On this day the newspaper The Bengalee published a piece titled ‘The White Man’s Exemption Act’, which claimed with sharp irony the British should be declared above law since Indian courts hardly found them guilty of any crime. The piece was possibly written by the editor of the newspaper, Surendranath Banerjea, who had in 1879 bought the newspaper that was founded in 1862 by theatre legend Girish Chandra Ghosh.
The Bengalee was consistently critical about British rule. Earlier, Banerjea, called “Surrender Not Banerjea” by the British, had been charged with contempt of court and arrested after publishing a piece on April 2, 1883, in The Bengalee on Justice Norris, which claimed the judge had hurt the religious sentiments of people. Banerjea received a writ from the court in May, 1883, and was served with a notice to prove his innocence against contempt of court charges. A full bench of five judges, including Romesh Chunder Dutt, was present at the hearing. The European judges sentenced Banerjea to imprisonment, though Mitter had only insisted on a fine.
Banerjea’s sentence led to widespread protests throughout India. The Vernacular Press Act, aimed at curbing freedom of the Indian language press, had been passed in 1878 after Viceroy Lytton had assumed office.