Impact of Vernacular Press for the cause of Nationalism in India

Communication was an important factor that integrate the structure of awareness about the social, economic, religious and cultural features of a nation and its people and the same has been experienced by the Indians during 19th and 20th centuries, with the nuisance of restrictions on the press initially during 1823 followed by an enactment of it strictly in 1878 through an act of Vernacular Press, which ultimately made them to realize, react and follow the concept of national integration and transformation of ideas of nationalism that indirectly paved the way for uprising their voices with the in-filter seeds of nationalism to obtain independence. It was a real catalyst for the consciousness at regional as well as national level perspectives, hence the fellowmen built-in themselves the search of interest among the leaders as well as the common man to put forward their views against the works of British Raj. The present paper is an attempt to visualize the impact of Vernacular press for the cause of nationalism in India even though several restrictions were imposed by the government, as many people called it ‘Gagging Act', hence people tried to strangulate the voice of press and large scale protests were campaigned against this act as it literally made the Indians anti-British which could be viewed in several activities which ultimately lead to the prospects of India's independence with integrity in diversity. The paper also attempts to analyses the impact of Vernacular press in different angles i.e., socio-economic, cultural, religious and political point of view through the basic character of Indian society and its reaction towards national importance at that point of time.