the untold story of India’s First Newspaper, unknown to many since it published only for two years, i.e., from 1780 to 1782, but had enough power that it challenged the very position of the Imperial Rule and set the impeachment of Warren Hastings (Governor-General of India) and Sir Elijah Impey (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) into motion. Along with this, the newspaper doomed the existence of the Protestant Missionary preacher, Johannan Kiernanader. But these names may ring a faint bell in the minds of general readers. But for academicians and specifically, historians and archivists, it is a wonder that how the name James Augustus Hicky simply perished from the pages of world history.
An Irish Surgeon, with dreams of creating fortune in India, sailed from London, only to be ridden in debts and jailed which led him to start printing, being the first printer in Bengal. After serving his imprisonment, he started the Hicky’s Bengal Gazette with extensive coverage on the socio-economy, policies, stories, etc with very less political coverage. So, the question remains, how a colonial supporter turned against the whole Raj, and waged a war of words which stood for the freedom of press and exposed the skullduggery of a corrupt system, where the rich fed upon the poor like parasites?
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette by Andrew Otis, is certainly as the cover betrays, the untold story of India’s First Newspaper, unknown to many since it published only for two years, i.e., from 1780 to 1782, but had enough power that it challenged the very position of the Imperial Rule and set the impeachment of Warren Hastings (Governor-General of India) and Sir Elijah Impey (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) into motion. Along with this, the newspaper doomed the existence of the Protestant Missionary preacher, Johannan Kiernanader. But these names may ring a faint bell in the minds of general readers. But for academicians and specifically, historians and archivists, it is a wonder that how the name James Augustus Hicky simply perished from the pages of world history.
An Irish Surgeon, with dreams of creating fortune in India, sailed from London, only to be ridden in debts and jailed which led him to start printing, being the first printer in Bengal. After serving his imprisonment, he started the Hicky’s Bengal Gazette with extensive coverage on the socio-economy, policies, stories, etc with very less political coverage. So, the question remains, how a colonial supporter turned against the whole Raj, and waged a war of words which stood for the freedom of press and exposed the skullduggery of a corrupt system, where the rich fed upon the poor like parasites?
Read
January 18, 2025"British rule was not based on right , but on might alone".
Story of the man, James Augustus Hicky, who started the first Indian newspaper - Bengal Gazette in the late 1700s. This was when the British was establishing a foothold in India, starting with the Calcultta (Present day Kolkata) in the Bengal region.
Newspapers were already. a common item in Europe but a newspaper in the colonies would be a threat to the colonial masters !
Why so ?
The book weaves in historical accounts of hardships in India, corruption among the white rulers, church officials and traders - the rot was already in the Brit lords even though at that time they had occupied the Bengal region and most of India was still self ruled .
But the local chieftains were bickering among themselves and the larger Mughal Empire was already tottering. In bad times eg 1770 - famine that resulted in a third of the population in Bengal dying , the English could still collect taxes - ironically more taxes came in as the living had to pax tax for the dead.
Hicky’s printing press lasted five years and his newspaper ran for only two years …. “yet he set the foundation for the future printers in India". The short life span of the newspaper was largely because he provoked the colonial masters with the publication of satires and essays that accused them of corruption.
Despite the short run, Hicky's venture trained printers and his efforts paved the way for Calcutta to become “one of the most vibrant literary cities in Asia”. The region of Bengal has been and still a hub for education and writing.
Hicky started the legacy of free press despite stifling colonial opposition and western self interest . He got into messy lawsuits partly due to his criticism of the corrupted rich but also partly due to personal issues .
Worldwide - Journalism remains under pressure and pressman who speak for freedom remains under pressure . The struggle for fact and truth goes on . The day to day and court room details in the mid section are a tafddraggy but overall an inspiring account.
Story of the man, James Augustus Hicky, who started the first Indian newspaper - Bengal Gazette in the late 1700s. This was when the British was establishing a foothold in India, starting with the Calcultta (Present day Kolkata) in the Bengal region.
Newspapers were already. a common item in Europe but a newspaper in the colonies would be a threat to the colonial masters !
Why so ?
The book weaves in historical accounts of hardships in India, corruption among the white rulers, church officials and traders - the rot was already in the Brit lords even though at that time they had occupied the Bengal region and most of India was still self ruled .
