“Pernicious Publicity”: The East India Company, the Military, and the Freedom of the Press, 1818–1823
Journal: Journal of British Studies
Year: 2022

Abstract Early nineteenth-century Bengal is frequently used as a case study to demonstrate how debates over press liberties acquired additional stakes in colonial settings. Yet existing scholarship overlooks how the expansion of Britain's military presence overseas during and after the Napoleonic Wars complicated reformist ambitions for a free press. In India, army officers formed a significant proportion of the European population and were both enthusiastic readers of and contributors to the fl