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The Hindu

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The Hindu is a leading English-language newspaper in India, with its largest base of circulation in south India. It is over 125 years old. Founded in 1878 by Subramanya Aiyer, it was later headed by a co-founder, Veeraraghavachariar. Kasthuri Iyengar, the legal adviser of the newspaper from 1895, bought it in 1905. Since then his family has retained ownership of the paper. The two basic priciples on which the founders flagged the newspaper were fairness and justice. [1] Headquartered at Chennai (formerly called Madras), The Hindu was published weekly since 1878 and daily since 1889. Its current net-paid circulation exceeds 1 million copies. It is said to enjoy a readership of 3 million in India and abroad and an annual turnover of around 4 billion rupees ($80 million). In 1995, The Hindu became the first Indian newspaper to offer an online edition.[2]

File:Hindux.gif
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
PublisherN. Ram
EditorN. Ram
FoundedSeptember 20, 1878
Political alignmentLeft leaning, independent
HeadquartersChennai
Websitewww.thehindu.in

History

Started as a nationalist newspaper mildly opposed[citation needed] to the then British rulers of India, The Hindu still enjoys a status of being tradition, not merely a newspaper, in south India. [3] 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.

In late 1980's when its ownership passed into hands of the family's younger members, and a change[citation needed] in political leaning was observed. Worldpress.org lists the Hindu as a left-leaning independent newspaper.[4] This political polarization is supposed to have taken place since N. Ram took over as editor-in-chief. Joint Managing Director N. Murali said in July 2003, "It is true that our readers have been complaining that some of our reports are partial and lack objectivity. But it also depends on reader beliefs." [5] N. Ram was appointed on June 27, 2003 as its editor-in-chief with a mandate to "improve the structures and other mechanisms to uphold and strengthen quality and objectivity in news reports and opinion pieces", authorised to "restructure the editorial framework and functions in line with the competitive environment".[6] On September 3 and 23, 2003, the reader's letters column carried responses from readers saying the editorial was biased. [7] An editorial in August 2003 observed that the newspaper was affected by the 'editorialising as news reporting' virus, and expressed a determination to buck the trend, restore the professionally sound lines of demarcation, and strengthen objectivity and factuality in its coverage.[8]

There are[citation needed] a number of instances of the paper reflecting a radical tenor in its proleft opinionating. While a general consensus for neo-liberal economic policies, is[citation needed] evident in most 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.

The younger generation of The Hindu's editors who are held responsible[citation needed] for the partial politicization of the paper, they have[citation needed] also contributed much to its commercial success. They built a modern infrastructure for news-gathering, printing and distribution. With colorful, photo-heavy content, The Hindu sports a lively yet dignified look. Once the only English newspaper widely read in the south, The Hindu now has competition from newer entries in the market, like The Deccan Chronicle and The Times of India.[citation needed]

The Hindu, like many other Indian publishing houses, is family-run. 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.

In the late 80's, The Hindu played a pivotal role in exposing the federal government's corruption. It ran a series of news articles containing documentary evidence of corruption in the Bofors arms deal involving the ruling party's top brass, much to the government's embarrassment. The investigation was led by Chitra Subramaniam in Geneva and supported by Ram in Chennai. Thoroughly discredited by The Hindu's coverage of the corrupt deal, the ruling party lost a subsequent election. However the politics of this scoop did not stop at this development- there was a regime change within The Hindu too, and N Ravi took over from G Kasturi, with Malini Parthasarathy as Executive Editor and Nirmala Lakshman as Joint Editor.

In 2003, the Jayalalitha Government of the state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital, filed cases against the paper for "breach of privilege" of the state legislative body. The move was widely perceived as a government's assault on freedom of the press. However, The Hindu emerged unscathed from the ordeal, scoring both politcal and legal victories, as it instantly commanded the support of the journalistic community throughout the country, as well as the national government's political leadership. [9]

Commendations

Jawaharlal Nehru commented on The Hindu thus:

The Hindu always reminds me of an old maiden lady, very prim and proper, who is shocked if a naughty word is used in her presence. It is eminently the paper of the bourgeois, comfortably settled in life. Not for it is the shady side of existence, the rough and tumble and conflict of public life. Several other newspapers of moderate views have also this `old maiden lady' standard. They achieve it, but without the distinction of The Hindu and, as a result, they become astonishingly dull in every respect.[10]

The Times, London choose it as one of the world's ten best newspapers in 1965. Discussing each of its choices in separate articles, The Times wrote:

The Hindu takes the general seriousness to lengths of severity... The Hindu which is published in Madras, is the only newspaper which in spite of being published only in a provincial capital is regularly and attentively read in Delhi. It is read not only as a distant and authoritative voice on national affairs but as an expression of the most liberal - and least provincial - southern attitudes... Its Delhi Bureau gives it outstanding political and economic dispatches and it carries regular and frequent reports from all state capitals, so giving more news from states, other than its own, than most newspapers in India... It might fairly be described as a national voice with a southern accent. The Hindu can claim to be the most respected paper in India.[11]

In 1968, the American Newspaper Publishers' Association awarded The Hindu its World Press Achievement Award. An extract from the citation reads

Throughout nearly a century of its publication The Hindu has exerted wide influence not only in Madras but throughout India. Conservative in both tone and appearance, it has wide appeal to the English-speaking segment of the population and wide readership among government officials and business leaders... The Hindu has provided its readers a broad and balanced news coverage, enterprising reporting and a sober and thoughtful comment... [It] has provided its country a model of journalistic excellence... [It] has fought for a greater measure of humanity for India and its people... [and] has not confined itself to a narrow chauvinism. Its Correspondents stationed in the major capitals of the world furnish The Hindu world-wide news coverage... For its championing of reason over emotion, for its dedication to principle even in the face of criticism and popular disapproval, for its confidence in the future, it has earned the respect of its community, its country, and the world.[11]