But the local chieftains were bickering among themselves and the larger Mughal Empire was already tottering. In bad times eg 1770 - famine that resulted in a third of the population in Bengal dying , the English could still collect taxes - ironically more taxes came in as the living had to pax tax for the dead.
Hicky’s printing press lasted five years and his newspaper ran for only two years …. “yet he set the foundation for the future printers in India". The short life span of the newspaper was largely because he provoked the colonial masters with the publication of satires and essays that accused them of corruption.
Despite the short run, Hicky's venture trained printers and his efforts paved the way for Calcutta to become “one of the most vibrant literary cities in Asia”. The region of Bengal has been and still a hub for education and writing.
Hicky started the legacy of free press despite stifling colonial opposition and western self interest . He got into messy lawsuits partly due to his criticism of the corrupted rich but also partly due to personal issues .
Worldwide - Journalism remains under pressure and pressman who speak for freedom remains under pressure . The struggle for fact and truth goes on . The day to day and court room details in the mid section are a tafddraggy but overall an inspiring account.
March 26, 2020
This is an wonderful book about an important but largely not so known part of India's history namely- India's 1st newspaper.
The author build the story nicely with the character sketches of main cast and the prevalent era at that time in Calcutta- when British were on the verge of establishing their empire in India. The reader is definitely 'carried' to the era which provides a great context to the story.
As the author says, information has always been disseminated through the ages in India but before Hicky's Bengal Gazette crystallized the same in the modern way of mass distribution i.e. through a newspaper.
The author provides a balanced perspective of all the characters in the way they are, and also considering the behavioral acceptance of that era which would obviously be different from the modern era.
The author's research is quite rigorous and the references noted are exhaustive, provisioning the authentic nature of the book. It is also great to see the images of the newspaper itself and some of the main characters (unfortunately as the author says none survive of James Hicky himself), which really brings the story of life.
A delightful read for all who are curious about the history of India's 1st newspaper!
The author build the story nicely with the character sketches of main cast and the prevalent era at that time in Calcutta- when British were on the verge of establishing their empire in India. The reader is definitely 'carried' to the era which provides a great context to the story.
As the author says, information has always been disseminated through the ages in India but before Hicky's Bengal Gazette crystallized the same in the modern way of mass distribution i.e. through a newspaper.
The author provides a balanced perspective of all the characters in the way they are, and also considering the behavioral acceptance of that era which would obviously be different from the modern era.
The author's research is quite rigorous and the references noted are exhaustive, provisioning the authentic nature of the book. It is also great to see the images of the newspaper itself and some of the main characters (unfortunately as the author says none survive of James Hicky himself), which really brings the story of life.
A delightful read for all who are curious about the history of India's 1st newspaper!
April 2, 2025
I came across this book in a bookstore in Roe's Bookstore in Dundalk, Ireland which always has a stock of excellent books for authors who are less well known. The name on the flycover James Augustus Ryan caught my eye - an Irishman in India. I looked at the long list of references and sources before opening one page and knew immediately that the book was meticulously researched and that the author likely was an academic. I was tempted to put the book down as academics usually write in a way that is stilted and uninspiring but this author breaks the mould and writes a vivid and intense factual story about a "wild" Irishman. What is equally as interesting are the brick walls Dr. Otis encounters while researching his topic. I would love to see this book brought to life on the big screen because its themes of the pursuit of the truth by a contrarian, the abuse of power (political and economic) and the Hugoesque aspects to much of the main protaganists story, would make it compelling. Congratulations to Dr. Otis on this extraordinary achievement - a very challenging undertaking which has yielded a rich treasure.
December 25, 2019
In the day and age of suspicion surrounding narratives, Otis has stayed true to his research methodology.
It is to be noted that Otis is a scholar writing a book for the layperson. That requires writing and introspection of a different kind, which he pulls off.
Many a historian can simply flipping through the back pages of this effort and learn a lot.
Not only is referencing important, but also "who" you end up quoting. In Otis's case, he was researching figures from 200 years ago - everyone is quoting everyone else.
Veracity therefore, can be a tough ask but he comes through with flying colors.
The book makes you think and reflect on your own origins (especially if you are from a Commonwealth South East Asian country)
Long after we're gone, the book will hopefully remain in the public conscious given the debate around worldly freedoms.
