The Times of India vs The Hindu : Which one should you be reading?
In an age where anyone can write anything to spread their opinion regardless of how true it is, a source of authentic information is imperative. While all news is reported from somebody’s perspective, something that is printed and will last would be crafted meticulously to be accurate.
Newspapers are reasonably reliable sources of information on a day-to-day basis. Print ads in them are considered far more trustworthy than digital ads. Besides, Oxford scientists proved that the process of reading trains the cognitive abilities of the brain. It also activates areas that aren’t used at other times.
While there can be many more reasons to read a newspaper, it comes down to two of India’s most popular when you want to read in English — The Times of India and The Hindu. So, which one should you be reading?
Prologue
The Times of India
The Times of India is India’s most widely read English daily and the third-most circulated newspaper. Starting back in 1838, it is India’s oldest English newspaper still in circulation and the second oldest after Bombay Samachar.
With daring journalists and an instinct to spread the truth, The Times of India is the Times Group’s pride. It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman, and Co. Ltd.
The Hindu
The Hindu is the ninth most widely read newspaper in the country. It was started in 1878 by G. Subramania Iyer and is today owned by Kasturi and sons.
With some nostalgic flavor to it, The Hindu has been very family-friendly for decades. In 1995, it became the first Indian newspaper to offer an electronic version.
How they’re Different
The Times of India
Valorous
The Times of India is one of India’s most daring newspapers voicing large scales of people’s opinions. Apparently, their aim is to spread the truth as much as they can. Their articles are written cleverly, and the more you read them, the more you will like them.
Price and Quality
TOI comes with all pages in color with quite a low price tag of ₹2.50 and ₹3 on Sundays (in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh). In comparison, the paper quality is quite good compared to The Hindu, which costs around ₹6.50 (and ₹12 on Sundays).
If your paper gets wet on a rainy day, TOI doesn’t really cockle. The Hindu would be considerably damaged.
Plus, The Hindu is only half-colored. I presume that is because the Times Group has a broad spectrum of businesses, including some of India’s top TV channels (MNX, Romedy Now, and Movies Now). Having more money helps them make a better quality product at a cheaper rate.
Holistic
Not only that, The Times of India offers much broader content. It has everything from politics to tech covered succinctly. It covers many kinds of research, business news, technological advancements, psychology stuff, and celebrity buzz, among other things.
Local News
TOI gives as much importance to local news as it does to national news. It’s essential to know your city as well.
National News
On the TOI, national news is just like it is in any other newspaper. I just happen to prefer the way of writing.
Global News
The Times of India covers global news more than any other newspaper in the country. You will get a clear-cut understanding of how things work abroad, their cultures, and the view of a person belonging to the earth.
Science, Technology, and More!
It has a section called Times Trends pretty much every day, which contains some of the latest discoveries made in almost every field you can think of! This is my personal favorite section of the entire paper.
Straightforward
I think the Times of India doesn’t have biases or filters. I mean, they seem to support all religions, castes, communities, and ideologies equally. They write what the far-left and far-right say without any sugarcoating, leaving judgment to their reader’s discretion.
Affiliations
The best probably is that TOI is affiliated with the world’s best players, like the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, etc. It also comes with a few curated articles from websites like Medium and Quora.
This is the most significant hand TOI has over the others. While they focus on national content, these publishers allow them to use their international content. In return, TOI would give them the national news that they had collected to use in their papers.
Sundries
Because the Times of India has pretty much everything under the sun covered, it’s hard to talk about all of them. I suggest you read it yourself and experience their august play of words.
The Hindu
Nostalgic
The Hindu is a newspaper suitable for older people and kids. Covering neither celebrity buzz nor adult facts like the Times of India does, it earned the impression of being family-friendly. Besides publishing the depths of social subjects otherwise obscure, it has cultural content for old people, vital for next generations to learn.
Literature and Art
The Hindu unremittingly supports indigenous literature and art. In Friday Review and Literature Review, you get to find some of our country’s hidden gems. The Hindu on Sundays comes with plenty of surprises covering many topics.
Earlier, The Hindu used to deliver Young World along with the newspaper on Tuesdays. It was a massive hit for them. It never had any celebrity corner, adult-facts or pictures of scantily dressed people. Many elders used to recommend it to their children.
Young World was such a hit that our teachers asked to get it to school for reading when we were in 4th grade! Unfortunately, you now will need to have a separate paid subscription to get it.
History and Culture
If you’re pursuing History, The Hindu has you covered. They keep writing about historical monuments, achievements, and traditions. Coming to traditions, The Hindu has tons of baby boomer content.
You get to learn about traditional musicians, dancers as well as artists. The paper doesn’t have celebrity buzz or pictures of scantily dressed people (which TOI does every day) making it very family-friendly. You must’ve heard some elder asking you to read The Hindu, haven’t you? However, that is where the good things end.
Bigotry
The Hindu is a pro-leftist newspaper and quite biased to specific religions, castes and communities. They try to manipulate information and make the reader think the way they want them to.
