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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“The vernacular press in nineteenth century India served not just as newspapers but more importantly as views-papers.” Comment.

  • UPSC 2011
  • Social and Cultural Developments

To call the vernacular press "views-papers" rather than merely newspapers is to insist that its primary historical significance lay not in reporting facts but in shaping how nineteenth-century Indians understood themselves, their society and their rulers.

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What the full answer covers

  • A Press of Diversity, Divergence and Targeted Audiences
  • Views-Papers as Instruments of Specific Campaigns
  • The State's Own Testimony: Repression as Recognition

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