Badaun or Badayun (Hindi: बदायूँ, Urdu: بدایوں) is a city in the north-central Uttar Pradesh state of northern India. According to George Smith, Budaun was named after Ahir prince Budh.^[1]

Mr. Ratan Kumar Srivastava, IPS is currently the Senior Superintendent of Police of Badaun.^[2]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Badaun.

Demographics[link]

As of 2011^[update] India census,^[3] Badaun City has area of 63 sq. km whereas the Budaun Metro area is spread over in 98 sq. km, which is from Naushera to ahead of Barah paththar on SH33. Budaun Metro Area includes Budaun City and adjoining Naushera, Kheda Nawada, Sheikhupur, Panchkuli, Utarna and Baheri. As per provisional reports of Census India, population of Budaun City in 2011 was 368,221 and that of Metro Area was 461,887. The sex ratio of Budaun city is 907 per 1000 males. Density of Budaun city is among the highest in India with 5849 people per km square.

In education section, total literates in Budaun were 401,914. Average literacy rate of Budaun city is 86.00 percent of which male and female literacy was 96.67 and 78.97 percent. Total children (0-6) in Budaun are 69,613 as per figure from Census India report on 2011.

History[link]

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica wrote of Buduan: A town and district of British India, in the Rohilkhand division of the United Provinces. The town is near the left bank of the river Sot. Pop. (1901) 39,031. There are ruins of an immense fort and a very handsome mosque of imposing size, crowned with a dome, and built in 1223. The American Methodist mission maintains several girls schools, and there is a high school for boys. According to tradition, Badaun was founded about 905, and an inscription, probably of the 12th century, gives a list of twelve Rathor kings reigning at Badaun (called Vodamayuta). The first authentic historical event connected with it, however, was its capture by Qutb-ud-din Aybak in 1196, after which it became a very important post on the northern frontier of the Delhi empire. In the 13th century two of its governors, Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, the builder of the great mosque referred above, and his son Rukn ud din Firuz, attained the imperial throne. In 1571 the town was burnt, and about a hundred years later, under Shah Jahan, the seat of the governorship was transferred to Sahaspur- Bilari; According to Government of India, the district Badaun is one of the Minority Concentrated Districts in India, having 34 % of Muslim population, on the basis of the 2001 census data on population, socio-economic indicators and basic amenities indicators.^[4] Badaun is the birthplace of legendary figures such as Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Abul fazl, Fani Badayuni, Shakeel Badayuni, Dilawar Figar, Ismat Chugtai, Bekhud Badayuni,Nizam Uddin Husain Nizami (poet and founder of "Zulqurnain" and Nizami press) many more.

Transportation[link]

• Roadways

Budaun city acts as a junction for many national roads, which make the city one of the most important of the western UP but still its a backward district. SH33 (Bareilly-Mathura) and SH43 (Moradabad-Farrukhabad) pass through Budaun, which is also the terminal point os SH18 (to Meerut) and SH51 (to Delhi). Budaun Depot, with 108 buses is one of the most profitable depots of UPSRTC. Two new highways would be soon connected to Budaun city, first will connect Budaun to Etawah through Qadar Chowk, Etah and Mainpuri and the second one would connect Budaun to Shahjahanpur through Dataganj. After construction of these two roads in coming 2 years, Budaun will be the most important road junction of the Western UP.

Also the project of Ring Road surrounding the city has been passed, Budaun will be soon the second city of U.P. having a complete Ring Road.

• Railways

Budaun lies on the Mathura-Tanakpur railway line which is yet meter gauge. The work is under process to make it Broad gauge since 1996, but it is now going to complete till Dec 2013, another rail line would be drawn connecting Gajraula toMainpuri through Budaun City, which would make Budaun a junction.

• Airways

The nearest Airport is Delhi (Indra Gandhi International), 230 km. A Domestic Airport is also in Agra, on the distance of 175KM.

• InterCity

Autos and rickshaws serve the city for 24hrs. Budaun is one of the less polluted cities of UP because of a lot use of AutoGas (LPG), in fact Budaun is one of the rare cities having AutoGas on Petrol Pumps. Many the vehicles of the city are LPG workable.

