The Indian Express
An Ayurvedic doctor named P. Varadarajulu Naidu started The Indian Express in 1932 at Chennai. He published the paper through his Tamil Nadu press during a time of economic hardship. Financial difficulties forced him to sell the newspaper to Swaminathan Sadanand shortly after its launch. Sadanand was the founder of The Free Press Journal, which operated as a national news agency. In 1933, the publication opened a second office in Madurai and launched Dinamani, its Tamil edition. Sadanand introduced innovations that reduced the price of the newspaper for readers. He later sold part of his stake to Ramnath Goenka as convertible debentures due to ongoing money issues. When The Free Press Journal collapsed in 1935, Sadanand lost ownership after a long court battle with Goenka. Goenka had already purchased Andhra Prabha, another prominent Telugu daily, by 1939. These three dailies were often referred to collectively as the Three Musketeers.
A fire gutted the entire premises of The Indian Express in 1940. The Hindu, a rival newspaper, helped considerably in re-launching the paper after the disaster. They lent their old building and allowed printing temporarily at one of its Swadesimithran's presses. Later, The Hindu offered recently vacated premises at 2 Mount Road on rent to Goenka. This location eventually became the landmark known as Express Estates. The relocation also enabled the Express to obtain better high speed printing machines. A district judge who led the inquiry into the fire concluded that a short circuit or cigarette butt could have ignited the blaze. The judge noted that the growing city had inadequate fire control support during that period. By 1952, the paper had achieved a circulation of 44,469 copies.
Ramnath Goenka died in 1991, leaving behind a complex legacy for his family. Two of his grandsons, Manoj Kumar Sonthalia and Viveck Goenka, split the group eight years later in 1999. Indian Express Mumbai with all the North Indian editions went to Viveck Goenka. All the Southern editions were grouped as Express Publications Madurai Limited and headquartered in Chennai under Sonthalia. The southern editions took the name The New Indian Express while the northern editions retained the original Indian Express name. The northern operations kept The prefixed to the title after the division. This structural change marked a significant shift in how the newspaper family operated across India.
Indian Express began publishing daily on the internet on the 8th of July 1996. Five months later, the website expressindia.com attracted 700,000 hits every day except weekends when it fell to 60% of its normal levels. According to the Indian Readership Survey from 2017, the paper is the sixth most read English newspaper. It reached nearly 1.6 million readers during that survey period. In Mumbai, the approximate daily circulation stood at 160,000 copies. Delhi saw around 140,000 copies distributed each day. Pune had approximately 90,000 copies circulating daily. Chandigarh reported 45,000 copies while Ahmedabad managed 42,000 copies per day. Nagpur and Lucknow both recorded 40,000 copies in their respective markets.
In May 2020, the Indian Express reported that an audio clip shared on WhatsApp was doctored by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police. The clip had been presented as a recording of Saad Kandhlawi asking Tablighi Jamaat members to disregard social distancing recommendations for a religious congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bureau of Police Research and Development subsequently listed the audio clip as an example of fake news and disinformation vectors in a report. They retracted it one day later after initial publication. The Delhi Police posted on Twitter that the Indian Express article was incorrect and summoned the reporter for questioning. The newspaper replied on Twitter that they had contacted Special Commissioner of Police Praveer Ranjan for comment before publication. In February 2025, Dr. Shashi Tharoor accused Indian Express of manipulation of his speech during a podcast appearance. He claimed the newspaper ran a fake news story saying he had decried the absence of a leader in the Kerala Congress.
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Common questions
Who started The Indian Express and when was it founded?
An Ayurvedic doctor named P. Varadarajulu Naidu started The Indian Express in 1932 at Chennai.
What happened to The Indian Express premises during the fire of 1940?
A fire gutted the entire premises of The Indian Express in 1940, leading to a relocation that eventually became the landmark known as Express Estates.
How did Ramnath Goenka split The Indian Express after his death in 1991?
Two of his grandsons, Manoj Kumar Sonthalia and Viveck Goenka, split the group eight years later in 1999 with southern editions going to Sonthalia and northern editions to Goenka.
When did Indian Express begin publishing daily on the internet?
Indian Express began publishing daily on the internet on the 8th of July 1996.
Why did The Indian Express report an audio clip from May 2020 as fake news?
The newspaper reported that an audio clip shared on WhatsApp was doctored by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police regarding Saad Kandhlawi and Tablighi Jamaat members.