section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  S Mangal Singh Gill (Tesildar) and S. Chanchal Singh (Jandiala, Jalandhar) were made in charge of the newspaper. Madan Mohan Malaviya and Tara Singh were among the members of the Managing Committee. The Managing Chairman and Chief Patron was Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri.
  
  According to Prem Shankar Jha, who wrote an official history of the newspaper in 1999, most of the early funding of the paper, therefore, came from Sikhs in Canada. When financial troubles started in the early years, the Akalis approached two interested potential buyers from the nationalist movement. These were Motilal Nehru and Madan Mohan Malaviya, and ultimately Malviya bought the Hindustan Times. In fact, Malviya had to take out a loan of Rs. 40,000 with the help of Lala Lajpat Rai in order to finance the paper. In 1928, Gandhi chose a new editor, K. M. Panikkar, for the paper. By that time, the paper was running into financial troubles again; G. D. Birla underwrote some expenses and ultimately assumed ownership.
  
  Devdas Gandhi, son of Mahatma Gandhi, was inducted into the editors' panel, and was later appointed editor. The opening ceremony was performed by Mahatma Gandhi on 26 September 1924. The first issue was published from Naya Bazar, Delhi (now Swami Sharda Nand Marg). It contained writings and articles from C. F. Andrews and Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy, among others.
  
  K. M. Panikkar, also known as Sardar Panikkar, launched the Hindustan Times as a serious nationalist newspaper. As an Oxonian, historian and litterateur, Panikkar strived to make the paper broader than an Akali sheet. He became the editor and funds flowed freely from Akali patrons. He exerted himself strenuously, but the paper made very little headway. In two years, Panikkar could not take the print order any higher than 3,000. By then the Akali movement appeared to lose steam and funds dried up. The paper was saved from an untimely demise when Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya stepped in to realise his vision of a newspaper in Delhi.
  
  It has its roots in the Indian independence movement of the first half of the twentieth century and even faced the noted " Hindustan Times Contempt Case (August–November, 1941)" at Allahabad High Court. It was edited at times by many important people in India, including Devdas Gandhi, Sri Mulgaonkar, B.G. Verghese and Khushwant Singh. Sanjoy Narayan was editor in chief of the paper from 2008 to 2016.