''The Civil and Military Gazette'' was a daily English-language newspaper founded in 1872 in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It was published from

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

and

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, some times simultaneously, until its closure in 1963.Asiamap: Archives
Retrieved September 10, 2010.

History

The ''Civil and Military Gazette'' was founded in

and

in 1872. It was a merger of '' The Mofussilite'' in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, and the '' Lahore Chonicle'' and '' Indian Public Opinion and Panjab Times'' in Lahore. The Lahore and Simla editions of the paper continued to be published concurrently until 1949, when the Simla branch was closed. The ''Civil and Military Gazette'' began publishing in

a week before its branch in Simla closed. However, the ''CMG'' in Karachi was very short-lived, the publication lasting a mere 4 years. During the ''CMGs publication in Lahore, Simla, and Karachi, the frequency of publication changed thrice as follows:

Notable staff members

Rudyard Kipling

The ''Civil and Military Gazette'' was the workplace of renowned British author and poet,

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

. It was referred to by Kipling as his "mistress and most true love." Kipling was assistant editor of the ''CMG'', a job procured for him by his father, who was

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the

Lahore Museum The Lahore Museum ( pa, ; ur, ; ''"Lahore Wonder House"'') is a museum located in Lahore, Pakistan. Founded in 1865 at a smaller location and opened in 1894 at its current location on The Mall in Lahore during the British colonial period, La ...

,Vicyorianweb.Org: Rudyard Kipling Chronology
Retrieved September 11, 2010. when it was decided that he lacked the academic ability to get into

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

on a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

. When Kipling joined the staff at the Lahore ''CMG'' in 1882, the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

was Stephen Wheeler. 1886 brought a change of editors at the newspaper. Kay Robinson, the new editor, allowed more creative freedom, and Kipling was asked to contribute short stories to the newspaper. His first collection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

, ''

Plain Tales from the Hills ''Plain Tales from the Hills'' (published 1888) is the first collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. Out of its 40 stories, "eight-and-twenty", according to Kipling's ''Preface'', were initially published in the '' Civil and Military Ga ...

'', contained 28 stories that had initially found publication in the ''CMG''. Rudyard Kipling eventually left the ''Civil and Military Gazette'' in 1887, to move to its sister-newspaper in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, '' The Pioneer''.

Mahbub Jamal Zahedi

The last editor of CMG was Abdul Hamid Sheikh, who wrote Lahore Notes under 'HS' in the Pakistan Times after the CMG shut down.

Mahbub Jamal Zahedi Mahbub Jamal Zahedi also known as M J Zahedi (21 June 1929 – 7 December 2008) was a veteran journalist and philatelist from Pakistan. During a career of nearly fifty years he served as editor of the ''Khaleej Times'', Dubai, UAE as well the ne ...

joined the ''Civil and Military Gazette'' in 1963, at a time when its last branch, situated in Lahore, was about to cease publication. He served there for only a few months, before he moved to

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

in Karachi.

References

Daily newspapers published in India Publications established in 1872 English-language newspapers published in India English-language newspapers published in Pakistan Publications disestablished in 1963 Mass media in Lahore 1872 establishments in India Daily newspapers published in Pakistan {{Pakistan-newspaper-stub