Swarajya (magazine)

Last updated

Swarajya
Swarajya logo.png
Swarajya Magazine cover, May 2018.jpg
Swarajya Official Logo
Editorial Directors
Editorial Advisory Board
Categories News magazine
FrequencyMonthly (2015–present)
Weekly (1956–1980)
PublisherV. Murali
Amarnath Govindarajan
FounderKhasa Subba Rao
Founded1956
First issue14 July 1956 (1956-07-14)
CompanyBharathan Publications Private Limited (1956–2014)
Kovai Media Private Limited (2014–present)
Country India
Based in Coimbatore/Bengaluru (2014–present)
Chennai (1956–1980)
Language English
Website swarajyamag.com/about-us
OCLC 3999897

Swarajya is an Indian right-wing [13] monthly print magazine and news portal. The publication reports favourably on the Bharatiya Janata Party and has published misinformation on many occasions. [2] [14] [15] [16]

Contents

R. Jagannathan is the current editorial director. Originally established in 1956 as a weekly under the patronage of C. Rajagopalachari, it shut down in 1980 but was relaunched in September 2014, as a daily news website; a monthly print magazine was launched in January 2015. [17]

History

First page of Swarajya Magazine's first issue. Swarajya first mag first page.jpg
First page of Swarajya Magazine's first issue.

Swarajya was launched as a weekly magazine in 1956 by journalist Khasa Subba Rao, under the patronage of C. Rajagopalachari, a prominent independence activist and one of the founders of the Swatantra Party. [18] [19]

The magazine strongly advocated individual freedom and freedom of enterprise as against Nehru's socialist policies. [20] Minoo Masani, Ramaswamy Venkataraman, and R. K. Laxman have contributed to the magazine. [21] [22] After Rajagopalachari's death in 1972, the magazine slowly began to decline and eventually closed in 1980. [23]

Relaunch in 2014

The magazine was relaunched as an online daily in September 2014, with Sandipan Deb as the Editorial Director; the first edition of the print magazine was launched in January 2015. [23] Coimbatore-based Kovai Media Private Limited purchased the rights to the magazine from Chennai-based Bharathan Publishers, along with 40,000 pages from the earlier editions of the magazine. [23] The magazine describes itself as "a big tent for liberal right of centre discourse". [1]

In October 2016, it acquired OpIndia; in 2018, it became an independent entity. [24] In 2018, Swarajya launched its Hindi edition. [25]

Reception

The website has misreported news on multiple occasions, according to fact-checkers including Alt News and Boom. [29] Columnists working for Swarajya have allegedly engaged in a variety of trolling over Twitter. [34] Journalists working for Swarajya have propagated communally charged fake news via their personal accounts. [35] [36] [37] [38] Swarajya was blacklisted from Wikipedia in 2020 alongside OpIndia and Hindu nationalist website TFIpost. [39]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bharatiya Janata Party</span> Indian political party

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rahul Gandhi</span> Indian politician (born 1970)

Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he has served as the 12th Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, since June 2024. He previously represented the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala, from 2019 to 2024, and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, from 2004 to 2019. Gandhi served as the party president of the INC from December 2017 to July 2019 and is the chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress, the National Students Union of India, and a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. He is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi political family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pravin Togadia</span> Indian oncologist, activist

Pravin Togadia is an Indian doctor, cancer surgeon and an advocate for Hindu nationalism, coming from the state of Gujarat. He was the former International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a cancer surgeon by qualification. He is Founder and Current President of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad. He had a falling out with the Sangh Parivar and is a vocal critic of Narendra Modi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnab Goswami</span> Indian journalist and television news anchor

Arnab Ranjan Goswami is an Indian news anchor and journalist. He is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Indian general election</span> Election to Indias National Parliament through direct election

General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 election. Around 23.1 million or 2.71% of the total eligible voters were aged 18–19 years. A total of 8,251 candidates contested the 543 elected Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.40%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections until 2019 election.

Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudarshan News</span> Indian Hindi language news channel

Sudarshan News is an Indian right-wing news channel. It was founded in 2005 by Suresh Chavhanke, the chairman and editor-in-chief. Chavhanke was a long-term volunteer of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also associating with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS. He asserts that he practices ideology-driven journalism and prefers that the news programs on his channel be viewed as opinionated campaigns.

