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POLITICS I ECONOMY I EXITRNAL AFFAIRS I SECURITY I LAW I SCltNC[ I SOCl£TY I CULTURE I OPINION I VID£0S IIINDI I UR

When the Founder of India's First Newspaper Refused to

Surrender His Right to Print
James August us Hicky saw himself as th e scourge of tyrants, the defender of free speech and the protector of the people.

•
J.FI 7 Cy K T's
BENGAL GAZE.TTEi •

OR 'fHE ORIGIN.AL

C,1/cutta General Advertifer.

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l\'ight's Assassins
Andrew Otis
Ivfr Hicky asks no favours ofthe Great ... he Laughs at their impotence, and promises the
delinq11ents ample retaliation through the Channel of his Press.
- James Augustus !I icky, Hicky'.s Bengal Gazette, April 14, 178 l.
530
Between Two and Three o'clock Thursday n1orning, April 5, Calcuttn
0 Hicky woke with a sl.arL, and stun1bled over to his bedroom window. He peered into the
0 blackness, bleary eyed and confused.

CD IIe heard yells and screams from below.

0 • [What is] the cause of so much noise?' he opened his window and ye lled.
@) He saw figures nmning in the dark. Three men were trying to break into his house. ]\vo were
Europeans and had t:ul open Lhtl rope thal beld his bat:k gale shut with t:urve<l knives.

He rushed downstairs. But the n1en bad fled before he 1nade it down.

He asked bis servants who these people were.

They said one was Frederick Charles, the owner of a public house in the city, and tvlessiuk"s
assistant at the theatre.

Hicky had bad blood with Charles. When he had practised medicine in his first years in
Calcutta, Charles had once refused to pay for a surgery he performed. He had to sue Chad es
to get. bis money back.

Hicky pondered for a second. \Vhy would these people break into his house deep in the
night? \Vhy would they wish to attack him?

Then, everything came together like p ieces of a puzzle.

Behind Charles, he saw lvfessink. And behind Messink, he saw Hastings.

He was convinced it was an assassination attempt. Or, if not, at least a threat to silence him.
He feared another attempt on his Life, so be hired sepoys to guru·d his home and told bis
servanls nol t.o lel anyone in without his express pennission.

The warning might have scared some men, but it made him bold. If it was a warning to
silence him, then he would do just the opposite. He was not intiln idated. He would fight till
every 1nuscle in his body failed hi1n rather than surrender his right to print. He becan1e
convinced he needed to wake the consciousness of the people and show them the tyranny
they lived under.

H /<,'KT' s
- - Ile saw himself as the scou·rge of 1yrants, the
defender of free speech, and the protector of the
BENGAL GAZETTE, people. He saw himself as the only remaining
1Ja <J'H• O lt lO l pl,1.t,

Co!c11lto General Advertifer. hope against conuption and oppression. In a

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overturned and where the people lived in

j slavery. he believed that someone like him,
someone with a free Press, n1ight restore the
people's rights and redeem their freedoms .

Reflections in Consequence of the late

atten1pt tnade to Assassinate the Printer of
the Original Bengal Gazette.

~ -' '"~ THE UNTOLD STORY OF Mr Hicky vcrily helicves that fate decreed that
l ' I N DIA'S FIRST he should come out to India lo be a Scourge to
Tyrannical Villains, and upstart Schc1ncrs ... Mr
1 NEWSPAPER Hicky is determined to go on and persevere .. .
unawed by the frowns of arbitrary Tyrants in
ANDREW O TI S power (f\.len who wou 'd sell their sou ls as well
as the Country's interest for Rupees) .. .
Andrew O tis
llicky~ /Jtmgn/ G":,rr,· The Un10/d S101y of
He is resolved to defend his Person in those
ltulia :~ Fir,\ / Nrwsptl/Jer
WesLlaod, May 2018 attacks until every Muscle and Sinew in his
Body fails bim, and sbou'd be be doom'd to fall
a Victim to satiate the Malice of unprincipled
Plunderers in power ... tvfr Hicky will fall contentedly, considering himself as a Ma,tyr in
Support of the property of his Counlry1uen, and in the support of tbe Liberty of the Press ...

~1r Hicky considers the Liberty of the Press, to be essential to the very existence of an
Englishman, and a free Government.

The Subject should have full Liberty to declare his principles, and opinions, and every act
which tend~ to coerce that Liberty is Tyrannical anu i.njuriou~ to the Co1nmunity. - The Pre~s
is the Medium through which opinions are dissen1inated amongst the People, (Vox Populi,
Vox Dei) the voice of the People is the voice of God - It is the constitutional Censor and
controller of Princes, the accuser of bad Ministers; and the 111ost efficacious :tviachinc to
protect and shield the Subject from Tyranny and Despotism.

The Liberty of the Press is of such infinite consequence, that if the constitution was
overhtroed, and the people involved in an abject State of Slavery, a Man of Spirit with a Free
Prc~s might ~oon restore the one, and redeem the other, anu wilhout it the bravest Peoplt: on
Earth, cannot long preserve their rights and Liberties.

Over the next few weeks Hicky' writing grew hotter, just like the weather. Ile was no longer
just going to point out despotism, he was going to call people to fight it. His next articles
were his rnost extreme.

Two editions later, be published an article from so1neoue written under the pseudonym,
Cassius. Cassius told the Company's troops that they should think twice hefore fighting for
Hastings, claiming that Hastings nlled as if he were a king, and had no qualms about
sacrificing their throats for his drea1ns of conquest. Cassius reminded the soldiers that their
ultimate loyalty should be to the British people. not to this 'Great Mogul', and that if
Hastings disobeyed the Company's directors, then they should have no reason to obey
ITastings.

