Question

In the year 1778, the British established the first printing press in ______.
1. Madras
2. Bombay
3. Ahmedabad
4. Calcutta

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : Calcutta

The correct answer is Calcutta.

• The first press was established in Calcutta, Bengal.
  • The establishment of the Baptist Mission press is the printing press in the Fort William College in Calcutta.

• Printing came to Bengal in 1777 when two presses were set up almost simultaneously, one in Calcutta by James Augustus Hicky (famous for later printing India’s first newspaper, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette) and another in the small town of Hooghly by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed and Charles Wilkins (famous for printing Grammar of the Bengal Language).
• It is unclear which press was established first.
• In November 1777, a missionary named Johann Zachariah Kiernander approached Hicky to print calendars for the next year. Kiernander had been importing calendars from South India and was looking for a cheaper alternative.