Infrastructure[link]

• Budaun is the ninth most developing city in UP according to the latest five year development plan. The nearest big city is Bareilly where there is provision for good education and better infrastructure.
• There are various educational institutes in Budaun including primary & secondary schools and colleges for graduation.
• There are a number of banks with ATMs in the city; State bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Gramin Bank and Vijaya Bank.
• There are a few Nursing homes in the city with well experienced and educated doctors.
• There is a Stadium in the city, in Baheri which is a well maintained one.
• Budaun has a historical ghantaghar [2], and a few parks like Gandhi park, ambedkar park, City park etc.

Politics[link]

Budaun is politically much sensational, Whole city area comes under Budaun Constituency governed by Mr.Dharmendra Yadav, nephew of Mr.Mulayam Singh Yadav. Budaun is always the favourite place of Mr. Mulayam and he was the MLA of Gunaur Vidhan Sabha for many turns too. He has given a special status to Budaun. Currently the MLA of main city is Mr. Abid Raza.Under him, many new projects including Sot river project has flourished.South based Vijaya Bank has also opened their Branch in Budaun.

Historical & Religious places in Badaun[link]

^{[citation needed]}

• Jama Masjid - Built in 1223 A.D. by Illtumish.
• Birua Bari Mandir, Shayam nagar {west}
• Raghunath Mandir (Panjabi Mandir)Sayad Wara.
• An immense Badaun fort (ROZA) in Jawaharpuri.
• Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya's house in Syedwada where he was born.
• Choti Ziyarat. It is the monument of Hazrat Badrauddin Rahmatullah Alhay.
• Badi Ziyarat (It is a Dargah 'mazar sariff' of Wali of Allah, Hazrat Sultan Arfiin Rahamtullah)
• The palace of ohia, built by the royal family of sahaspur bilari in 1812.
• Remains of Sheikhupur Fort, Sheikhupur, Badaun
• Mumtaz Mahal's sister's mausoleum, Sheikhupur, Badaun
• Emperor Jahangir's foster son's mausoleum Sheikhupur, Badaun
• Khukari village near dataganj 100 km from bareilly
• Farshori tola
• Ruins of many mughal monuments
• Nagla Mandir of Goddess and Lord Shiva
• Gauri Shanker nandir (Ras jyotirling) Usanwa Road,Budaun
• Sai Mandir, Nawada, Budaun
• Bala ji (HANUMAN) Mandir, Ujhani road,Budaun
• Gauri Shanker (old temple)Purana Bazar,Budaun
• Satsang Bhawan, Ujhani-Budaun road, Budaun

Jama Masjid[link]

Budaun is having a Jama Masjid of imposing size built by Iltutmish in 1223. This mosque is the third oldest mosque of the country and second largest. It is included in the biggest mosques of the World.

Geography[link]

Badaun is located at 28°03′N 79°07′E / 28.05°N 79.12°E / 28.05; 79.12.^[5] It has an average elevation of 169 metres (554 feet). It's normal rainfall. Since Budaun has been settled after demolishing a large Fort therefore the city is irregularly elevated, with Sotha at the top of the city. The Civil Lines are is much plainer. Badaun is the tropical region. Average temperature is approximately 30 °C. There is widespread greenery. The climatic conditions of this place are suitable for agriculture and crops production always been done at large scale.

Main Roads[link]

• Subhash Chowk
• Shakeel Budayuni Road
• Bade Sarkar Road
• Chote sarkar road
• Station Road
• Kotwali Road
• Kali Sadak
• Ring Road (chakkar ki sadak)
• Six Road
• Gandhi Ground Road
• Nawada Road
• Bareilly Road
• Choudhary Badan Singh Marg
• BY-Pass Road
• Nai Sarak
• DM Road
• Kakrala Road
• Aonla Road
• Dataganj Road
• Asrar Khan Road
• Ticketganj Road

Main Localities[link]

