CU LT URE

BOOKS | KARTHIK SHANKAR

Feud for Bengal Gazette remains a compelling read 

all the way through to its elegiac conclusion.
The book opens with the death of Hicky

thought on a ship sailing to Canton (Guangzhou), 
after which it traces his arrival in Calcutta 
and lays out the state of affairs in a country 
increasingly encumbered with warfare and 
A rebellious Irish adventurer’s personal vendetta occupation by the East India Company.
Hicky’s relationship with the company 
against the powerful East India Company sealed was initially amenable. As one of few printers 
the fate of Asia’s first newspaper. in Calcutta, he was approached to print 
new standardised regulations intended to 
curb corruption in the army. However, when 
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette the company’s red tape left him in the lurch, 
by Andrew Otis he set his sights on the news business.
Westland  When Hicky launched the Bengal Gazette, Europeans 
★★★★★ on the subcontinent received their international news from  without representation. The newspaper also criticised the 
newspapers delivered by ship several months after they were  army’s promotion system and spoke of soldiers’ miserable 

H
icky’s Bengal Gazette meticu­ published. At a time of ubiquitous British warfare, news­ conditions while their superiors lived in luxury. Also targeted 
lously chronicles the swift papers were vital for deciding trade routes and learning of  by Hicky was the Sadr Diwani Adalat, a court system that 
rise and precipitous decline casualties in battles. Hicky’s newspaper was, unsurprisingly,  rendered the Supreme Court obsolete and allowed Hastings 
of the first newspaper to be printed in  aimed squarely at the British, having arrived more than half a  to tighten his grip on the justice system.
Asia. James Augustus Hicky, a temer­ century before the English Education Act of 1835 would  The Bengal Gazette devoted much space to Indians, 
arious Irishman looking to make his  spread the English language among the Indian masses.  particularly those who were marginalised and destitute. 
fortune in India, began printing the Bengal Gazette in  Hicky initially tried to avoid controversy, promising not to While Hicky does not seem to have counted on Indians’ 
Calcutta (now Kolkata) on January 29, 1780. But just over a  publish anything that could “convey the smallest offence to  facility for reason and enlightenment, his sympathy for them 
year later, he was charged with three counts of libel against  any single individual”. The Bengal Gazette was a community  still stood in contrast to the attitudes of most of his peers.
Warren Hastings, the governor­general of India and the most  bulletin board and featured innocuous calls for better roads  The paper went from supporting British conquests to 
powerful Englishman in the country, leading to legal dramas  and infrastructure. As its subscriber base widened and it  extolling the virtues of American revolutionaries. Hicky 
that finally closed the paper on March 23, 1782. began influencing bureaucratic decisions, Hicky became  called on the Indian public to revolt and stopped just short of 
At a time when massive fortunes could be amassed  more brazen and his vendetta against the company’s moral  encouraging the army to carry out a coup against Hastings. 
through obedience to the East India Company, Hicky’s  failings more intense.  After the company’s takeover of Benares (modern­day 
decidedly undiplomatic mission of exposing the corruption  For Hicky, the paper was both a public duty and a vehicle Varanasi), Hicky’s correspondents supported the rebellion by 
and imperialist obsessions that underlined the company’s  with which to exact vengeance on the people who had stood  Raja Chait Singh. Following the Battle of Pollilur, which led to 
agenda was subversive.  in his way. One of these was clergyman Johann Zacharias  the Bengal Gazette accusing the company army of fighting a 
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette – the non­fiction debut by scholar Kiernander, who refused to take on Hicky’s printing services  pointless war, Hicky praised Hyder Ali, the sultan of Mysore, 
Andrew Otis – is weighty material, given that various facets of  and whose almanacs Hicky had plagiarised a few years  for escorting company troops to captured territory. 
colonial history are inextricable from each other. However,  earlier. Publishing an anonymous account from an associate,  Of course, it was not long before Hicky had made 
Otis’ book is not weighed down by its narrative and moves  Hicky accused the clergyman of embezzling funds meant for  powerful enemies. October 1780 saw the founding of the pro­
with the ease of fiction.  orphans, which led to Kiernander filing two libel cases.  establishment India Gazette, which was steeped in British 
Some readers may take issue with the focus on a group of The bulk of Hicky’s ire, however, was reserved for the  supremacy and, unlike Hicky’s paper, received free postage 
historical figures and wish for some authorial meandering  company and its imperialist crusade. For example, he took  (and patronage) from the company. After Hicky criticised 
(which can be pleasurable in books about history) but Hicky’s  issue with a Calcutta by­law that imposed taxes on people  Simeon Droz, chief of the board of trade, Hastings prohibited 

