Women, Press and Protest in British and French India, 1928-48.

Principal Investigator: Professor. Jane Chapman

Research Assistants : Kate Allison, Piers Clarke

Administrative Assistant: Rebecca Inkley

Tamil translator

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

Impact exhibition link
Press and Protest website - www.pressandprotest.com

Public PowerPoint Presentations

Talk on research process : A Tale of 2 Cities (PDF)

The Origins of a Public Voice For Marginalised Workers and Anti-Colonialism in French India, 1935-37 (MS PowerPoint 7Mb)

Press, Protest and Freedom Movements in British and French India 1928-48 - do subalterns speak? (PDF)

Summary

This project, running until 30 June 2011, studies the impact of women's economic and political protest on and through newspaper contributions, revealing two hidden aspects:

First women’s protest role in the forgotten French outpost of Pondicherry, the main centre of population amongst small scattered territories ruled by France from the 17th century to 1962.

Second the case of the collapse of The Pioneer newspaper (famous for employing Kipling), when advertisers withdrew their support due to pro-nationalist coverage of female boycotts. There is a touring exhibition of the project findings a website resource and content appears in a series of four articles and as part of a book entitled Gender, Citizenship and the Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), co-authored with Kate Lacey.

What's new?

The subject :

Although a lot has been written about British rule in India- the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Empire- historians are just beginning to  acknowledge the important role that women played in the nationalist cause, even though at the time Gandhi openly talked of the importance of female contributions. How those women, who led economic boycotts of British goods, used print communications, has never been specifically studied.

 This project takes a particular period (1929-32) in Lucknow and the United Provinces region, when protests were led by women from the Nehru family, and attempts to quantify the impact on the leading English language newspaper in the area- The Pioneer.  The project also rediscovers the forgotten and hidden history of Tamil speaking women in the French region of Pondicherry- a favourite tourist beauty spot today.

Awareness of French Indian territories :

France had colonial settlements in India right up to 1962. In the biggest city and area – Pondicherry - the nationalist movement was Tamil speaking and the area returned a communist deputy to the Paris Chamber of Deputies. According to his memoirs, indigenous women played an important part in the freedom movement. Political awareness of the need for colonial freedom first became a concrete phenomenon during three 2 year long textile strikes in French and European owned mills, and after the violent death of 12 pickets in 1936. Women picketed on a daily basis, and continued to be active in 1948 when government hired armed gangs of thugs roamed around villages, setting fire to houses in order to pressurise the local population not to support the nationalist cause. This project investigates ways that newspapers framed these issues and the way in which print communications were used by rebels.

Research methods :

The project uses economic history methodology to quantify the influence of female protesters. For The Pioneer newspaper, researchers are comparing the frequency and incidence of boycott editorial coverage with a decline in advertising revenue when advertisers withdrew their support following the conversion of the then British editor – F.W.Wilson – to the nationalist cause. Researchers are also looking for evidence of the influence of Nehru on Wilson’s thinking, as the two men were close friends. Finally, the project is measuring the amount of attention given to female protest in other newspapers.

Touring Exhibition and Media Publicity

www.pressandprotest.com/page5.htm

Press Articles, Radio and Video

Chandra Devudu talks to Prof Jane Chapman

Media’s hidden history revealed (pdf)

Freedom and the Fourth Estate (pdf)

Women’s use of newspapers, broomsticks and freedom movements to help collapse the French and British empires in India (pdf)

NDT coverage Indian Art Exhibition (pdf)

India: Past Present and Abroad (PressAndProtest.com)

Connecting India's rich history with contemporary life through art (The Macquarie Globe)

The findings of the project are being disseminated internationally during 2011 with a touring exhibition, displayed as blown up photos , pamphlets and newspaper articles. The exhibition has been launched in Australia, with the first venue at Macquarie University Media Centre (foyer of building Y3A), on 16 & 17 November 2010.