• Avas Vikas
• Shiv Puram
• Punjabi Colony

Vivek Vihar Colony

• Mohalla chawdhary saray
• Mohalla Sotha
• Jalandhari Saray
• Kabulpura
• Mira Saray
• Nai Saray
• Shyam Nagar
• Hari bol colony
• Mohalla Khandsari
• Upar Para
• Shahbazpur
• Sheikhpur
• Nekpur
• Jogipura
• Prabhat Nagar
• Jawaharpuri
• New Adarsh Nagar
• Kheda Nawada
• Punjabi Mohalla
• Sheikh Patti
• Nahar khan sarai
• Patiyali Sarai
• Farshori Tola
• Molvi Tola
• Bara Bazar
• Chuna Mandi
• Halwai Chowk
• Ticket Ganj
• Civil Lines
• Indirapuram Coloney
• Chitransh Nagar
• Lochi Nagla
• kalyan Nagar
• Madhuban Colony
• Brahmpur
• Sahukara
• Indra Chauk
• Nagla
• Mirdha Tola

Real Estate Sector[link]

Real Estate Sector is also developing with a superb speed. Some Fully Developed Colonies has been established in the city, they are :-

• Vijay Nagar Colony
• Krishna Park Colony
• Ram Nagar Colony
• Shyam Nagar Colony
• Officer's Colony

Many other well maintained colonies are also in the city, they are :-

• Qadri Colony
• Professors Colony
• Teachers Colony
• DM Colony
• PWD Compound
• Judges Colony
• Haribol colony
• prabhat nager
• Nai Sarai

Nizami press (Moh Sotha)

Educational Institutes[link]

There are many educational institute, some of them are as below.

• N.M.S.N.Das P.G.College
• Gindo Devi Mahila MahaVidyalaya
• Government inter college(GIC)
• S.K.Inter College
• H.S. Islamia Inter College,
• Baduan institute of management & technology
• Dropadi Devi saraswati vidya mandir
• Vivekanand College
• Rajaram Mahila Inter College
• Kedarnath mahila College for girls
• Kendriya Vidyalaya Budaun
• Mahatma Gandhi Inter College
• Holy Mission convent School
• Al-Azhar Institute of Management & Technology,
• Christian Higher Secondary School
• Mother Athena School
• Bloomingdale School of Secondary Education,
• Florence Nightingale School
• New Nightingale School
• Maharishi Vidya Mandir
• T.T. Convent School
• Holy Convent mission School
• B.R.B. model School.
• Vidhyavati vedic kanya higher secondary school
• Kunwar Rukum Singh Vedic Inter College
• Saint De Paul Senior Secondary School
• Sacred Heart public School
• Kasturba Balika vidyalaya
• Govt.Girls Inter College
• Govt. polytechnic,Budaun
• Govt.Degree College,Budaun
• Nehru Children Academy School.
• Hamara Bachpan "Play School"

Agriculture[link]

Major agricultural products are wheat, paddy, sugarcane, guava and menthol.Budaun is the largest producer of Wheat in UP, II largest of sugarcane and potatoes.Budaun is the leading producer of Menthol in the country. The soil is very fertile due to tarai, because badaun is located at the bank of the Ganges; the Ganges flows 110 km in the district. In the account of agriculture, guava and menthol are the major exporting products. Budaun gives 40 % of total mentol export of India.

Industries[link]

Budaun City has many small scale industries and a few big ones.The city has -

• detergent industries
• a sugar mill,
• Rice Mills
• Tata Chemical's Fertilizer plant is situated in Babrala, Budaun
• Many Brick Kilns
• beedi factories,
• Menthol Producing Plants,
• match factories,
• Welga Chips Limited and a few others.
• Many Automobiles parts are also manufactured in Budaun.
• madhav group of industry is situated in Dehgawan,Budaun

Pending Projects[link]

There are many projects related with the city are still to be done, some biggies of them are -

