On 7 February 1919, Motilal Nehru gave a dinner at Anand Bhavan, his Allahabad home, to celebrate the founding of the Independent; and in his toast to the paper, he spoke for a large and often competing fraternity of nationalist politicians, Government officials and professional newspapermen. The Independent would ‘think aloud for India’, Nehru declared, gathering together in a simple and potent phrase the emphasis on ideas, the presumption of an extraordinary representative role and awareness of the proselytising opportunities in the control of a newspaper. For politicians like Nehru, a paper provided an expanded platform, a public demonstration of influence, assured publicity for a particular perspective, as well as the opportunity to attack the views of others. The daily appearance of the paper provided the image of institutional stability for both the man and the viewpoint, a symbolic demonstration of the power to speak out – especially significant in the context of freedom struggle. Getting ‘a good press’ was considered to be essential support for a political career, and control of one's own newspaper clearly enhanced the odds in one's own favour.

Nehru's views regarding the role of the press in the nationalist movement were a legacy of the extraordinary syncretic nature of the British- Indian encounter and the colonial political culture that would provide the foundations of the modern Indian state. The conquest of a vast empire and its maintenance and administration for almost two hundred years were dependent on the acquiescence and participation of a range of indigenous groups. In the countryside, the primary British concerns for order and revenue were accommodated to the interests of the old princely and landed elites.