HICK r•s
BENGAL GAZETTE;
O JI. '1 # 4 OltlGJNJ L

C11/c11/f 11 General Ad vertifc r.

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The front page of Hidry s Bengal Gn-:eue April 28, 1781

Courtesy: University of Heidelberg

Even Cassius' pseudonym was strategic. Cassius was the Roman seuator who led a plot to
kill Julius Caesar and restore the Roman Republic. The name itself was a warning: beware of
those who wish io become Emperors. Cassius's connection between Ancient Rome aud
Bengal was none too subtle. And his lesson was clear: rise up an d overthrow Hastings before
it was too late.

A hint al II distance to the Proprietors of India Stock.

Most seriously is to be apprebettded, that the Great Mogul's inattention to the immediate and
positive orders of the Divan, will be productive of very fa tal conseq\1ences to 1his Tottering
Empire ... As he throws off his subordination to [the Directors]. it n1ust be expected that
Officers of Abilities who are placed in independent Commands, will if they find it for their
purpose, hold themselves no longer answerable to a Government that he conducts as tho' it
was his by inheritance .. . Beware of a combination of the tendency of Lepidus, with
Anthony, and Octavius, think o f th eir proscription, and reflect tbat you have all of you
Connections in this Country. that are 1nore or less dear to you. whose throats are perhaps
devoted to the w ild Chimeras of a Nladman.

Cassius

The article brought Hicky to the edge of sedition. It suggested that the army mutiny and
uiaybc cveu carry out a coup. It claiu1cd that Hastings had forfeited the right to rule because
he put soldiers' lives at risk for drean1s of conquest, sacrificing their throats to the 'wild
Chin1cras ofa Madman' .

Hicky had changed his role from being an advocate to a provocateur. His ca ll for officers to
question their loyalty was dangerous. The Company anny had not always been not the n1ost
loyal institution. It had a history of mutiny, such as in 1764 when a European mutiny sparked
a second sepoy mutiny that was only shut down by blowing the ringleaders fron1 cam1ons.
Just n1onths ago, the sepoys at Visakhapatnam rioted rather than get on boats to join the war
at Madras.

Hicky added another spark to the mix. His newspaper was a sounding board for the army's
subalten1s, lelling them and their comrades express their opinions. E1nboldcned by ideals of
life, liberty, and equality, subalterns could use his newspaper to sound out a coup. A coup
could end Hastings' career, and possibly his life, in a single stroke. These were the risks
Hastings faced if Ricky continued printing.

111article after article, (-1icky's contributors rook on tones reminiscent of revolution. They
proposed that lhe people should stand up for their rights, especially the right lO free speech.
'There's nothing n1ore sacred .. . than the liberty of the Press, I am persuaded that tv1illions
would become as i'vlartyrs at its Altars, the defence of it is a Cause of Glory,' one wrote. 'The
1neanest Subject of England ... is as n1uch Protected in his Life. Liberty and property. as the
greatest,' another wrote.458 'Priviledges are not to be invaded nor [the people's] Liberties
torn froiu the1n , without a noble Struggle and patriotic Opposition,• a third wrote .

Yet, these articles only talked about revolt as an abstract concept.

One of Hicky's writers was about to propose actual revolution. His writer, pseudonymed
Brilannicus, claimed that if the Company taxed the people without their consent then not
on ly did the people have the right to fight back, they should fight back. If they bad no otl1er
options, then at least they had revolt.

Britannicus cla imed that tJ1e rights of British subjects, upheld by cent11ries of common Jaw
and documents like the Magna Carta, were being violated. In Bengal, Britannicus claimed,
the people paid taxes but had no rights. They bad no Parliament. They had no independent
Judiciary. They had only Hastings.

And, they had only one answer: revolution.

To the Inhabitants of Bengal, Counti·ymen and Friends ...

I w ill not wrong either your Unders tandings or your feelings, hy supposing you ignorant of,
or insensible to, the oppression which now prevails; but I wish to inspire you with son1ethiug
more-to expose to you the weakness and inferiority of your opp ressors. To lay hefore you
your own comparative greatness, and to display to you your Power ...

This then is the original compact viz. Thal Governmeot shall consul! the welfare of the
People; and that the People shall obey Goverrunent on that condition. \Vhen tbat condition is
neglected or violated, tbe People are no longer bound to obey.

We have seen, and God forbid that it should be otherwise, that the People can and 1nay assert
and defend their liberties when directly invaded .. . The Spirit of the Constitution requires a
ti.111 and fair representation of the People; on that. and that alone. depends the right of
Taxation; if then the People are unfairly or imp erfectly represented. or not represented at all.,
Lhal Right falls lo lhe Ground ...

If the Spirit of Magna Cha1ta is not quite Extinct [the peop le] will receive fi.111 Redress: but if
La,v and Justice are annihilated- If the British Constit11tion is destroyed from its
Foundation- If Liberty is irrecoverably lost-Every Englishman should join in the
Sentiment of Cato, Indifferenr is my Choice to live or die.

Britannicus.

'lnd(fferent is my Choice to live or die, '- Hicky's contributor reminded the public of the last
words of Cato, the Roman senator who had. fought for the Republic and fell on his sword
rather than submitting to Caesar.46 1 The implication was clear: they, too, should fi ght for
freedom. For if they did not, it would uot 111atter whether they lived or died. All was the same
under tyTanny.

It was no longer about revolt against the idea o f oppression in some distant place, it was
aboul revoll bere, now, at this very moment, against Hastings.

Excerpted with permissionji·om Hicky's Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India's First
Newspaper by Andreiv Otis, published by ~Vest/and, May 2018.

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