• The Narrow bridge of Sot river, near Badi Ziyarat is to be reconstructed.
• A Flyover is to be constructed over the Railway Crossing near Station on SH43.
• City is to be Broad Gauged.
• Expansion of City is to be done.
• A Batelion of CRPF is to be established.
• A new 13 km long By-Pass Road is to be Constructed.
• Railway Station is to be reconstructed.
• Drainage System is to be modified.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Rahul Gandhi
Member of Lok Sabha from Amethi
Incumbent
Assumed office 2004
General Secretary of the Indian National Congress
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Chairperson of IYC and NSUI
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Personal details
Born	(1970-06-19) 19 June 1970 (age 42) New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Relations	Rajiv Gandhi (father) Sonia Gandhi (mother) Priyanka Vadra (sister)
Residence	New Delhi, India
Alma mater	Rollins College Trinity College, Cambridge
Profession	Member of Parliament
As of 5 June, 2011

Rahul Gandhi ([ˈraːɦʊl ˈɡaːnd̪ʱiː]; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency.^[1] Gandhi is the general-secretary of the Indian National Congress.^[2] He is the grandson of Feroze Gandhi and Indira (née Nehru) Gandhi, and fourth-generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Early life and career[link]

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970 ^[3] as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, who later became President of Indian National Congress, and as the grandson of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He is also the great-grandson of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister.^[4]

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba's School, Delhi^[5] before entering The Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), also his father's alma mater,^[6] from 1981–83. Meanwhile, his father had joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi's family from Sikh extremists, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka were home-schooled since then.^[7] Rahul Gandhi joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations.^[8] In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE^[9] during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College due to security concerns and completed his B.A. in 1994.^[10] During this period, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies.^[8][11] He further went on to obtain a M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1995.^[12] After graduation, Rahul Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London.^[13] In 2002 he was one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.^[14]

Political career[link]

In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament.^[15] The seat had been held by his mother until she transferred to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. The Congress had been doing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state at the time.^[16] At the time, this move generated surprise among political commentators, who had regarded his sister Priyanka as being the more charismatic and likely to succeed. It generated speculation that the presence of a young member of India's most famous political family would reinvigorate the Congress party's political fortunes among India's youthful population^[17] In his first interview with foreign media, he portrayed himself as a uniter of the country and condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions.^[15]

He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.^[18] Until 2006 he held no other office.^[19]

Gandhi and his sister, who is married to Robert Vadra, managed their mother's campaign for re-election to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.^[20]

He was a prominent figure in the Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes.^[21]

Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat.^[22] In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.^[23]

In 2008, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad.^[24]

Youth politics[link]

In his attempt to prove himself as a youth leader in November 2008 he held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to handpick at least 40 people who will make up the think-tank of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), an organisation that he has been keen to transform since he was appointed general secretary in September 2007.^[25]

Under Rahul Gandhi, IYC and NSUI has seen a dramatic increase in members from a two lakhs to twenty five lakhs.^[26]

In various reports it has been proved that Rahul Gandhi has failed in his promise to eliminate family, patronage, money from Youth Congress. It has been seen that an aspiring delegates need to pay a substantial sum as nomination fee. Hence, an aspiring office-bearer with deep pockets sponsors them thereby allowing money power to have a role in the elections.^[27][28][29]

2009 elections[link]

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his Amethi constituency by defeating his nearest rival by a margin of over 333,000 votes. In these elections congress is said to have revived itself in Uttar Pradesh by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats and the majority of the credit for this turnaround is given to Rahul Gandhi.^[30] He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks.

Lokpal bill[link]

Rahul Gandhi opines that the Lokpal should be made a constitutional body and it should be made accountable to the Parliament, just like the Election Commission. He also feels that Lokpal alone cannot root out corruption. This statement came out on 25 August 2011, on the 10th day of Anna Hazare's fast. This statement was considered as a delaying tactic by the opposition and Team Anna's members. It was consequently slammed by prominent opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.^[31] The Parliamentary Standing Committee led by Abhishek Manu Singhvi tabled the Lok Bill report in the Rajya Sabha on 9 December 2011. Almost all points proposed by Team Anna were ignored while Rahul Gandhi's wish for Lokpal to be made into a constitutional body was implemented. Anna Hazare believes that Rahul Gandhi is responsible for the weak and ineffective bill proposed by the standing committee of parliament.^[32]

Land Acquisition Protests Arrest[link]

