I published a guest blog with the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS).
Why This Book About India’s First English Newspaper Is Relevant Now
Fathima Abdul Kader of Homegrown, a popular youth magazine, interviewed me. Read it below or click the link to read it in its original form.
Social media has killed the newspaper: Author Andrew Otis talks about India’s first newspaper and more
Jhinuk Sen of PC Mag interviewed me. Read it below or click the link to read it in its original form.
The Saga of India’s First Newspaper
Akshay Chavan of Live History India reviewed my book and interviewed me (apologies for the low quality copy-original in the link).
Viewpoint: What India’s first newspaper says about democracy
An op-ed I wrote for the BBC (apologies for the low quality copy-original in the link).
Review: Hicky’s Bengal Gazette; The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper by Andrew Otis
Paramita Ghosh of the Hindustan Times reviewed my book in their September 1 paper (page 8).
Review of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper in Ei Somoy
Ei Somoy reviewed my book in their August 25 paper (page 8).
An Unlikely Champion of Press Freedom
I wrote an op-ed for Reader’s Digest which was featured in their August edition.
Review of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper by Andrew Otis
The Asian Review of Books reviewed my book.
Review: Pioneer who printed from prison
R. Prasannan of The Week reviewed my book.
American Researcher Explores the life and times of ‘the father of the Indian newspaper’
UNI, the Indian equivalent of the Associated Press, interviewed me at the American Center, Kolkata.
Review: Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper: Winds of freedom
The The Hindu has reviewed my book. ‘Did freedom of the press triumph? For that you must turn to Otis’s book, as he sketches a riveting tale of the struggle of India’s first newspaper editor.’ – The Hindu
Review: India’s First Free Press Battles
A wonderful review of my book in the Business Standard, by Devangshu Datta.
Review: An old twisted tale of press freedom
Business Standard newspaper published a glowing review of my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
Review of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette
G. Krishnan of India Today published a review of my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
India’s First Newspaper and its Anti-imperialist Exposés
The Sunday Guardian published an excerpt from the prologue of my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
Asia’s first journalist Hicky’s tradition still alive: Author
The Times of India interviewed me about my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
Official Book Launch June 21
With Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee at the Bengal Club
Featured in Mathrubhumi
Mathrubhumi, the second most widely read newspaper daily in Kerala, published an article on my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
India’s first newspaper covered corruption and scandal (and sexual practices) fearlessly
I published an op-ed in Scroll.in about James Augustus Hicky and the importance of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette.
How India’s first newspaper exposed the corrupt British East India Company
Quartz India interviewed me about my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
A fine retelling of the story of James Augustus Hicky attempts, yet again, to rehabilitate the “scurrilous, wild Irishman”
My book was reviewed in the Indian Express.
Here’s how India’s first newspaper was launched
My book was featured in Indian Today.
Featured in Jet Airways In-Flight Magazine
The Statesman Recommends Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper
When the Founder of India’s First Newspaper Refused to Surrender His Right to Print
The Wire published an excerpt of my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
Hindustan Times Picks
Hindustan Times, a Indian daily newspaper, selected my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper as one of their top picks.
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: Read an excerpt from a book on India’s first newspaper, the people it featured
FirstPost published an excerpt of my book Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
The Story of the first Indian Newspaper
I published an article (link) in the Mumbai Mirror, a leading Indian daily newspaper about my book, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper.
Syndicated in the Bangalore Mirror, the Pune Mirror and the Ahmedabad Mirror.
What did Hicky do after his newspaper?
Hicky was a journalist for only two years, before Governor General Warren Hastings and the Supreme Court of Bengal shut down his newspaper.
Two years is a short time. So what did Hicky do after his newspaper?
He spent the years from 1781 to 1784 in jail. Unable to pay his debts (at this time in history, prisoners had to pay for their own food and lodging in jail, leading to a vicious cycle of debt and a lifetime in prison) Hicky had no hopes of freedom.
On Christmas 1784, as one of his last acts just a month before he resigned his post as Governor General of India, Warren Hastings freed Hicky from jail. Now that the Governor General was leaving, he had nothing left to fear, should Hicky restart his newspaper.
Hicky did not restart his newspaper. He couldn’t even if he wanted to. In March 1782 – after Hicky had been in jail for nine months but was still printing his Bengal Gazette — the Supreme Court ordered the Sheriff of Calcutta to seize Hicky’s types and printing press. These were then sold at auction to, out of all people, his hated pro government rival newspaper, the India Gazette.
What Hicky did in his later years has been an enduring mystery to me, and one that I expended every effort to find out. I have followed every lead, dug deep into every archive, and searched for materials that have been lost for centuries. But I am no closer to finding out than I was when I started this project in August 2011.
All I know are the bare facts that: 1. Hicky was listed as “Dr. J.A. Hicky” in the Bengal Directory, the yellow pages of old Calcutta. 2. He had in his possession when he died large quantities of liquor and Chinese porcelain, so he was either an alcoholic or trading on the side. 3. He died on a ship going to Canton, China, backing up point two.
In 1792 Hicky posted an advertisement in the India Gazette (The same India Gazette as before, but under different management I know this because there are government records over the payment of an advertisement Hicky placed in the India Gazette. Why did he advertise? What was he advertising for? Could this be the key to unlock what Hicky was doing for the twenty years after his newspaper? Could it lead to more discoveries?
I don’t think I will ever find out. Other leads like this have also had dead ends. There are no surviving copies of the India Gazette for 1792 (that I know of). It’s another mystery that I think will never be solved.