The Civil and Military Gazette was a daily English-language newspaper founded in 1872 in British India. It was published from Lahore, Simla and Karachi, some times simultaneously, until its closure in 1963.Asiamap: Archives , Retrieved September 10, 2010. The archives are owned by Lahore-based businessman Humayun Naseer Shaikh and have been digitized by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Citizens Archive of Pakistan.
History
The Civil and Military Gazette was founded in Lahore and Simla in 1872. It was a merger of The Mofussilite in Calcutta, and the Lahore Chronicle and Indian Public Opinion and Panjab Times in Lahore.Indian English through newspapers: By Asima Ranjan Parhi, Retrieved September 11, 2010.
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 Karachi 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 CMG publication in Lahore, Simla, and Karachi, the frequency of publication changed thrice as follows:
Date changedUntilFrequency of PublicationBranches affected January 2, 1929 November 14, 1932 Daily (except Tuesday) Lahore, Simla November 15, 1932December 27, 1932 DailyLahore, Simla June 1, 1945 October 24, 1949 Daily (except Monday)Lahore, Karachi
Notable staff members
Rudyard Kipling The Civil and Military Gazette was the workplace of renowned British author and poet, Rudyard Kipling. It was referred to by Kipling as his "mistress and most true love."also: 1935/1990. Something of myself and other autobiographical writings. Cambridge University Press. .
Kipling was assistant editor of the CMG, a job procured for him by his father, who was curator of the Lahore Museum,Vicyorianweb.Org: Rudyard Kipling Chronology, Retrieved September 11, 2010. when it was decided that he lacked the academic ability to get into Oxford University on a scholarship.Carpenter, Henry and Mari Prichard. 1984. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. pp. 296–297.
When Kipling joined the staff at the Lahore CMG in 1882, the editor-in-chief 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.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). Introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition of "Plain Tales from the Hills", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His first collection of short stories, Plain Tales from the Hills, contained 28 stories that had initially found publication in the CMG.Carpenter, H. and M. Prichard. 1984. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, Oxford University Press, Oxford, and New York.
Rudyard Kipling eventually left The Civil and Military Gazette in 1887, to move to its sister-newspaper in Allahabad, The Pioneer.
CE Newham CE Newham remained acting editor of the paper during 1928-1929. After that he remained editor during 1929-1930.
Abdul Hamid Sheikh The last editor of the 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 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 in Karachi.
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