Anglo-Indian newspaper

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  • Intro

    Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was the first English-language newspaper published in the Indian sub-continent. It was founded in Calcutta, capital of British India at the time, by Irishman James Augustus Hicky in 1779. The front-page news stories are written in British English. Elsewhere in the paper, however, Anglo-Indian expressions are used freely without translation.

     

     

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    Several Anglo-Indian terms can be spotted in the back-page advertisements of this issue for 11 March 1780. For example, towards the top of the first column a large godown (warehouse) is offered for sale. This word is probably adapted from an expression in one of the South Indian languages, but is being used by the European population in Calcutta.

     

    Shelfmark: ORB.40/285.

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