The Times of India once ran an obituary for democracy itself
The day after Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in June 1975, the Bombay edition of the Times of India carried a death notice for one D.E.M. O'Cracy, husband of T. Ruth and brother of Faith, Hope and Justice. It was a sly protest against 21 months of largely authoritarian rule.
The paper was born in Bombay on 3 November 1838, under a title that paired the city's name with commerce, appearing twice a week with news from Britain, the world and the subcontinent. It went daily in 1850. Its pro-British editor George Buist refused shareholder demands to soften his line during the 1857 rebellion and was replaced by Robert Knight, who bought out the Indian shareholders, merged with a rival, launched India's first news agency and in 1861 gave the paper its present name. Knight defended a press free from intimidation by governments and business alike. By the early 20th century the viceroy, Lord Curzon, called it Asia's leading paper.
Its ownership history reads like a thriller. The British proprietors sold to the sugar magnate Ramkrishna Dalmia in 1946, but an official inquiry later found he had financed the purchase with money moved from a bank and an insurer he chaired, and he was jailed for fraud. His son-in-law, Shanti Prasad Jain, then refused to hand control back. After further findings of wrongdoing, a Bombay court in 1969 replaced the board with government appointees. During the Emergency in 1976 the government returned it to the Jain family, who still control it.
Commercially it has been a pioneer in ways critics dislike. It is accused of institutionalising paid news in India, and from 2005 its owners offered companies sustained favourable coverage in exchange for shares. By 2012 that scheme held stakes in 350 companies and supplied 15% of revenue, and rival media groups copied it.
Readers still trust it: it is India's oldest English-language newspaper and a 2021 Reuters Institute survey found it the most trusted news brand among English-speaking online users there.
Source: The Times of India