On 11 May 2011 Rahul Gandhi was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police at Bhatta Parsaul village after he turned out in support of agitating farmers demanding more compensation for their land being acquired for a highway project.^[33] He was released after being held for about three hours and later returned to New Delhi. He was to be presented before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate on 12 May 2011.^[34]

2012 Assembly elections[link]

Rahul Gandhi campaigned extensively in the 2012 Assembly elections, especially in the highly politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the hope that his popularity would help bring Congress back to power. However, the party did very poorly in the elections winning only 38 seats, a meagre increase of six seats from the 2007 elections^[35]. The Samajwadi Party and its new leader, Akhilesh Yadav swept the elections in UP, and Mr Yadav was sworn as the youngest Chief Minister of UP. The Congress party suffered humiliating defeats in other states (Goa and Punjab), and a close shave in Uttarahakhand. With only one win in the state of Manipur, the Indian press was quick to question the future of Mr Gandhi as the leader of the Congress party.^[36]

Political and legal issues[link]

Comparison of RSS and SIMI[link]

Rahul Gandhi has been critical of nationalist groups like the RSS and compared them to terrorist organizations like SIMI.^[37][38] According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2009, he allegedly shared concerns with the American ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that radicalized Hindu groups may pose a bigger threat to India than Islamic terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.^[39][40] His comments on radical Hindu groups were criticized by the opposition party, as well as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.^[41]

Sukanya Devi[link]

It has been alleged that Rahul Gandhi had detained a girl and her parents since 2007 after the family accused the Gandhi scion of raping the girl. On 01st Mar 2011, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi,^[42] however the allegations were found to be false. Allahabad high court not only dismissed the case after the girl in question appeared in the court, but slapped a 50 lakh penalty against the petitioner ordering a CBI inquiry against her and websites publishing the story.^[43]

13th Jul 2011 Terror Attack remarks[link]

On 14th Jul 2011, a day after the serial bombing in Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that "it was very difficult to stop every single terror attack". The remark resulted in a number of strong criticism from a number of Shiv Sena party members.^[44]

See also[link]

• Political Families of The World

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rahul Gandhi

• Profile at BBC News
• Profile at Govt. of India website
• Rahul Gandhi collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Rahul Gandhi collected news and commentary at The Times of India

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".^[2][3]

The Times is the originator of the ubiquitous Times Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing. In November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 in an attempt to appeal more to younger readers and commuters using public transport. The Sunday Times remains a broadsheet.

Though traditionally a moderate newspaper and sometimes a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections.^[4] In 2004, according to MORI, the voting intentions of its readership were 40% for the Conservative Party, 29% for the Liberal Democrats, and 26% for Labour.^[5] The Times had an average daily circulation of 394,102 in March 2012.^[1] An American edition has been published since 6 June 2006.^[2]

History[link]

Front page of The Times from December 4, 1788.

1785 to 1890[link]

The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, with Walter in the role of editor. Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name. Walter senior had spent sixteen months in Newgate prison for libel printed in The Times, but his pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers.

The Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers.

In 1809, John Stoddart was appointed general editor, replaced in 1817 by Thomas Barnes. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for The Times the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform.").The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence.^[6]

The Times was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential^[7] with his dispatches back to England.

In other events of the nineteenth century, The Times opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws^{[citation needed]} until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise, and only reluctantly supported aid to victims of the Irish Potato Famine. It enthusiastically supported the Great Reform Bill of 1832, which reduced corruption and increased the electorate from 400 000 people to 800 000 people (still a small minority of the population). During the American Civil War, The Times represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery.

The third John Walter, the founder's grandson, succeeded his father in 1847. The paper continued as more or less independent, but from the 1850s The Times was beginning to suffer from the rise in competition from the penny press, notably The Daily Telegraph and The Morning Post.

During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach The Times and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources.^[8]

1890 to 1981[link]

The Times faced financial extinction in 1890 under Arthur Fraser Walter, but it was rescued by an energetic editor, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell. During his tenure (1890–1911), The Times became associated with selling the Encyclopædia Britannica using aggressive American marketing methods introduced by Horace Everett Hooper and his advertising executive, Henry Haxton. Due to legal fights between the Britannica's two owners, Hooper and Walter Montgomery Jackson, The Times severed its connection in 1908 and was bought by pioneering newspaper magnate, Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe.