Fiction BY JAMES KIDD

An Ocean of Minutes them both. Frank gets a vaccine while she is Suicide Club necessary. The fashionable chatter at one
by Thea Lim catapulted 12 years into a suddenly dystopian by Rachel Heng such party concerns a video: “Disgusting.”
Quercus future. An older, sadder Polly is little more Sceptre “Imagine children watching that.” The video in
★★★★★ than an indentured slave, toiling to pay off ★★★★★ question shows a well-dressed man pouring
Thea Lim was born in her debt to TimeRaiser, and separated from Suicide Club is another the contents of a bottle into his mouth, lighting
Singapore, but lives and Frank, the reason she took the risk in the first dystopian novel by a a match and, so, ending his life. His last words
works in Ontario, Canada. place. Lim’s novel feels timely, offering a Singapore-born author. are: “Something has to change. In being
An Ocean of Minutes is her portrait of a divided America, throwing up While Thea Lim’s work robbed of our deaths, we are robbed of our
first novel; she published ethnic and economic barriers in the name worries over lives cut short, lives […] They leave us no choice.” Heng is far
a novella, The Same Woman, 11 years ago. of security and prosperity for the few. The Rachel Heng’s frets over lives going on and on. from the first writer to ponder whether life is
The set-up is a mix of the global-apocalypse masses, meanwhile, exist in drudgery, And on. The setting is a futuristic New York worth living: I suspect one inspiration is Albert
and time-travel genres. In 1981, the world is restrained by legal, bureaucratic and near- whose inhabitants live for centuries. The Camus’ essay “The Myth of Sisyphus”. But for
being ravaged by a flu pandemic. One way totalitarian shackles. Lim’s star-crossed satirical twist in Heng’s premise is that only Lea, Heng’s “Lifer” heroine, a death wish is
out is on offer: the TimeRaiser corporation lovers will inevitably be compared with The those who commit to healthy living (“Lifers”) more than a philosophical journey; it is a quest
has developed time travel. Our heroine, Polly Time Traveler’s Wife (2003), but her sharp deserve long life. This allows her to indulge to discover what makes existence worth
Nader, is in effective quarantine in Texas when political sub-text has more in common with her observations of the upper crust’s lavish enduring, whether this is bad behaviour, late
her partner, Frank, comes down with the virus. James Cameron’s Terminator franchise. mores: air kisses, an obsession with exercise, nights and fatty food, fighting conformity or
Polly signs up to work for TimeRaiser to save A terrific, prescient and powerful story. nutrition and defying age by any means her own family. Deserves to be massive.

