The Power of Print in Shaping American Views of India

By Tahia Sultana ’30, OCW

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Long before social media, newspapers helped shape who Americans viewed as deserving of acceptance and who they treated as outsiders. Harvard researcher Animesh Bag examines how American newspapers, magazines, and missionary publications portrayed India and Indian immigrants between 1904 and 1924, often drawing on British colonial stereotypes that depicted Indians as racially inferior. His research explores how these representations reinforced prejudice during a period of increasingly restrictive immigration policies. Bag also investigates how Indian revolutionaries used publications of their own to challenge racist portrayals and advocate for equality and Indian independence. By examining both the media that circulated these stereotypes and the writers who contested them, his research reveals how print culture shaped debates over race, citizenship, and national belonging.