The Hindu

**The Hindu** is an Indian English-language daily newspaper, owned by The Hindu Group and based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly publication in 1878, founded by a group known as the Triplicane Six—four law students and two teachers, led by G. Subramania Iyer and M. Veeraraghavacharyar—and became a daily in 1889. It is considered one of India’s newspapers of record. By March 2018, it was printed in 21 locations across 11 Indian states.

The paper has been family-owned since 1905, when S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar bought it from the original founders. It is now jointly owned by his descendants, collectively called “The Hindu Family,” who serve as directors of the holding company. Except for a roughly two-year period when S. Varadarajan was editor, senior editorial positions have always been held by members of the Iyengar family or by people they appointed under their direction.

**History**

**Early years** The Hindu was founded in Madras on 20 September 1878 as a weekly. The Triplicane Six included T.T. Rangacharya, P.V. Rangacharya, D. Kesava Rao Pantulu, N. Subba Rao Pantulu, G. Subramania Iyer (a schoolteacher from Tanjore district), and M. Veeraraghavacharyar (a lecturer at Pachaiyappa’s College).

**Kasturi Ranga Iyengar** The partnership between Veeraraghavachariar and Subramania Iyer ended in October 1898. Iyer left the paper, leaving Veeraraghavachariar as sole owner, who appointed C. Karunakara Menon as editor. But the paper’s adventurousness waned in the 1900s, and circulation dropped to 800 copies when the sole proprietor decided to sell. The buyer was S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, who had been the paper’s legal adviser since 1895.

**Management** Throughout its history, the Kasturi Ranga Iyengar family has typically run The Hindu through family members in editorial and business roles, as well as on the board. It was headed by G. Kasturi from 1965 to 1991, N. Ravi from 1991 to 2003, and his brother N. Ram from 27 June 2003 to 18 January 2011. As of 2010, Kasturi & Sons had 12 directors on its board.

**Later developments** In 1987–88, The Hindu’s coverage of the Bofors arms deal scandal—a series of document-backed exclusives—shaped the national political debate on the issue. The scandal broke in April 1987 when Swedish Radio alleged bribes had been paid to top Indian political leaders, officials, and army officers to secure a contract for 155 mm howitzers. Over six months, the paper published scores of original documents showing secret payments of $50 million into Swiss bank accounts, the agreements behind them, related communications, and crisis responses. The investigation was led by part-time correspondent Chitra Subramaniam, reporting from Geneva, and supported by N. Ram in Chennai. The scandal embarrassed the ruling Indian National Congress and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and the paper’s editorial accused the prime minister of being party to massive fraud and a cover-up.

In 1991, Deputy Editor N. Ravi, Ram’s younger brother, replaced G. Kasturi as editor. Nirmala Lakshman, Kasturi Srinivasan’s granddaughter and the first woman in the company to hold an editorial or managerial role, became Joint Editor, and her sister Malini Parthasarathy became Executive Editor.

In 2003, the Jayalalithaa government of Tamil Nadu filed cases against The Hindu for breach of privilege of the state legislature. The move was seen as an assault on press freedom, and the paper gained support from the journalistic community. Joint managing director N. Murali said in July 2003 that readers had complained about partial and unobjective reports, but added that it also depended on reader beliefs. N. Ram was appointed editor-in-chief on 27 June 2003 with a mandate to improve structures and mechanisms to uphold quality and objectivity, and to restructure the editorial framework for a competitive environment. On 3 and 23 September 2003, the reader’s letters column carried responses saying the editorial was biased. An editorial in August 2003 noted that the paper was affected by “editorialising as news reporting” and expressed determination to restore professional lines of demarcation and strengthen objectivity and factuality.

In 2010, The Indian Express reported a dispute within the publisher over the retirement age of the editor-in-chief, then N. Ram. Ram sued The Indian Express for defamation, which the Express denied. N. Ravi and Parthasarathy voiced concern about the lawsuit, saying it went against The Hindu’s values and that journalists should not fear scrutiny. Later, Malini Parthasarathy tweeted that “issues relating to management of newspaper have come to the surface, including editorial direction.” She later called N. Ram and other employees “Stalinists,” alleging they were trying to oust her from the paper.

In 2011, during N. Ram’s resignation, the newspaper became the subject of a succession battle among Kasturi family members. Ram appointed Siddharth Varadarajan as his successor as editor-in-chief, who justified the decision.