52 Post Magazine // July 15, 2018

 C UL TUR E

the newspaper from being mailed through the post office. 
Hicky’s biggest setback, however, and the beginning of years 
passion and so grossly abusing whoever acted for him that at 
length not a professional man could be found”.
Audiobooks
of legal troubles, was the five libel charges brought against  So it is to Otis’ credit that Hicky comes off as a nuanced 
him by Hastings and Kiernander. character and not a figure of derision. But the author is not  Imogen
Otis pleasingly complicates some of the characterisations. always able to convert these public figures into fully fleshed­ by Jilly Cooper
In his early days, Hastings had noble  out characters with private lives. The (read by Rebecca Courtney)
intentions in India, even declaring that  absence of Hicky’s 12­member family is Whole Story
“if our people instead of erecting them­ HICKY’S WORK PLAYED understandable but conspicuous. Otis ★★★★★
selves into lords and oppressors of the  Imogen (1978) is by the very English
A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN also fails to mine how social class and romance writer Jilly Cooper. The titular character is a
country, confine themselves to an honest  Hicky’s Irish identity separated him
and fair trade, they will be everywhere  THE PASSING OF THE from the men in the company’s upper bookish, youthful-looking librarian whose brushes with
courted and respected”. He even leaves  sex are more literary than actual until she meets 26-year-
EAST INDIA COMPANY echelons as well as Philip Francis, a old tennis ace/bounder Nicky Beresford. His rippling
India disillusioned with violence and  political rival of Hastings who was
crony politics.  ACT OF 1784, WHICH instrumental in the downfall of the shoulder muscles, lean brown features, blue eyes and
(brace yourself) glossy black moustache make him
But after his return to India in 1769, BROUGHT INDIA UNDER governor­general. 
precipitated by a decline in his family  And Hicky’s Bengal Gazette occa­ the “embodiment of all the romantic heroes she’s ever
fortune, colonial power seems to have  THE CONTROL OF THE sionally feels musty. Otis has a fondness dreamed of”. Imogen is soon whisked off to the south of
France, where her sturdy English beauty competes with
taken a firm grip on Hastings. Conquests  BRITISH EMPIRE for closing chapters with melodramatic
are incessant, Indians are taxed more  denouements (“His name was James the more skeletal charms of Cable and Yvonne. Rebecca
than ever, even at the height of the  Augustus Hicky”). Still, he makes this Courtney sounds smooth, cultured but amused enough to
Bengal famine, and slavery is encouraged. During  key piece of colonial history and Indian journalism be a Cooper narrator, if not her unworldly heroine. Overall,
this period, Hastings wrote: “I shall have no  both vibrant and droll, which is no small task. jolly good. James Kidd
competitor to oppose my designs, to encourage  There’s even something poignant about 
disobedience to my authority […] to excite and  the synchronicity between Hicky, Hastings 
foment popular odium against me. In a word, I  and Kiernander’s fading fortunes in the  A Marriage in Dog Years
have power, and I will employ it.” closing chapters. by (and read by) Nancy Balbirer
Otis also does not whitewash the coarseness The book raises knottier questions too. Brilliance Audio
of the Bengal Gazette. Hicky published faux  Hicky’s work played a significant role in the ★★★★★
theatrical notices that cast various company men  passing of the East India Company Act of 1784, Nancy Balbirer and her husband’s
as villains. In one, Hastings is both a Mughal  which brought India under the control of the wedding gift to each other was a
emperor and a misguided Don Quixote. Hicky  British Empire. Was the Bengal Gazette simply a beagle they named Ira. When he
relied too on bawdy provocations, making fun  Warren Hastings Machiavellian power struggle between members was one, they bought a house; at
of a colonel’s libido and writing that war had  of the English gentry, namely Hastings and five, they had a child; at 10, Balbirer published a book.
affected Hastings’ perineal spring (a dig at erectile dysfunc­ Francis, vying for influence both in Britain and abroad? Was  Then, around his 11th birthday, the dog suffered renal
tion). He noted that Edward Tiretta, the head of public  the newspaper anti­establishment or anti­company? After all,  failure. By then, the couple’s marriage was also failing.
works, “had a happy Turn for EXCAVATIONS and Diving  colonial power simply realigned under the nefarious fist of  Desperate to save Ira and despite being “broke”, Balbirer
into the Bottom of things”, a possible reference to his  the crown. There are no easy answers.  paid to keep him alive (helped by singer Carly Simon, who
sexual orientation.  Hicky remains largely unknown in the Indian popular  bought a necklace the author listed on eBay). The couple
During one outrageously funny outburst in court, Hicky imagination. Most history textbooks cite social reformer  also sought marriage counselling and separated, all the
tells the chief justice, with whom he had a chequered history,  Raja Ram Mohan Roy as the father of Indian journalism.  while trying to keep up a front for their daughter. Ira,
that a juror was “tolerably familiar” with the chief justice’s  So Hicky’s Bengal Gazette is both a solid primer on the  meanwhile, defied his death sentence to live another year.
wife. And one lawyer notes in his memoir that Hicky “was  inauspicious beginnings of journalism in India and a  Dog lovers who have been through the same will recognise
extremely violent, yielding so much to sudden gusts of  cautionary tale about where it can lead. ■  Balbirer’s irrational highs and lows. Charmaine Chan

Non-fiction BY CHARMAINE CHAN

Robin is a linear tale of Williams’ life, from his Beneath a unfold, a 19-year-old intellectually disabled
by Dave Itzkoff itinerant childhood with parents who were Ruthless Sun white man, Jesse Daniels, is charged with
Henry Holt and Co polar opposites, to the Juilliard School for by Gilbert King the crime, even though it is obvious to
★★★★★ performing arts, to the television series that Riverhead Books most that he did not do it. Enter the
Robin Williams’ fans made his name, Mork & Mindy (where he ★★★★★ cruellest character one could imagine,
knew him as a “stimulus “flashed, humped, bumped and grabbed” This disturbing Sheriff Willis McCall, who forces the
junkie” (as his ex-wife, co-star Pam Dawber, who “never took story will force teenager to sign a confession, because
Valerie Velardi, once offence”). Then came the films, including you to read until the shame of a white woman being raped
described him). He Awakenings (1990), in which Williams learned the end, hoping by a black man is too great for the victim’s
was also an illusionist, Dave Itzkoff writes, not to be intimidated by co-star Robert De for some form of resolution. Set in husband (an adulterer who was with
“making you see what he wanted you to Niro. Itzkoff also tells of his subject’s two Florida during the Jim Crow era, it another woman at the time). In pursuit
see”, which in his case was a funnyman with other marriages, his close friendship with throws an early curveball when a of the truth, however, is the Ku Klux Klan-
boundless energy and a limitless trove of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, and the white woman from an important targeted journalist Mabel Norris Reese,
accents and characters used to disguise downward spiral that came when he realised family is raped, she says, by “a Negro who stands by Daniels’ mother during the
the “real Robin”. Itzkoff devotes more than he had forgotten how to be funny. Dementia … with bushy hair”. Immediately, 14 years her son is held without trial at a
500 pages to show us that Williams was had delivered “the terrors”. As Reeve said of young black men in the neighbourhood notorious state mental hospital. This
“a modest, almost inconspicuous man”. Williams: “Everybody got a great tan from his are arrested and terrorised. But just as powerful civil rights tale will surely be
Collected and comprehensive, his biography sunshine.” Readers will warm to his story. you think you know how the script will adapted for the big screen.

July 15, 2018 // Post Magazine 53