Bengalee, The an English newspaper published from Calcutta

Bengalee, The an English newspaper published from Calcutta from 1862 to 1931. It started as a daily newspaper and subsequently turned into a weekly. The Bengalee had a series of renowned editors including Girish Chandra Ghose, its founder, and surendranath banerjea. In 1931, an evening town edition, known as the Calcutta Evening News, was started and the Mufassil edition continued to be known as the Bengalee. The two editions were, however, amalgamated into one paper from 1932 and was renamed the Star of India.
Since its inception the Bengalee had been serving as an important organ of the Indian nationalist movement. Its articulate views about the excesses of the Anglo-Indian community, Ilbert Bill, protection of ethnic societies, agrarian relations, famines and contemporary social movements had tremendously influenced public opinion. Under the editorship of Surendra Nath Banerji the paper became the highest circulated weekly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But since the Surat Rift (1907) in the Congress the paper became the mouthpiece of the moderate wing of the divided Congress. The moderate stand of the paper on the swadeshi and terrorist movements and the extremist politics of the Congress considerably diminished its popularity. The death of Surendranath Banerji (1925) further weakened the paper and eventually led to its demise in 1931. [Abhijit Dutta]