In editorials published on 29 and 31 July 1914, Wickham Steed, the Times's Chief Editor, argued that the British Empire should enter World War I.^[9] On 8 May 1920, also under the editorship of Steed, The Times in an editorial endorsed the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion as a genuine document, and called Jews the world's greatest danger. In the leader entitled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Steed wrote about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?".^[10]

The following year, when Philip Graves, the Constantinople (modern Istanbul) correspondent of The Times, exposed The Protocols as a forgery, 'The Times retracted the editorial of the previous year.

In 1922, John Jacob Astor, son of the 1st Viscount Astor, bought The Times from the Northcliffe estate. The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement; then-editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with those in the government who practised appeasement^{[citation needed]}, most notably Neville Chamberlain.

Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent, was a correspondent for the newspaper in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. Philby was admired for his courage in obtaining high-quality reporting from the front lines of the bloody conflict. He later joined MI6 during World War II, was promoted into senior positions after the war ended, then eventually defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.^[11]

Between 1941 and 1946, the left-wing British historian E.H. Carr was Assistant Editor. Carr was well known for the strongly pro-Soviet tone of his editorials.^[12] In December 1944, when fighting broke out in Athens between the Greek Communist ELAS and the British Army, Carr in a Times editorial sided with the Communists, leading Winston Churchill to condemn him and that leader in a speech to the House of Commons.^[13] As a result of Carr's editorial, The Times became popularly known during World War II as the threepenny Daily Worker (the price of the Daily Worker was one penny)^[14]

On 3 May 1966 it started printing news on the front page for the first time - previously the front page featured small advertisements, usually of interest to the moneyed classes in British society.^{[citation needed]} In 1967, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson, The Thomson Corporation merged it with The Sunday Times to form Times Newspapers Limited.

An industrial dispute prompted the management to shut the paper for nearly a year (1 December 1978 – 12 November 1979).

The Thomson Corporation management were struggling to run the business due to the 1979 Energy Crisis and union demands. Management were left with no choice but to save both titles by finding a buyer who was in a position to guarantee the survival of both titles, and also one who had the resources and was committed to funding the introduction of modern printing methods.

Several suitors appeared, including Robert Maxwell, Tiny Rowland and Lord Rothermere; however, only one buyer was in a position to meet the full Thomson remit, Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

1981 to present: Murdoch-era[link]

In 1981, The Times and The Sunday Times were bought from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International.^[15] The acquisition followed three weeks of intensive bargaining with the unions by company negotiators, John Collier and Bill O'Neill.

After 14 years as editor, William Rees-Mogg resigned the post upon the completion of the change of ownership.^[16] Murdoch began to make his mark on the paper by appointing Harold Evans as his replacement.^[17] One of his most important changes was the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. In March–May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print The Times since the 19th century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photo-composition. This allowed print room staff at The Times and The Sunday Times to be reduced by half.^{[citation needed]} However, direct input of text by journalists ("single stroke" input) was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, when The Times moved from New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street) to new offices in Wapping.^[18]

Robert Fisk,^[19] seven times British International Journalist of the Year,^[20] resigned as foreign correspondent in 1988 over what he saw as "political censorship" of his article on the shooting-down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988. He wrote in detail about his reasons for resigning from the paper due to meddling with his stories, and the paper's pro-Israel stance.^[21]

In June 1990, The Times ceased its policy of using courtesy titles ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes) for living persons before full names on first reference, but it continues to use them before surnames on subsequent references. The more formal style is now confined to the "Court and Social" page, though "Ms" is now acceptable in that section, as well as before surnames in news sections.

In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. On 13 September 2004, the weekday broadsheet was withdrawn from sale in Northern Ireland. Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format.

The Conservative Party announced plans to launch litigation against The Times over an incident in which the newspaper claimed that Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby had admitted that his party would not win the 2005 General Election. The Times later published a clarification, and the litigation was dropped.

