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Posted at: Jui 22 2018 11 :06PM

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American Researcher explores the life and times of 'the

father of the Indian newspaper'
Kolkata, Jul22(UNI) Had it not been for a failed business venture and debts that got James
Augustus Ricky incarcerated, 'the father of the Indian newspaper' wouldn't have thought of
publishing Bengal Gazette, also the first English newspaper.
These and many more interesting revelations are made by Andrew Otis, a former Fulbright
JAKARTA, INDONESIA, AUG 26 (UNI):-
Fellow, in his book 'Ricky's Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India's First Newspaper' that
Badminton: India's Star Shuttler Saina Neh
traces the journey of the first 'printed newspaper of Asia' from its conception to its final days. becomes first Indian woman to win a
Talking to an audience at the American Centre, Kolkata, recently, Otis said, "James Hickey was
bankrupt and needed something that could rescue him from the situation. This is when he
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decided to utilise the experience he had earned working as an apprentice at the age of 13 at a
printing press." UNIVARTA (News Agency)
"While money was the prime motive behind Bengal Gazette, another was revenge. Ricky wanted Indian News Agency
to take revenge on several people, who had in some way challenged him or harmed him," Otis,
who has written the book after five years of extensive research said. "Interestingly, one of them UNI-Urdu Service(News Agency)
Indian News Agency
was Warren Hastings, the the first governor general of British India,"he added.
According to Otis, Ricky employed people ( all white) to collect and write news, which was Newswrap
obvious as his target audience was the European community in Calcutta. Being the only
newspaper, there was no deaith of adve1tisements, but he filled his columns with gossip stories Newswrap1
and made fun of the rich and powerful. As there were no guidelines to regulate what he could
write and what he couldn't, he flayed the East India Company for it's corruption and failures.
Ricky's vitriolic colums were not taken too kindly by the East India Company, and a rival
newspaper managed to gain the government's patronage and challenged Hicky's and his
newspaper's existence.
'Indian Gazette' apparently did not indulge in criticism of the East India Company's governance,
exactly what Hastings would have wanted to counter Ricky's continuous onsluaght. Indian
Gazette was allowed circulation through Post Office free of postage, while a comt order banned
the delivery of Bengal Gazette through Post Offices.
Following this, Ricky decided to take on Hastings, Otis said. On many occasions he pointed out
how nepotism was used in securing lucrative contracts, and doing so he openly meddlled with
Wai-ren Hastings, whose friend Elijah Impey had secured a lucrative contract.
"After battle of Plassey in 1757, the British wanted to extract as much money as possible. Ricky
talked about Clive forging documents and taking over Bengal by fraud. Twenty years later
another man named Raja Nanda Kumar was executed for allegedly forging documents. Hickey
pointed out the glaring disparity between the way the government treated the British and the
natives,"Otis said.
"While Clive was treated as war hero in England, a victory that was acbieved by treache1y and
forged contracts than military prowess, Nanda Kumm· a native was hanged for the same
irregularity, Ricky had written in his weekly,"Otis said.
"When a militaiy commander sabotaged his printing contracts, he wrote about the concubines of
the commander. A missionary cancelled his contract, so he wrote against the missionary," Otis
said, adding,"He was a man of temper and 'a wild Irish' whose actions were governed more by
anger than by wisdom."
An angry Hastings finally seized and closed Ricky's press, two years after its birth in 1782, and
arrested him.
While most writings in India, often project Ricky as a journalist who dared to speak against the
rich and the powerful, Otis sees him as a man who did most of it out of malice and revenge.
A PhD student of Jomnalism at the University of Maiyland, in the U.S, Otis, calls his book 'a
piece of journalism'. He was inspired to write the book when he stumbled upon the memoirs of
Ricky's lawyer--- William Ricky, in a library in US while reseai·ching on another topic."I found
this man's character extremely interesting, and decided to find more about him and his
newspaper," Otis revealed.
While Ricky was released from jail later, he could never get his newspaper business nmning. "He
probably died in his sixties on his way to China in a ship," Otis said.
'Ricky's Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India's First Newspaper' is available on all major
book stores and e-commerce platforms.
UNI AND