Who was the first Indian to go to jail while discharging the duty of journalist?

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Surendra Nath Banerjee. Surendranath Banerjee one of the founding fathers of the national movement, became the first Indian to go to jail in performance of his duty as a journalist. A dispute concerning a family idol called ‘Saligram’ had come up before Justice Norris of the Calcutta High Court. To decide the age of the idol, Norris ordered it to be brought to the Court and pronounced that it could not be a hundred years old. This Action deeply hurt the sentiments of the Bengali Hindus. Banerjee wrote an angry editorial in the ‘Bengalee’ of April 2, 1883. Comparing Norris with the notorious Jeffreys and Seroggs (British judges in the 17th century, notorious for infamous conduct as judges), he said that Norris had done enough ‘to show how unworthy he is of his high office.’ Immediately, the High Court hauled him up for contempt of court before a bench of five judges, four of them Europeans. With the Indian judge, Romesh Chandra Mitra, dissenting, the bench convicted and sentenced him to two months imprisonment.

Who was the first Indian to go to jail while discharging the duty of journalist?

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