On 6 June 2005, The Times redesigned its Letters page, dropping the practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. Published letters were long regarded as one of the paper's key constituents. Author/solicitor David Green of Castle Morris Pembrokeshire has had more letters published on the main letters page than any other known contributor – 158 by 31 January 2008. According to its leading article, "From Our Own Correspondents", removal of full postal addresses was in order to fit more letters onto the page.

In a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, Murdoch stated that the law and the independent board prevented him from exercising editorial control.^[22]

In May 2008 printing of The Times switched from Wapping to new plants at Broxbourne on the outskirts of London, and Merseyside and Glasgow, enabling the paper to be produced with full colour on every page for the first time.

Some^[who?] allege that The Times' partisan opinion pieces also damage its status as 'paper of record,' particularly when attacking interests that go against those of its parent company – News International. In 2010 it published an opinion piece attacking the BBC for being 'one of a group of' signatories to a letter criticising BSkyB share options in October 2010.^[23]

In March 2012, it became the first British newspaper to formally endorse same-sex marriage.

Content[link]

Copies of The Times and supplements from December 2005

The Times features news for the first half of the paper with the leading articles on the second page, the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section with world news normally following this. The business pages begin on the centre spread, and are followed by The Register, containing obituaries, Court & Social section, and related material. The sport section is at the end of the main paper.

[edit] Times2

The Times's main supplement is the times2, featuring various lifestyle columns.^{[clarification needed]} It was discontinued on 1 March 2010 but reintroduced on 11 October 2010 after negative feedback. Its regular features include a puzzles section called Mind Games. Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called T2 and previously Times 2. Regular features include columns by a different columnist each weekday. There was a column by Marcus du Sautoy each Wednesday, for example. The back pages are devoted to puzzles and contain sudoku, "Killer Sudoku", "KenKen", word polygon puzzles, and a crossword simpler and more concise than the main "Times Crossword".

The supplement contains arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings and reviews.

[edit] The Game

The Game is included in the newspaper on Mondays, and details all the weekend's football activity (Premier League and Football League Championship, League One and League Two.) The Scottish edition of The Game also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games.

Saturday supplements[link]

The Saturday edition of The Times contains a variety of supplements. These supplements were relaunched in January 2009 as: Sport, Weekend (including travel and lifestyle features), Saturday Review (arts, books, and ideas), The Times Magazine (columns on various topics), and Playlist (an entertainment listings guide).

Saturday Review is the first regular supplement published in broadsheet format since the paper switched to a compact size in 2004.

At the beginning of summer 2011 Saturday Review switched to the tabloid format

The Times Magazine features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren, Food and Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.

Online presence[link]

The Times and The Sunday Times have had an online presence since March 1999, originally at the-times.co.uk and sunday-times.co.uk, and later at timesonline.co.uk.^[24] There are now two websites: thetimes.co.uk is aimed at daily readers, and the thesundaytimes.co.uk site at providing weekly magazine-like content. There are also iPad and Android editions of both newspapers. Since July 2010, News International has required readers who do not subscribe to the print edition to pay £2 per week to read The Times and The Sunday Times online.^[25]

Visits to the websites have decreased by 87% since the paywall was introduced, from 21 million unique users per month to 2.7 million.^[26] In April 2009, the timesonline site had a readership of 750,000 readers per day.^[27] As of October 2011, there were around 111,000 subscribers to the Times' digital products ^[28]

Ownership[link]

John Walter, the founder of The Times

The Times has had the following eight owners since its foundation in 1785:

• 1785 to 1803 - John Walter;
• 1803 to 1847 - John Walter, 2nd;
• 1847 to 1894 - John Walter, 3rd;
• 1894 to 1908 - Arthur Fraser Walter;
• 1908 to 1922 - Lord Northcliffe;
• 1922 to 1966 - Astor family;
• 1966 to 1981 - Roy Thomson; and
• 1981 to present - News International (a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation, run by Rupert Murdoch).

