On January 29, 1780, an Irishman named James Augustus Hicky published Hicky’s Bengal Gazette - the first newspaper in India and all of Asia. Hicky wasn’t a professional journalist but a printer who landed in jail for unpaid debts. Inside prison, he secretly smuggled printing tools and began printing documents for survival. Soon, he saw a gap - there was no local newspaper for Europeans living in Calcutta. That’s when Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was born.
The paper started with light news, satire, and public complaints, but soon turned bold - criticizing the East India Company and Governor General Warren Hastings for corruption and poor governance. It reported on local fires, civic problems, and even called for better infrastructure.
But the truth came at a cost. Powerful people sued him for libel, and he was thrown back into jail. Eventually, the paper shut down, but Hicky’s fearless voice lit the flame of Indian journalism.
His slogan, “Open to all, influenced by none,” still defines true journalism today.
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