7.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

From the early nineteenth century, as you know, there were intense debates around
religious issues. Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different
ways, and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. Some criticised
existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the arguments of reformers. These
debates were carried out in public and in print. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new
ideas, but they shaped the nature of the debate. A wider public could now participate in these public
discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions

This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the
Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and
idolatry. In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a variety of
arguments. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of
ordinary people. Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy
commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. From 1822, two Persian newspapers
were published, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the
Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.

In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties.
They feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion, change the Muslim personal laws. To
counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy
scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867,
published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in
their everyday lives, and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines. All through the nineteenth
century, a number of Muslim sects and seminaries appeared, each with a different interpretation of
faith, each keen on enlarging its following and countering the influence of its opponents. Urdu print
helped them conduct these battles in public.

Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the
vernacular languages. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century
text, came out from Calcutta in 1810. By the mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded
north Indian markets. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar
Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars. In their printed and portable form,
these could be read easily by the faithful at any place and time. They could also be read out to large
groups of illiterate men and women.

Religious texts, therefore, reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging discussions,
debates, and controversies within and among different religions.

Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities,
but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news
from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.

SorceD....................................................................................................................................

Why Newspapers?

‘Krishnaji Trimbuck Ranade inhabitant of Poona intends to publish a Newspaper in the

Marathi Language with a view of affording useful information on every topic of local interest.
It will be open for free discussion on subjects of general utility, scientific investigation and the
speculations connected with the antiquities, statistics, curiosities, history and geography of
the country and of the Deccan especially… the patronage and support of all interested in the
diffusion of knowledge and Welfare of the People is earnestly solicited.’

Bombay Telegraph and Courier, 6 January 1849

‘The task of the native newspapers and political associations is identical to the role of the
Opposition in the House of Commons in Parliament in England. That is of critically examining
government policy to suggest improvements, by removing those parts that will not be to the
benefit of the people, and also by ensuring speedy implementation.

These associations ought to carefully study the particular issues, gather diverse relevant
information on the nation as well as on what are the possible and desirable improvements,
and this will surely earn it considerable influence.’

Native Opinion, 3 April 1870.

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8. New Forms of Publication

Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing. As more and more people could now
read, they wanted to see their own lives, experiences, emotions and relationships reflected in what they
read. The novel, a literary firm which had developed in Europe, ideally catered to this need. It soon
acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles. For readers, it opened up new worlds of experience, and
gave a vivid sense of the diversity of human lives.

Other new literary forms also entered the world of reading–lyrics, short stories, essays about
social and political matters. In different ways, they reinforced the new emphasis on human lives and
intimate feelings, about the political and social rules that shapedsuch things.

By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape. With the setting
up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple
copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Poor wood engravers who
made woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and were employed by print shops. Cheap prints
and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of
their homes or places of work. These prints began shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition,
religion and politics, and society and culture.

By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers,
commenting on social and political issues. Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians’ fascination
with Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change. There were imperial
caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule.