what were the two features of the early English language press in India?
Answers
Answer:
1) The English language was easy.
Answer:
Indian press during the Raj was, on the whole, an aggregation of vernacular reads which did little to unite castes and national interests. The first English language newspaper in India was James Hickey’s Bengal Gazette which was launched in 1780. In less than half a century thereon, India saw many news publications setting shop in major cities. Some English newspapers of those days, established by Englishmen like Knight, broke with the press of the British Raj in criticizing the high-handedness of the bureaucracy in India, the disrespectful manner in which Indian culture was documented in school books, the tax system etc, and also spoke out against the biases in reporting on Indian uprisings. Many freedom fighters and social reformers of the time had newspapers to their credit, each pushing for a cause and making a case. Simultaneous was the rise of regional language newspapers (vernacular press).
English newspapers, their ownership now having passed into the hands of solely Indian shareholders, are mostly concentrated in big cities and major towns. This is because of the limited penetration of English into rural areas. Regional language press is more popular in these areas because of the publication and popularity of local news, sponsors who see opportunity in advertising their products to niche consumers and the promotion of regional press by the State Governments by injecting finance into it
English language newspapers are mainly urban national dailies with countrywide circulation and multiple editions and have bigger financiers and sponsors. They are used as a medium of instruction in the English language by those keen to learn, though a lack of proofreaders has brought down their grammatical quality.
Better purchasing power in urban areas reduces the ratio of newspaper to person and hence helps in better visibility for advertisements. Many a frontpage is a full page ad. Unscrutinised advertisements for fronts for shady unlawful practices in the classified ads section has not left the English press untouched either
The Birlas, the Tatas, the Goenkas, the IPL franchisee Deccan Chargers and many others run national English dailies. Unbiased reporting and analysis without selective screening can be prohibitive to their self interests. Business interests depend on the legislation of the land which depends on bureaucrats and Parliamentarians. In case of a nexus between the three, or any two of them, reporting can go askew. Paid news and smear campaigns, even masked as advertisements, have gained notoriety in national dailies that claim superior reliability. While collaborations between Indian English newspapers and those from foreign shores, to bring out business and political news, help create a global culture with free flowing information, there is a strong chance of vested interests getting highlighted and others being ignored. A willful error of omission can lead to a huge sway in public opinion and market confidence. Whether companies go bullish or bearish can often depend on the way their prospects are projected in reporting. Competition between newspaper giants can keep such overarching biases in check as each newspaper house/business house is equally interested in exposing the excesses of their rivals. The emphasis is on being the first to break the news. In this hurry, sometimes even unconfirmed reports go to print, scandalising the news. In a bid to drive up circulation, newspapers force “school edition” subscriptions on school children through aggressive salesmanship tactics and a commission-based relationship with schools.
Many English national newspaper giants have current affairs magazines of their own. Public confidence in these magazines in high. .
While newspapers aim to condition minds in a certain way, they also, at times, ride on popular sentiment leading to contradictory stands. For example, Aman Ki Asha is a great cultural endeavour by The Times of India to foster peaceful Indo-Pak ties. The same newspaper went berserk with overenthusiastic “patriotism” during the recent cricket World Cup match-up between the two countries. Such writing can rustle up hostilities in a country where murders are committed over a lost match. English language newspapers have gained such a size, The final edition is an assemblage from various units. It is no surprise that the tone of the main newspaper should be different from that of the supplements.
The irony is that the very finances that enable the English press to gather information worldwide and keep urbanites connected globally, come at the cost of strategy-based advertisements designed to make the reader feel inadequate without a life of excessive luxury.