The Pioneer (periodical)

Letterhead from Pioneer office, from Mahatma Letter No. 14b

Letterhead from Pioneer office in Allahabad, from Mahatma Letter No. 105

Letterhead from Pioneer office, from Mahatma Letter No. 109

The Allahabad Pioneer was an Anglo-Indian newspaper founded in Allahabad in 1865 by George Allen, an Englishman who had had great success in the tea business in north-east India in the previous decade. It issued a weekly as well as a daily edition (circulation of 5,000).

In 1872, Alfred Percy Sinnett became the editor of the newspaper, and oversaw the transformation of the newspaper to one of exercising great influence in British India. It was regarded as "the ablest and most influential of all Indian newspapers published in the interior of the country. After Mr. Sinnett became involved in Theosophy in 1880, the newspaper, which was said to be a "virulent mouthpieces of British government propaganda" began to show a sympathetic view towards the natives. This costed him his job and in 1883 he returned to London.

A few years after the dismissal of Mr. Sinnett, author Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), in his early 20s, worked at the newspaper office in Allahabad as an assistant editor from November 1887 to March 1889.

Further reading

• The Pioneer (Indian newspaper) at Wikipedia