Selections from the Early Print-Newspapers in Colonial Calcutta, India (1780-1820). Trade and Commerce.

This book has a selection from the early newspapers that had been printed in the early years of British-East India Company, that is between 1780-1820, in colonial Calcutta, India. How do we read these texts that were written centuries ago and make sense of the printed texts? We cannot elide the fact that they were meant to be textually consumed by the Britishers who had arrived in India as part of the package of colonization. The newspapers were examined with a particular perspective, namely, what was the nature of trade and commerce that evolved in colonial Bengal, India? Reading primary texts alters how we theorize. The newspapers allow us to peek into this newly emerging world in Bengal and how socio-technological changes were taking place. We seem to think that these changes seamlessly moved into Bengal without any hiccups. We rarely do have access to these primary texts, as they are hidden in archives. What emerges is the human face of the process of British colonization and not an abstract concept of absolute power.