Despite, however, of the indifference of the respactable Bengalis, the Bengali Press, “which was destined to have a mighty influence hereafter in this country,” came into being.
“The first Bengali newspaper,” observed the Revd. James Long in the Calcutta Review 1850, “that broke in on the slumber of ages and roused the native from the torpor of selfishness, was the Darpan of Serampore, which began its career on the 23rd of May 1818.” We are sorry, we cannot give the place of honour to the Darpan' of the missionaries of Serampore, though we do not in any way desire to underestimate its services, The veteran missionaries might have taken the lead in printing books for the Bengalis, but they were not the first to inaugurate a journal in Bengali. That honour is due to a Bengali Brahmin—Grangadhar Bhattacharji. He started in 1816—just two years before the missionaries of Serampore—the Bengal Gazette, which was the first Indian newspaper published in any Indian vernacular because the Bombay Samarchar followed as late as 1822. Thus we see that in the field of Bengali journalism, no foreigner