Look forward to Otis's future scholarly jaunts!
It is to be noted that Otis is a scholar writing a book for the layperson. That requires writing and introspection of a different kind, which he pulls off.
Many a historian can simply flipping through the back pages of this effort and learn a lot.
Not only is referencing important, but also "who" you end up quoting. In Otis's case, he was researching figures from 200 years ago - everyone is quoting everyone else.
Veracity therefore, can be a tough ask but he comes through with flying colors.
The book makes you think and reflect on your own origins (especially if you are from a Commonwealth South East Asian country)
Long after we're gone, the book will hopefully remain in the public conscious given the debate around worldly freedoms.
Look forward to Otis's future scholarly jaunts!
September 18, 2023
A fascinating and entertaining read! The book is based off of lengthy and impressive research, culminating in hundreds of citations and notes. It is both of high scholarly value but also accessible and entertaining to the layman. It paints a vivid picture of Hicky's life in particular and of British India in the late 18th century in general. Otis portrays the events and characters without bias or condemnation, but as historical figures driven by their own particular personalities, interests, ideologies, and conditions of the time. Moreover, the themes touched upon - such as the rights of the people, the press, and the government - are still extremely relevant today. I recommend this book not only to anyone who enjoys reading about history, but to anyone who is likely to be moved by a human story of ambition, hardship, loss, and perseverance.
December 18, 2024
The stars are for the research put into this book, that alone gives the book credence and the brilliant knowledge it forwards to the readers. I had no idea the British in India were having such a riotous time. Plundering, making businesses and manipulating funds of enormous amounts their way. I guess sit makes sense. But the men in this book were also very good business men and very logical. It is a fantastic read of a history we should all read because it is not well-known and it has bearing on the other countries of the world as well. The famine, for example, that we thought only China had faced, in larger measure. Hicky was a brave and wise man and I am glad to have made his and the other men montioned's acquaintance.
March 10, 2020
A very well written and thoroughly researched book. It is set in the times of 1780s, early periods of East India Company rule in Calcutta when the British was not yet an empire on the Indian Subcontinent. It tells use the story of James Augustus Hickey and his first newspaper - Hickey's Bengal Gazette, his personal achievements and failures, mistakes and prejudices.
The story begins with the time Warren Hastings becomes The Governor General of Bengal upto the time he returns back to England to face an Impeachment Trial. It introduces interesting characters and churches I didn't know existed even upto today in Kolkata. It interestingly closes the stories of most notable characters introduced.
It was a very interesting read, it drew a picture of how my city was in 18th century. Before reading this book I never much pondered upon the role of press in modern society of the power of the newspaper and how important it was to a pre-digital society.
It also gives a rare perspective into the British side of the story. It was very interesting to note that there were elements within the British subalterns and the upper class that wanted the East India Company to trade fairly, treat natives of the Indian Sub-continent with respect and fairness and wanted to extent the laws and justice system of the Victorian England to Calcutta.
This is must read if you are interested in history and more so in the history of the city.
The story begins with the time Warren Hastings becomes The Governor General of Bengal upto the time he returns back to England to face an Impeachment Trial. It introduces interesting characters and churches I didn't know existed even upto today in Kolkata. It interestingly closes the stories of most notable characters introduced.
It was a very interesting read, it drew a picture of how my city was in 18th century. Before reading this book I never much pondered upon the role of press in modern society of the power of the newspaper and how important it was to a pre-digital society.
It also gives a rare perspective into the British side of the story. It was very interesting to note that there were elements within the British subalterns and the upper class that wanted the East India Company to trade fairly, treat natives of the Indian Sub-continent with respect and fairness and wanted to extent the laws and justice system of the Victorian England to Calcutta.
This is must read if you are interested in history and more so in the history of the city.
June 1, 2020
While I enjoyed the wild ride the story of Hicky, an Irishman who started the first newspaper in Bengal in the 18th century, it left me wanting more. Most of the book is concentrated on the tug of war between Hicky and two colonial powerful men: Warren Hastings and Keirnander.
It is a fascinating study of corruption and power in early colonial India. It made me want to read more about these three people's lives. But sadly, with the research limited to private letters and diaries from that era, the author could only do so much.
Compelling read though!
It is a fascinating study of corruption and power in early colonial India. It made me want to read more about these three people's lives. But sadly, with the research limited to private letters and diaries from that era, the author could only do so much.
