Yesterdate: This day from Kolkata’s past, June 1, 1831

The radical teacher, poet and nationalist Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, who created an outrage in the conservative Bengali society with his interactions with his students in Hindu College, had started a paper called East Indian on this day.

Derozio, of mixed Indian and European parentage, was an “East Indian” by birth and he wanted the newspaper to be the voice of the community. When he started the paper, he had just been forced to resign from his job at Hindu College for offending the feelings of orthodox Hindu parents. Eminent writers would contribute to this paper. But Derozio died on December 23, 1831. He was 23. The newspaper collapsed following his death.