This year The Times of India, which began its career as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, completed 170 years of its existence. In 1988 the paper had celebrated its sesquicentennial with great flourish. But it crossed the latest milestone without as much as a mention of it in its columns. The marketing-savvy group thus missed a rare opportunity to flaunt the paper’s impeccable pedigree.
Public awareness of this pedigree is scant. No history of the paper, authorized or otherwise, has ever been published. The book under review therefore fills a gap in our understanding of a daily that occupied, and continues to occupy, a place of pride in Indian journalism. Its focus is Robert Knight, one of the founders of The Times of India and its first editor. His name hardly figures in the accounts of the British Raj in the latter half of the 19th century. Nor is it to be found in biographical dictionaries.
It is to the credit of the author, Edwin Hirschmann, Professor Emeritus of History at Towson University in the United States, that he spent several years searching for tidbits about Knight’s life and work in hitherto untapped letters, newspapers and archives. The result is a superb portrait of a man who used his managerial talents, editorial flair and intellectual gifts to set the highest standards of English journalism in India.
Knight reached Bombay at the age of 22 on October 8, 1847, armed with new ideas and values prevalent in an enlightened period of British history. For the first ten years of his stay he worked in many companies as an agent. But during this period he also wrote freelance articles on economics in the local press in Bombay.
Such was his reputation as a writer that when George Buist, editor of The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce proceeded on home leave, the proprietors appointed him as acting editor. Within days of his appointment Knight demonstrated his independence of mind writing sharp editorials against the official line on a host of issues. He campaigned in favour of establishing a true system of popular rights in India; sought large capital investments to extend the rail network and improve Bombay’s water supply; showed a keen interest in the construction of roads and irrigation facilities to speed up development in the rural areas; lambasted the perks of office enjoyed by British officials, their arrogant attitude towards Indians and their lack of interest in eradicating the country’s wretched poverty. Unlike his compatriots, he also refused to castigate the Indian people as a whole for the bloody uprising of 1857 even as he deplored the wanton spree of destruction and killings.
An alarmed Buist rushed back to Bombay, resumed charge of the paper and promptly reversed Knight’s editorial line. The proprietors, led by the Parsi Fardoonji Naoroji, urged him time and again to adopt a less strident pro-establishment policy only to meet with a blanket refusal. That is when they asked Knight to take over as editor.
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Throughout his editorship, which lasted until 1863, he continued to rail against the exploitative and bullying nature of British rule. Though he was a devout Christian himself, he was resolutely against the aggressive missionary effort to convert Indians through force and inducement. He disliked traditional Indian religious beliefs and practices and loathed the caste system. Yet he warned the British rulers not to use coercive methods to set right these wrongs.
On May 18, 1861, The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce merged with two other local publications and began to appear under a new title: The Times of India. The daily continued to flourish. As Hirschmann writes: “During his seven years as editor, he had built a vigorous, thoughtful and conscientious newspaper which had stirred Bombay and its governing authorities.”
After leaving The Times of India, Knight edited several publications, including The Statesman of Calcutta where he carried on crusading for his ideas. He ran afoul of British officialdom, especially when he began to express his sympathies for the rising nationalist sentiment in the country.
Edwin Hirschmann’s finely researched and elegantly written biography removes Robert Knight from obscurity and places him where he rightfully belongs: in the firmament of the greatest newspaper editors in India.
The reviewer is a former editor of The Times of India
ROBERT KNIGHT
REFORMING EDITOR IN VICTORIAN INDIA
Edwin Hirschmann
Oxford University Press
272 pages; Rs 795