Compelling read though!
February 5, 2019
Really good and well researched book. Gives insights into the political and management system of East India company of 18th century. Extensively covered the corruption of those times which was actually not surprising as we all know how much Britishers have looted India but thats what makes this book interesting, on how they were doing it. In other history books, we have only read about a broader view of facts about the money that was going out of the country, but here it is more detailed, like how corruption was happening in lower rank/dimensions and it also talks about how it was affecting the britishers who were employed at lower ranks which was actually surprising as most of us think that all the Britishers lives lavish life during their time in India. Life wasn't easy for them either then.
August 24, 2020
A historical retelling of the story of the publisher of India's first newspaper and the lesser known story of his trials and travails, recited in an engaging manner. Besides providing a deep insight into the politics of British rule in India, the book leads us to appreciate the life of a man who stood for the Freedom of Press in the face of opposition from the highest echelons of British authority in India.
May 28, 2021
Excellent book. Since my Graduation , We were first taught history of Indian Journalism and it is one of my favourite topics. Contribution of James Augustus Hickey and Bengal gazette in Indian Journalism is immense. Dr. Andrew Otis sir with so much of in depth research has indeed brought a beautiful work through this book. I personally have read this book and got deep insights and also gifted it for my friend and also recommend you for a beautiful reading.
January 4, 2025
This is an interesting history about a little known event of 1700s British India and print culture, but the chapters are very short which I find break up the flow and large chunks of the narrative focus on wider East India Company conquest of India without tying them directly to the machinations of Hicky and his paper. There is also a lack of analysis, this book feels like it is mostly narrative with no real explanation of why we should care.
April 6, 2025
Otis tells the compelling story of how Hicky took on the British East India Company and powerful figures like Warren Hastings, using his newspaper to expose corruption and injustice. The book reads like a mix of history and drama, full of ambition, rivalry, and resistance. It’s a great read for anyone interested in the early roots of journalism in India or the politics of colonial rule.
Highly recommended for history buffs and curious readers alike.
Highly recommended for history buffs and curious readers alike.
July 21, 2018
He is an example of the importance of standing for liberty and free speech.
He sacrificed everything to defend the freedom of the press.
He was the forum for subalterns.
He is one of the most underrated persons in modern Indian history.
He should be know for his legacy.
He is James Augustus Hicky.
And this is the story of Hicky's Bengal Gazette.
He sacrificed everything to defend the freedom of the press.
He was the forum for subalterns.
He is one of the most underrated persons in modern Indian history.
He should be know for his legacy.
He is James Augustus Hicky.
And this is the story of Hicky's Bengal Gazette.
April 14, 2023
The Bengal Gazette's conclusion, as well as the stories of Hicky and Hastings, led to an exciting surrealistic narration in the book. Hicky's life has an amazing pattern that reflects everything about life and the degree to which we are entangled in its never-ending cycle of drama. Perhaps that is something that history serves to remind us of... Kudos to the research!
April 29, 2025
A fantastic piece of research on the first newspaper of India. Besides, the book also pictures anecdotes from the world’s most violent corporation- the East India Company. Most interestingly, one would see that the roots of corporate corruption, or rather institutional corruption goes deep down the soils of history! A fantastic read for the reader with a knack for history.
April 2, 2019
interesting read about india's first newspaper and its maverick owner
June 15, 2021
The book takes you back to the pre independence era. Gives a glimpse of how Kolkata was. Nicely done.
November 16, 2024
Amazing book ,enjoyed every inch by reading it.
May 2, 2019
The book goes beyond the story of Hicks who started the newspaper. It talks about the British & European society in India at that time. Otis has also talked about the Indians sympathetically while being very candid about the basically corrupt and exploitative nature of the British occupation of India. In the middle of the book the pace falters a bit and gets into too much verbatim reproduction of letters and appeals. Adds to the bulk of the book but does not add much to the content & narrative.
February 22, 2026
3.5. I was hungry for more details and more layered storytelling. Potentially fascinating topic but I feel like the coverage was a bit too simplistic. Was it because the primary sources were patchy and insufficient? Possibly. And in some places, the overall language bothered me a little - not very elegant, with frequent repetitions and avoidable pleonasms. (Maybe that’s more on the editor than the writer.)
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