The Calcutta Gazette (or Oriental Advertiser) was one of the first newspapers in India, founded in March 1784 as a weekly (and published on the unusual day of Thursday) by British East India Trading Company officer and lexicographer Francis Gladwin. At the time of first publication, journalism was just beginning to take a foothold in British-controlled India and printing presses, which had been brought to the country a century earlier, were becoming more commonplace, leading to the sudden birth of several journals.

The Calcutta Gazette, however, outlasted many of its rivals and ended up publishing for over two hundred years, during which time it witnessed the ebb and flow of a huge swathe of history, including the very rise, expansion, and attenuation of the British Empire. This initial success owed to a diverse and informed array of content and correspondents, although such longevity was also undoubtedly due to Calcutta being the capital of British India.

For nearly fifty years, the Calcutta Gazette held on fiercely to its independent status with the freedom to report and publish content in keeping with its own agenda, with the only intervention coming in the form of government-supported advertisements. By 1834, however, it had become the official publication of the Indian government and naturally had to comply with the limitations this brought. The title was briefly changed to the Government Gazette during this time.