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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“The tug of war between the two principles of freedom and control of the press made its influence felt on the colonial rulers’ attitude to the press.” Discuss.

  • UPSC 2025
  • Social and Cultural Developments

Colonial policy toward the Indian press oscillated across a century and a half between liberal permissiveness and repressive control, each swing tracking the rulers' shifting calculation of how dangerous a free press was to their power.

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What the full answer covers

  • The First Cycle: Early Control and Liberal Intervals (1780–1857)
  • The Second Cycle: The Shock of 1857 and Renewed Control
  • The Third Cycle: The Vernacular Press Act and its Reversal
  • The Fourth Cycle: Nationalist Journalism and Escalating Repression (1898–1911)
  • The Fifth Cycle: Wartime Liberalisation and the Interwar Reversal
  • Reading the Pattern

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