For example, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t really understand what he’s speaking, which is evident when you see him talking. When they write, The Hindu covers up all the flaws in RaGa’s speech and tries to portray it professionally, attracting their readers towards him.
Moreover, they never highlighted Modi or the NDA government’s achievements (seriously, not even once). The #1 reason why people read newspapers is for politics. I don’t care what BJP or Congress is. Both parties have good and bad politicians.
A newspaper should provide us with information so that we can discern what kind of leaders we want. Nevertheless, The Hindu adds whatever spices they can find to the story.
When Modi does something good, you won’t find it in the newspaper. But when RaGa gives a feeble-minded speech, you find a 10,000% amplified version on the cover page. FYI: The Hindu was the only Indian newspaper that did not carry the news of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on its cover page. Besides, the assassin, Nathuram Godse, worked for The Hindu. That explains it.
The Hindu is highly degraded in the eyes of people who read news from various sources. Unfortunately, people who read only The Hindu do not understand what’s really happening. Consequently, when both these multitudes get into an argument, The Hindu readers keep talking non-sense calling the others wrong.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu
For some reason, The Hindu’s stories revolve only around Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I live in Andhra Pradesh, but there never was any news related to my state except that Chandra Babu Naidu called Modi “cheat,” “fraud,” “blah…blah…blah…”. According to them, Rahul Gandhi is a very broad-minded leader wanting to help Andhra Pradesh 🤦🏻♂️.
When some severe crime happens in Andhra Pradesh, the news I would read in The Hindu is that a minor accident occurred in Kerala. Keralites and the Tamilians find this attracting; nobody else does.
When former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Shri Muthuvel Karunanidhi passed away, The Hindu dedicated 4 color pages to write about him. For days, they kept singing praises of his legacy.
Nearly a week later, when former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away, they had only 2 color pages. The rest of the pages dedicated to him were b&w. That too wasn’t an all-encompassing document compared to writing every second of Karunanidhi’s life. In one day, they forgot Vajpayee totally!
This may be because the Tamilians have a vibrant heritage that they’re super proud of (The Hindu has Tamilian roots). And Vajpayee was a far-right leader.
So, why is The Hindu prominent?
The Hindu is TOI’s only real competitor. They write news in a very professional way compared to alternatives like The Deccan Chronicle, which has the least concerning story on its cover pages. Moreover, the Gandhi family ruled India for a very long time. So, it’s quite natural for people to read pro-Congress propaganda.
They do this in a rather cunning way. They try to attract a few communities by showing them things that induce insecurity, fear and defensive aggression. For example, some Hindu readers told me that they favor INC because BJP isn’t secularly enough.
I’m not saying that nobody should talk against the government. They should get all the right information and should have the freedom to choose their side. They shouldn’t favor somebody because of reading false propaganda.
On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, The Hindu is a family-friendly newspaper. It makes older people feel nostalgic. In turn, they recommend it to Zoomers as they think that the current generation is forgetting our treasure trove cultures and traditions.
Did you ever feel that Facebook was doing something terrible to you? No. The same is the case with The Hindu. That’s why it’s so big. But if Mark Zuckerberg had to face charges for allegedly influencing people, The Hindu should too. Hopefully, in the future, we will have clear transparent news.
Showdown
So, what should you be reading? Based on what you do, I divided my recommendations into categories. I might not cover your job here, but you can choose from something related to it.
Child For Children, my pick is The Hindu. In a world growing fast and as counter-culture grows with time, they should learn about our traditions and History. The Hindu has only a bit about science which should be enough for them. They won’t understand the politicals anyways. But, they shouldn’t be emotionally attached to it because they read it since they were kids.
Students (Teens) For students, The Times of India is highly recommended. It has a wide variety of disciplines we can learn from. However, this has two conditions — 1. The students should be mature enough to understand adult-facts; 2. They shouldn’t be distracted by focussing on celebrity news. On the other hand, if the student is pursuing History or something related to Indian traditions, they should choose The Hindu.
Scientist, Engineer or Doctor From all the discussion above, The Times of India.
Businessmen, Entrepreneurs and Managers When it comes to economics, both The Times of India and The Hindu do a great job. However, TOI should be your choice because it has several inspiring articles for entrepreneurs and business personalities. Very often, they talk about the lessons from icons like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet. And hey, Bill Gates wrote a few articles for the TOI too! Every week, they also interview a successful entrepreneur.
Teacher Depends on your subject. If you teach History, read The Hindu. However, for Civics, you will have to read The Times of India. In case of any other subject, go for TOI.
Retired If you have retired, you might be a person liking people sticking to screens. In that case, go for The Hindu.
Eccentric jobs like Mountaineer, etc. The Times of India.
Epilogue
All the points mentioned above are based on my observations reading both the newspapers entirely for 7 months (from April — October 2018).
After October, I discontinued The Hindu because I just didn’t like their political propaganda. I am politically neutral and want good leaders. The power to make decisions should be with readers, not writers. Whatever it is, whoever it is, let truth prevail!
Earlier, newspapers were only for politics. Today, they cover tons of topics. And they also come with plenty of graphics, thanks to technological advancements.
Originally published at iMia on March 15, 2019.
