Great Indian Editors 4 | Dr. Mrinal
Chatterjee
Kristo Das
Pal: Champion of Chaste Journalism
In 1838, a son was born to
Ishwar Chandra Pal, a man of modest means, in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in Bengal
presidency (present day West Bengal), whose mastery over the English language
would invite praise even from colonial masters. This boy by the name of Kristo
Das Pal was to turn an ace journalist, editor, orator and bureaucrat. Twenty
two years time was enough for Kristo Pal to prove his mettle in the fields of
mass media, mass communication, legislation and public service.
After receiving an English
education at the Oriental Seminary and the Hindu Metropolitan College from Calcutta,
he devoted himself to journalism from an early age. A student of D L
Richardson, he acquired an admirable proficiency in English. In 1857, Kristo
Das Pal started the Calcutta Monthly
Magazine jointly with few friends, but it survived only for about six
months. He then contributed regularly to the newspapers such as Morning Chronicle, the Citizen, Phonix, and Harkaru, and
occasionally to the Englishman. When
the Central Star was started at
Cawnpore (now Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh), Kristo Das became its Calcutta
correspondent. He was next enrolled as a staff of the Hindu Intelligencer. He also wrote a series of articles to the
newspaper Hindoo Patriot on 1857
Sepoy Mutiny, which made its editor Hurish Chunder Mukerji think that Kristo
Das Pal “would be able to do much for his country, if God spared him”. Kristo
Das Pal wrote several pamphlets on such subjects as ‘Young Bengal Vindicated,’
‘The Mutinies and the People’ and ‘Indigo Cultivation.’ The first paper was
read at an anniversary meeting in commemoration of David Hare, and it was
printed and published for Hurro Chunder Ghose, a Judge of the Calcutta Small
Cause Court, to whom it was dedicated. The essay attracted much attention, and
was severely criticised by Meredith Townsend, in the Friend of India, in an
article entitled, ‘Vanitas Vanitatum.’ The Calcutta public was surprised, when
it was subsequently announced in the Calcutta Literacy Gazette that the author
of the essay was only a schoolboy.
This fame made Kristo Das’
childhood aspiration to work for the Hindoo
Patriot a reality. In 1860, he was appointed assistant secretary (and
afterwards secretary) to the British Indian Association. This weekly magazine
was transferred by a trust deed to some members of the British Indian
Association. Hurish Chunder Mukerji, the editor of the Hindoo Patriot died the following year; the paper and the chief
editorship was handed over to Kristo Das. Under the editorship of Kristo Das, the
newspaper grew in stature.
As a journalist, he came
more than once into conflict with the authorities. In 1866, Sir Cecil Beadon,
the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, replied publicly to certain remarks
made in the HPabout famine, and in 1874,
Sir George Campbell recorded in a minute
that the Hindoo Patriot was a paper
which cherished ‘ill-will towards government’, to which, of
course, Kristo Das sent a suitable reply. Critics say in later years, the paper
was looked upon with great favour by the authorities and they referred to it
always to ascertain native opinion. He edited the paper with conspicuous
ability for twenty three years. Not one to practise lopsided journalism, his
flair for accuracy and balance in news reporting won him praise from the
Europeans as well. Law member of the Viceroy's council Sir C P Ilbert remarked,
“Succeeding, at the age of some of the
graduates of today, to the management of some of the oldest organs of public
opinion in this country by the readiness and versatility of his pen, by the
patient industry which he displayed in mastering the details of the subjects with which he
undertook to deal, by the fairness, breadth, and moderation of his utterances,
he gradually and steadily advanced its (HPnewspaper)
reputation during his twenty-three years of editorship, and raised it from a
nearly moribund condition to the first place among native Indian journals.”
In 1879, he was made
Secretary of the Board of Bengal Landlords – the British Indian Association. As
editor of a widely read native newspaper of the day, and as Secretary to the
most important political association in Bengal, Kristo Das rose rapidly in
public office. He was appointed a Municipal Commissioner and a Justice of the
Peace in 1863. In 1872, he was nominated a member of the Legislative Council of
Bengal. The following year, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian
Empire, a rare distinction for an Indian during colonial rule. In 1883, he was
elected by the British Indian Association as its representative in the Imperial
Legislative Council, with the approval of the Viceroy. He was also a Fellow of
the Calcutta University. In all these different capacities, Kristo Das Pal
laboured hard to earn distinction. “However
keenly he may have felt, however vigorously or eloquently he may have defended
his own position in any matter, he could speak and write on the most burning
questions, with an amount of good temper, and fairness, and moderation which
was an example to all public men,” said Sir Richard Garth, late Chief
Justice of the High Court of Calcutta.
Despite rising to the top
most echelons in journalism and politics, he remained humble. After being
conferred the title of Rai Bahadur at the Imperial Assemblage, on the January
1, 1887, Kristo Das Pal was reluctant. Made light of the honourary title, he
had remarked, “May we ask what dire offence did we commit for which this
punishment was reserved for us? We have no ambition for titular distinctions.
If we had a voice in the matter, we would have craved the permission of our
kind and generous rulers to leave us alone!”
Domestic happiness,
however, eluded Rai Kristo Pal Das Bahadur. He was married in 1856 and had 2
children. In 1874, he married again after being widowed for two years. None of
his three children from both weddings survived. He died on the July 24, 1884,
reportedly of diabetes, leaving behind no bloodline but his legacy is etched in
India’s history. Among the numerous verbal obeisances paid to him, that of the
father of local self- governments in India – George Robinson - stand out.
Viceroy of India Lord Ripon had condoled, “By this melancholy event, we have
lost from among us a colleague of distinguished ability. Kristo Das Pal owed
the honourable position to which he had attained to his own exertions. His
intellectual attainments were of a high order, his rhetorical gifts were
acknowledged by all who heard him, and were enhanced when addressing this
council by his thorough mastery over the English language.” A full length
statue of him was unveiled by Lord Elgin at Calcutta in 1894. The emphasis on
presenting moderate views as an editor and sobriety of Kristo Das Pal’s
criticisms is a lesson for the present lot of in-vogue opinionated reporters,
and against propaganda journalism.
**
References:
1.
Ghosh, Nagendra Nath (1887),
Kristo Das Pal – A Study, S K Lahiri, Calcutta.
2.
Pillai, G Paramaswaran (1902), Representative Indians, Second Edition,
Reprint: Sahitya Academi, New Delhi, 2012
3.
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415485432/44.asp
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