Readership[link]

At the time of Harold Evans' appointment as editor in 1981, The Times had an average daily sale of 282,000 copies, in comparision to the 1.4 million daily sales of its traditional rival The Daily Telegraph.^[29] By November 2005 The Times sold an average of 691,283 copies per day, the second-highest of any British "quality" newspaper (after The Daily Telegraph, which had a circulation of 903,405 copies in the period), and the highest in terms of full-rate sales.^[30] By March 2012 The Times' average daily circulation had fallen to 394,102 copies, compared to The Daily Telegraph's 576,378, with the two retaining respectively the second-highest and highest circulations among British "quality" newspapers.^[1] In contrast The Sun, the highest-selling "tabloid" daily newspaper in the United Kingdom, sold an average of 2,614,725 copies in March 2012, and the Daily Mail, the highest-selling "middle market" British daily newspaper, sold an average of 1,952,524 copies in the period.^[1]

In a 2009 national readership survey The Times was found to have the highest number of ABC1 25–44 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the "quality" papers.^[31]

Typeface[link]

An example of the Times New Roman font

In 1908 The Times started using the Monotype Modern typeface.^[32]

The Times commissioned the serif typeface Times New Roman, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype, in 1931.^[33] It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated.^[34] The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. Times New Roman made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times newspaper.^[35] After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font:

• Times Europa was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces.
• Times Roman replaced Times Europa on 30 August 1982.^[36]
• Times Millennium was made in 1991,^[36] drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International.
• Times Classic first appeared in 2001.^[37] Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while obviating the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004.
• Times Modern was unveiled on 20 November 2006, as the successor of Times Classic.^[36] Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as EF Times Modern; it was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston (deputy editor of The Times) and designer Neville Brody.^[38]

Political allegiance[link]

The Times had declared its support for Clement Attlee's Labour at the 1945 general election; the party went on to win the election by a landslide over Winston Churchill's Conservative government. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It supported the Conservatives for the subsequent three elections, followed by support for both the Conservatives and the Liberal Party for the next five elections, expressly supporting a Con-Lib coalition in 1974. The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 2001.

For the 2001 general election The Times declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when Labour achieved a third successive win, though with a reduced majority.^[39] For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.^[40]

This makes it the most varied newspaper in terms of political support in British history.^[41]

Sponsorships[link]

The Times, along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the "The Times" bfi London Film Festival.

The Times sponsors the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature at Asia House, London.

Notable people[link]

Editors[link]

Notable columnists and journalists[link]

Related publications[link]

[edit] Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) is a separately-paid-for weekly literature and society magazine.

[edit] The Times Science Review

Between 1951 and 1966 The Times published a separately-paid-for quarterly science review, The Times Science Review. Remarkably, in 1953 both the newspaper and its science supplement failed to report on the discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge, which was reported on by both the News Chronicle and The New York Times.

The Times started a new (but free) monthly science magazine, Eureka, in October 2009.

Times Atlases[link]

(Times Books Group Ltd)

• The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 2007 ISBN 978-0-00-780150-3

In fiction[link]

• In the dystopian future world of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Times has been transformed into the organ of the totalitarian ruling party, its editorials—of which several are quoted in the book—reflecting Big Brother's pronouncements.
• Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe is described as fond of solving the London Times' crossword puzzle at his New York home, in preference to those of American papers.
• In the James Bond series by Ian Fleming, James Bond, reads The Times. As described by Fleming in From Russia, with Love: "The Times was the only paper that Bond ever read."

See also[link]

Journalism portal

• List of newspapers by date

[edit] References

Further reading[link]

• Evans‏, Harold (1983). Good Times, Bad Times. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78295-9  - includes sections of black-and-white photographic plates, plus a few charts and diagrams in text pages.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Times

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Times

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Times

• Official website (Mobile)
• The Sunday Times site
• Times World Atlases official website including a History and Heritage section detailing landmark Times atlases
• Archive from 1785 to 2006 – full text and original layout, searchable (not free of charge, registration required)
• Neil, Andrew; Griffiths, Ian; Fitzpatrick, Barry (15 January 2006). "Three views of the industrial dispute twenty years on". The Observer (UK). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1686500,00.html. 
• The Times editor Robert Thomson lecture online: From the editorial desk of The Times, RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series
• Anthony Trollope's satire on the mid-nineteenth century Times
• Journalism Now: The Times Winchester University Journalism History project on the Times in the nineteenth century