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The Hindu

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The Hindu newspaper logo

The Hindu is one of India's leading English-language newspapers, with its largest base of circulation in South India. Founded 125 years ago, by Subramanya Aiyer, it was later headed by a co-founder, Veeraraghavachariar. Kasthuri Iyengar, the then legal adviser of the newspaper, bought it in the early 1900's and from then on his family has retained the ownership of the paper. The two basic priciples on which the founders flagged the newspaper were - Fairness and Justice. It is said to enjoy a readership of 3 million and an annual turnover of around 4 billion rupees ($80 million). Headquartered at Chennai (formerly Madras), The Hindu was published weekly since 1878 and then daily since 1889. It has grown steadily to its current circulation of 1 million copies and a readership of over 3 million, both in India and abroad. It was also one of the first Indian newspapers to offer an online edition.


About The Hindu

Started as a nationalist newspaper mildly opposed to the then British rulers of India, The Hindu still enjoys a status of being tradition, not merely a newspaper, in South India. Till very recently, the habit of reading The Hindu was transmitted down generations of south Indians, from parents to children, especially in Brahmin households. Most subscribers read it just to pick up Queen's English. Teachers recommended to their students a daily reading of The Hindu. In a post-colonial India where the printed word was much respected, more so if it was in English, The Hindu was to the citizens of Madras what The Times was to pre-tabloid-era Londoners. Indeed, in popular Indian perception, The Hindu was one of the defining characteristics of the city of Madras, among other charcteristics such as the hot and humid weather, vegetarian cuisine, filtered coffee, Tamil cinema and South Indian art. The Hindu's journalism for a major part of its life was staid, non-controversial almost to the point of being self-effacing and never on the wrong side of the Establishment. The paper may have minced words on occasion, it may have adopted a purposefully vague, on-the-fence stand once in a while, it may even have killed controversial stories now and then, but it was never known to peddle falsehood or run propaganda. (However, there are strong indications that the newspaper has become highly biased in the recent times).


Things changed for the newspaper since the late 1980's when its ownership passed into hands of the family's younger members. Today, The Hindu is seen by some as the unofficial mouthpiece of one of India's communist parties, the CPIM. However, it does display a willingness to take its political leanings lightly- see [1] Its current editor is a founding member of CPIM's student-wing, the SFI. A staunch supporter of the Chinese regime, he is on record claiming that no damage was done to Tibet by China. While the newspaper does not mince words in criticizing any human rights violations committed by the West in general and America in particular, the (arguably far more worse) human rights record of China and the Middle East is rarely under scrutiny in its editorial and opinion pages. Leaders of the CPIM regularly contribute the paper's op-ed section. Some people consider it unfortunate that the paper, which was founded on the principles of fairness and justice, hardly gives any room for a fair trail of some issues. Glorification of the Communist parties is the norm and any criticism targeted at them is virtually non-existent. And the rivals of the Left's political parties, most notably the right-of-center BJP, rountinely get unfavourable, opinionated and editorialized coverage. N Ram, Editor, was a part of the BJP watch group, along with Praful Bidwai and others, terming the rule at the centre in the late 1990's "fascist". To top it all, readers with a Hindu nationalist bent of mind accuse The Hindu of being "anti-Hindu".


There are however at least a few instances of the paper reflecting a radical tenor in its opinionating, even if this is pro-left opinion. A case in point is the general consensus for neo-liberal economic policies, espoused in all other newspapers, with support for disinvestment, privatization and foreign investment at the cost of concern for the rural poor, food security and employment. The Hindu, with P. Sainath as a primary contributor has repeatedly provided a voice to the critiques of the neo-liberal policies by pointing out the growing incidences of agrarian distress, growing unemployment, rabid corruption.


While the younger generation of The Hindu's editors have been responsible for the politicization of the paper and the decline in its journalistic standards, they have also contributed much to its commercial success. They built a modern infrastructure for news-gathering, printing and distribution. With a colorful, photo-heavy content, The Hindu sports a lively yet dignified look. But even this commercial dominance is increasingly coming under attack. Deccan Chronicle, a broadsheet with a tabloid spirit, was recently launched in The Hindu's stronghold of Madras, and is reputed to be causing some damage to the latter's circulation. The Times of India, India's (and the world's) largest circulated English langauge daily, is set to launch in Madras, and is projected to cause further damage to The Hindu.


