27 Till as recently as two hundred years ago, India was a manuscript culture meaning that the printed text did not exist. When the transition took place from a manuscript culture to a print one, it seems to have taken place with great ease, implying that the shift was made without much murmurs and complaints from at least the native, elite sections of society. This book looks at the emergence of the first printed newspapers in colonial Calcutta, India (1780-1820).