Second venue: Macquarie University public art gallery, 24 Jan - 18 Feb 2011, to be opened again at a launch event on 9 Feb. by the Indian Consul General.
http://twitpic.com/3i8ena

Third venue, Macquarie University library art gallery (2011-12, date tbc)

This exhibition presents two episodes in 20th century Indian history when newspapers expressed the emerging citizenship of protest by the freedom movement in India.

Press articles and leaflets - sometimes read out loud to a group of people then destroyed because of censorship, sometimes consumed individually- acted as the main vehicle for the public communication of ideas. Some journals were used as temporary acts of defiance to mobilise support for change. Nationalist leaders and activists also aimed for coverage of protest in the existing colonial newspapers in order to influence the climate of opinion in support for change. A variety of newspapers, despite sometimes only having small circulations, still became part of the changing economic and political landscape that they were reporting on. This exhibition focuses on two little known aspects of press and protest - one in Allahabad, United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) in British India, one in the French territory of Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu). The ancient and sacred city of Allahabad was the home town of the Nehru family and also the base until 1933 for a long established colonial daily - The Pioneer. In 1928 a new editor - F.W. Wilson - was appointed who sympathised with the cause of Indian independence. For a short while - until he was removed - Wilson gave emerging citizenship a small window of publicity.

This exhibition tells the story of that episode. French territories were ruled directly from Paris, with an unfair voting system and without basic civil liberties such as the right to form trade unions. Newspapers were heavily censored, but Tamil and French publications still acted as a means of either galvanising or opposing popular support first for textile strikers fighting for their wages and rights and then for calls for democracy and freedom. This is the story of how newspapers acted as a public voice for mass protest by ordinary people fighting to organise themselves as citizens.

Publications

Jane Chapman (Dec. 2010) 'The origins of a public voice for marginalised workers in French India, 1935-37' , Web Journal of French Media Studies (WJFMS), vol. 8 ISSN 1460-6550,
http://wjfms.ncl.ac.uk/enframes.htm

Jane Chapman (2011) ‘Counter-hegemony, newspapers and the origins of anti-colonialism in French India’, International Journal of Social Economics (Emerald),38 (2) (Jan).
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1901400&show=abstract

Jane Chapman & Kate Allison (2011), 'Women and the press in British India 1928-1934: a window for protest ?', International Journal of Social Economics (IJSE), 38, (8) July; .

Tulloch, J. and Chapman, J., ‘An outlaw editor in the endgame of the Indian Empire: F. W. Wilson’s radicalisation of The Pioneer 1928-29’, Media History special edition of the Journalism and History Sheffield conference papers, no 38 Aug.2012.

Chapter of a  monograph by Jane Chapman and Kate Lacey (2012) Gender, Citizenship and the Media: Historical and Transnational Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan

Titles of Presentations, organisations and venues

2009: 'Women, press and the relationship between economics and ideological change in French and British India 1928-48', University of Lincoln

2010: 'The origins of a public voice for marginalised workers and anti-colonialism in French India, 1935-37', FRENCH MEDIA RESEARCH GROUP, Nottingham University

2010: 'F.W. Wilson: renegade colonial newspaper editor or Indian nationalist hero?' JOURNALISM and HISTORY, Sheffield University

2010: 'Press, Protest and Freedom Movements in British and French India 1928-48 - do subalterns speak?' MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY, Australia

2011, 9 Feb. launch event public talk for official opening of exhibition by the Indian Consul General.

2011, 16 Feb. ' India’s Secret Heritage - a Tale of Two Cities' - Public talk, Macquarie University Art Gallery, SYDNEY.
DOWNLOAD POSTER HERE (PDF)
'DOWNLOAD INVITE HERE (PDF)

Links

http://www.artgallery.mq.edu.au/about/exhibitions/#current__2011__24012011-18022011

http://www.pressandprotest.com 

http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/mht/research-mh/journalism/esrc_women_co.htm 

http://www.modhist.mq.edu.au

http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/cmh/news.php 

http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/cmh/events.php

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/index.aspx

Dr.Jane Chapman, (Profile)

Professor of Communications,