AN OUTLAW EDITOR IN THE ENDGAME OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE

Abstract

The career in India of the Fleet Street journalist F.W. Wilson as editor of The Pioneer (1928–29) is a fascinating episode in the endgame of empire. Catapulted into the editorship of this reactionary colonial newspaper by a British management anxious to rescue its waning fortunes, Wilson sought to widen its appeal beyond a colonial British readership by embracing an anti-government, campaigning agenda which would enlist Indian middle-class audiences. This paper assesses the evidence for Wilson's radicalisation of The Pioneer's editorial stance in the context of India's freedom struggle, and the extent to which new editorial methods and approaches were introduced. It explores Wilson's contacts with leading Indian politicians, his efforts to ‘Indianise’ the content of the paper, the success of this editorial strategy in attracting advertising and key episodes which brought about The Pioneer's outright conflict with the government of India and his removal as editor.

Keywords:

• India
• empire
• The Pioneer
• F.W. Wilson
• freedom struggle
• independence

Notes

1. Thanks to The Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) for the research grant ‘Women, Press & Protest in British and French India, 1928–48’; to RA Kate Allison; and to Macquarie University, Australia.

2. Wilson then worked for a number of Indian proprietors, including the Indian Daily Mail (Bombay) and The Hindu (Madras–Chennai)—an unusual development for an English journalist. He covered the two successive Round Table Conferences in London, before his early death from cancer in 1937. There is no evidence that he secured a post in any British newspaper on his return to London—some Indian sources allege that he was blacklisted (e.g. Rao 82).

3. For hegemony/counter hegemony, and the relevance of subaltern studies to French India, see Chapman ‘Counter-hegemony’.

4. For example, Kamala Nehru led the 1921 pickets of Allahabad cloth and liquor stores and several Nehru women were active in leading civil disobedience from 1928 onwards. On women and The Pioneer, see Chapman and Allison; Chapman (Gender, Citizenship, and Newspapers)

5. The minutes of the UP Chamber of Commerce state that British textile business had ground to a halt as a result of the boycott (Ed. Mitra).