Evidences are not very rare to show that the newspapers played a very important role in fostering national consciousness amongst the educated people of the country.

In India, too, the growth of the press during the nineteenth century played an important role in awakening the national consciousness among the Indian people.

In the late eighteenth century, newspapers edited by the British were first published in the three cities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

Bengal Gazette edited by Augustus Hicky, published in Calcutta in 1780 was the first English weekly newspaper of India. Within a short time Madras Courier and Bombay Herald were published in Madras and Bombay respectively.

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It must, however, be remembered that the emergence of newspapers with national outlook was not possible till they were published under the Indian initiative.