Editorial stances

  • When the Bihar Assembly was dissolved by the Indian Union Government in May 2005, The Hindu claimed there was no alternative to the dissolution in its editorial [12]. When the Supreme Court of India termed the dissolution unconstitutional in January 2006, The Hindu editorial justified the verdict of the Supreme Court. [13]
  • When 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 and went on to claim he hardly needed to resort to any kind of skulduggery to win the election[14]The BJP along with its allies is the main rival of Yadav in Bihar.
  • On the day after the Varanasi blasts in March 2006, the newspaper made just a passing reference to the "inhumanity" of the terrorists [15] but dedicated a disproportionately[citation needed] large space in its opinion and editorial page to criticize the BJP for what it termed as an attempt to draw "political mileage" out of the incidents. [16],[17]Further, the criticism of the UP government is very mild[citation needed] and criticism of the Union government is virtually[citation needed] non-existent. The BJP was in opposition at the Centre as well as in UP, when the bombings occured. BJP put the blame for the terrorist attacks on the Central and state governements.
  • The Hindu condemned Narendra Modi (Gujarat Chief Minister), for the "action-reaction theory" which he provided as a means to justify the pogrom of muslims [18], the newspaper itself has[citation needed] exhibited some sympathy to this theory in some recent incidents of Islamic terrorist attacks .[19]
  • [citation needed]While the newspaper does not mince words in criticizing any human rights violations committed by the West in general and U. S. A. in particular, the human rights record of China and the Middle East is rarely under scrutiny in its editorial and opinion pages. [citation needed]Glorification of the Communist parties is the norm and any criticism targeted at them is virtually non-existent[citation needed]. The rivals of the Left's political parties, most notably the right-of-center BJP, rountinely unfavourable[citation needed] coverage. In 2003, Jagannathan mentions a "general feeling" that some of its reports are "anti-Hindu".[20]("Anti-Hindu" is a term used by apologists of "Hindutva ideology" to describe attitudes of people they perceive to be against the interests of people of Hindu religion)[21].
  • 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[citation needed] stand in the Mohammed cartoons incident in which a Danish newspaper published some cartoons of the Islamic Prophet.[22]

Criticism

  • [citation needed]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[citation needed]. The paper may have minced words on occasion, it may have adopted a purposefully vague, on-the-fence stand once in a while and may have killed controversial stories now and then. The paper was also known to have[citation needed] occassionally peddled propaganda[23]There are[citation needed] also indications that the newspaper may have become biased in the recent times. See below.
  • A media analyst Dasu Krishnamoorty [24] based on his reading of the newspaper during the period from December 2002 to January 2003, opines that The Hindu gives undue weightage to only one side of issues. To prove this, he cites (1)examples of news reports (identifiable by datelines) that opinionize on the issue reported.(These examples appeared in the paper prior to the editor change of August 2003.) (2)A count of op-ed pieces during the two month period to show that one point of view gets more weightage, while opinions differing from the editorial stance are not adequately represented. His main complaint is that the paper does not adequately reflect majority sentiment.
  • [citation needed]The Hindu gives unjustifiable unequal coverage to news events, as in the case of reporting the particulars of the Ayodhya dispute. On August 26, 2003 The Hindu published a small 2-paragraph PTI report on its frontpage saying, "In what could be a turning point in the Ayodhya dispute, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has reported to the High Court here that its excavations found distinctive features of a 10th century 'massive structure' beneath the Babri Mosque site even as the Sunni Central Waqf Board (SCWB) termed the report 'vague and self-contradictory'" [25]. Only 4 days later, the allegations of some historians that the ASI twisted evidence got a more significant coverage in its front page [26]. It is alleged [citation needed]that The Hindu never published any details of the ASI evidence in the first place.

Supplements

  • On Mondays
  • On Tuesdays
    • Metro Plus
    • Open Page, Education & Book Review
  • On Wednesdays
    • Metro Plus
    • Job Opportunities
  • On Thursdays
    • Metro Plus
  • On Fridays
    • Young World, an exclusive children's supplement. One of the more popular columns is The Hindu Young World Quiz
    • Friday Features covering cinema, arts, music and entertainment
    • Quest, a supplement by children for children, appears once a month.
  • On Saturdays
    • Property Plus
  • On Sundays
    • Weekly Magazine covering social issues, art, literature, gardening, travel, health, cuisine, hobbies etc.

Popular Columns include This day that year, and Religion.

See also

References

  1. ^ Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Editorial by N. Ram, 13/9/03
  2. ^ N. Murali:Core values and high quality standards
  3. ^ 125th anniversary: Reader's comments
  4. ^ At worldpress.org, the directory of online Indian newspapers and magazines lists The Hindu as "Left-leaning, independent", and its biweekly sister publication Frontline as "Independent biweekly".
  5. ^ Change of guard
  6. ^ Interview
  7. ^ Reader's mail 3/9/2003, Reader's mail 23/9/2003
  8. ^ Editorial, 27/8/2003
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ In Autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru
  11. ^ a b From S. Muthiah's Looking Back
  12. ^ No alternative to dissolution
  13. ^ [2]
  14. ^ [3].
  15. ^ [4]
  16. ^ [5]
  17. ^ [6],[7].
  18. ^ [8]
  19. ^ [9].
  20. ^ [10]
  21. ^ In the Name of Nationalism
  22. ^ [11]
  23. ^ [12].
  24. ^ [13]
  25. ^ Frontpage news, 26/8/03
  26. ^ [14]
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