Founded by James Augustus Hicky, a highly eccentric Irishman who had previously spent two years in jail for debt,[1] the newspaper was a strong critic of the administration of Governor General Warren Hastings.

The idea of printing a newspaper in India had been floated twelve years earlier by the Dutch Adventurer William Bolts, but James Hicky was the first to execute the concept.

[10] James Hicky also accused other British leaders in Calcutta of corruption, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, Elijah Impey of taking bribes,[11] and the leader of the Protestant Mission, Johann Zacharias Kiernander of stealing from an orphaned children's fund.

Hicky's Bengal Gazette ceased publication on 30 March 1782 when its types were seized by an order of the Supreme Court.

It was strongly anti-war and anti-colonial and routinely ridiculed East India Company leadership for their expansionist and imperialist objectives.

During his confinement he met with a treatise upon printing, from which he collected sufficient information to commence [as a] printer, there never having been a press in Calcutta ... it occurred to Hicky that great benefit might arise from setting on foot a public newspaper, nothing of that kind ever having appeared.

[17]Hicky benefited little from the paper, as William Hickey further tells us that he allowed it "to become the channel of personal invective, and the most scurrilous abuse of individuals of all ranks, high and low, rich and poor, many were attacked in the most wanton and cruel manner ... His utter ruin was the consequence".