The Hindu, like many other Indian publishing houses, is family-run. No member from outside the family is allowed to become its editor. It was headed by G Kasturi from 1965 to 1991, N Ravi from 1991 to 2003, and by his brother, N Ram, since June 27th 2003. Other family members, including Nirmala Lakshman, Malini Parthasarathy, Nalini Krishnan, N Murali, K Balaji, K Venugopal, Ramesh Rangarajan and publisher S Rangarajan are directors of The Hindu and its parent company, Kasturi and Sons.

The Hindu's Moments of Glory

In the late 80's, The Hindu played a pivotal role in supporting another newspaper in exposing the federal government's corruption. The Indian Express, then owned by a north India family of merchant caste, was at that time regarded as India's most courageous and outspoken newspaper. Express was running a series of news articles containing documentary evidence of corruption in a major arms deal involving the ruling party's top brass, when the government cracked down on the paper and almost shut it down. The Hindu stepped in to take over the series where Express left off, and completed it, much to the government's embarrassment. Thoroughly discredited by Express' and The Hindu's coverage of the corrupt deal, the ruling party lost a subsequent election.


In 2003, the Jayalalitha Government of the state of Tamil Nadu, of which Madras (now Chennai) is the capital, filed cases aginst the paper for "breach of privilege" of the state legislative body. Many say that the government's action was an assault on freedom of the press. However, The Hindu emerged unscathed from the ordeal, scoring both politcal and legal victories. It was surprising for the traditional readers of The Hindu, to find Ram, its Editor, join hands with political parties including the DMK, which have carried numerous assaults on The Hindu establishment in the past.


Criticism of The Hindu

The Hindu has also been criticized by many for what they consider as double standards and lack of objectivity. The following examples are arguably some (though by no means all) instances in which they consider that the newspaper has fallen far short of its original standards of objectivity and fair journalism.


1. When the Bihar Assembly was dissolved by the Indian Union Government in May 2005, The Hindu justified the dissolution in its editorial [2]. However, when the Supreme Court of India termed the dissolution unconstitutional, The Hindu supported the verdict of the Supreme Court [3]. In the opinion of some, the original support for dissolution was because the leftist parties in India (of whom, the newspaper is seen by some as a mouthpiece) supported the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly.


2. When the Indian politician Laloo Prasad Yadav was caught on camera distributing 100 rupee notes before elections in Bihar, The Hindu wrote an editorial where it suggested that he ought to have acted with greater responsibility because he was being watched by his opponents. It further suggested that he would win the election even without needing to commit malpractice [4]. In the opinion of many, this constitutes an apologist defense of an untenable action. It is possible that this justification is due to the newspaper’s bias against the BJP which (along with its allies) is the main rival of Mr. Yadav in Bihar.


3. On the day after the Varanasi blasts in March 2006, the newspaper made just a passing reference to the "inhumanity" of the terrorists [5] but dedicated a disproportionately large space in its opinion and editorial page to criticize the BJP (for its so-called attempts to draw "political mileage" out of the incidents) [6], [7], [8]. Further, the criticism of the UP government is very mild and criticism of the Union government is virtually non-existent. Incidentally, the BJP was in opposition at the Centre as well as in UP, when the bombings occured.


4. When the Indian artist MF Hussain, painted some Hindu goddesses nude, The Hindu defended him in the name of freedom of expression. However, it adopted a completely opposite stand in the Mohammed cartoons incident in which a Danish newspaper published some cartoons of the Islamic Prophet [9].


5. The Hindu is also known to have given a biased coverage to news events. An example of this would be when the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) unearthed evidence for a massive structure (possibly a temple) beneath the Babri Masjid stite. While the finding, which is arguably significant for the Ayodhya dispute, gets a passing reference in the newspaper [10], the allegations of some historians that the ASI “twisted” evidence get a more significant coverage in its front page [11].


The last two instances are seen by some as just a few examples of the newspaper’s generally “pro-Islamic and anti-Hindu” stance.

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Popular Columns include This day that year, and Religion.

Other publications

  • The Hindu Business Line – Business Daily
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  • The Sportstar – Weekly Sports magazine
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  • Indian Cricket – An annual record book on Cricket
  • The Hindu Index – Monthly and Cumulated Annual
  • Special Publications under the series THE HINDU SPEAKS ON Libraries: Information Technology, Management, Education, Religious Values, Music, ...
  • From the pages of The Hindu -- The Last 200 Days of Mahatma Gandhi
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