Young India

October 8, 2023

If Gandhi were transported to modern times, he would be a blogger. For most of his life, he oversaw the publishing of small newspapers, usually eight pages, on a weekly or biweekly basis. He generally wrote several articles for each issue, which are captured in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Like bloggers today, comments and questions were submitted by his readers, and Gandhi would often dedicate a column to answering them and offering advice.

On October 8, 1919, the publication Young India began running as a weekly newspaper. M.K. Gandhi was listed on the masthead as the editor, managed under his “view that a newspaper ought to be conducted without advertisements.” He had accepted ads with his first paper, Indian Opinion, in South Africa. But after eight years, he discontinued the practice because “We believe that the system of advertisement is bad in itself, in that it sets up insidious competition, to which we are opposed.” I’m not sure what ‘insidious competition’ means, but it sounds nefarious!

Gandhi described the duty of Young India as “drawing attention to injustices to individuals.” To address those injustices, the paper would lay out the details of his social, cultural, and political reforms—the constructive program. Sometimes this included a call for civil resistance, especially around the Rowlatt Act, the offensive legislation that the British had enacted (over Indian objections) after World War One in the name of fighting terrorism.

Since the newspapers were used to talk about Gandhi’s activities, and Gandhi’s activities were frequently at odds with the British government, they were shut down on occasion. At one point while in prison, Gandhi was upset to learn the government had seized the printing presses and destroyed the records.

Still, like social media influencers today, the papers served a valuable purpose in allowing him communicate with the masses and explain the nuances of nonviolence. Young India was published until 1932; in 1933, in the aftermath of his Epic Fast, he started another paper, Harijan (“Children of God”), to offer commentary about discrimination and maltreatment against India’s so-called “untouchables.”

If you were going to start a newspaper to draw attention to an injustice in the world today, what topic would be your focus?