Prashant Kishor Pandey, colloquially known as PK, is an Indian political strategist and tactician. He worked in public health programmes funded by the United Nations for eight years before venturing into Indian politics and working as a political strategist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanhaiya Kumar</span> Indian political activist and politician (born 1987)

Kanhaiya Kumar is an Indian political activist who served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF). He served as National Executive Council member of Communist Party of India. He joined Indian National Congress on 28 September 2021 and has been appointed as the AICC in-charge of the National Student's Union of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premiership of Narendra Modi</span> Current Indian prime minister

The premiership of Narendra Modi began 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the Prime Minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi's first cabinet consisted of 45 ministers, 25 fewer than the previous United Progressive Alliance government. A total of 21 ministers were added to the council of ministers on 9 November 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic TV</span> Indian English language news channel

Republic TV, is an Indian right-wing conservative English-language news channel, launched on 6 May 2017, operated and owned by Republic Media Network co-founded by Arnab Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar. It headquarters in Mumbai, India. Republic Media Network consists 3 other channels, Republic Bharat, Republic Bangla, Republic Kannada.

Rahul Roushan is an Indian blogger and businessman. Roushan founded Faking News, a satirical news website, and is the CEO of OpIndia, a right-wing news portal that has been found publishing fake news on multiple occasions. Originally from Patna, he is now based in Mumbai and is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication and IIM-A.

Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. In October 2022 Harsh Mander, along with the campaign he launched in 2017, Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a campaign supporting and showing solidarity with the victims of hate crimes, along with Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha have been nominated in the Henrik Urdal's list of "worthy candidates"/"worthy recipients" for 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. A note on the official website of Peace Research Institute Oslo read, "Other worthy candidates for a prize focused on combating religious extremism and intolerance in India are Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the co-founders of Alt News, a fact-checking site making significant contributions to debunking misinformation aimed at vilifying Muslims in India". Alt News was a signatory partner of the International Fact-Checking Network until April 2020.

Sandipan Deb is an Indian journalist and writer. He has been the managing editor of Outlook, the editor of The Financial Express and was the founder-editor of Outlook Money, Open, and Swarajya magazines. He is the author of several books.

<i>Bigg Boss</i> (Hindi TV series) season 13 Season of television series

Bigg Boss 13, also known as Bigg Boss Tedha, is the thirteenth season of the Indian reality TV series Bigg Boss and premiered on 1 October 2019 on Colors TV. Salman Khan hosted the season for the tenth time. The finale was scheduled for January, but it was given a one-month extension, and became the second-longest season. The grand finale of the show took place on 15 February 2020, when Sidharth Shukla emerged as the winner and Asim Riaz as the runner-up. Bigg Boss 13 became the most successful Bigg Boss season since the inception of the series and also the most watched. It had an average 2.1-2.5 TRP every week.

Fake news in India refers to fostering and spread of false information in the country which is spread through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.

<i>Chhapaak</i> 2020 Indian survival film directed by Meghna Gulzar

Chhapaak (transl. Splash) is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, the film stars Deepika Padukone in leading role of a character inspired by Agarwal alongside Vikrant Massey and Madhurjeet Sarghi. It marked Padukone's production debut, and acting comeback after two years since Padmaavat (2018). The film was jointly backed by Fox Star Studios, Ka Productions, Avernus Productions and Mriga Films.

<i>OpIndia</i> Indian right-wing pro-Hindutva news portal

OpIndia is an Indian right-wing news website known for frequently publishing misinformation. Founded in December 2014, the website has published fake news and Islamophobic commentary on many occasions.

Godi media is a pejorative term coined and popularised by veteran journalist Ravish Kumar for the "sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media, which supports the ruling BJP led NDA government ". The term is a pun on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has become a common way to refer to television and other media that are perceived as "mouthpieces" of the leading party of the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

#GoBackModi is a hashtag and movement that protests and voices opposition against the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's visits to various places, primarily throughout India, and sporadically throughout the world. The hashtag first gained popularity on 12 April 2018, when Modi visited Chennai, Tamil Nadu to inaugurate a defence exhibition, and has been especially popular in the state ever since. However, the movement's first instance was a Malayalam language variation of the hashtag named #PoMoneModi, and has been adopted since May 2016, when Modi was campaigning for elections in Kerala.

References

  1. 1 2 "About Us". Swarajya. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 Chadha, Kalyani; Bhat, Prashanth (14 February 2019). "The media are biased: Exploring online right wing responses to mainstream news media in India". In Rao, Shakuntala (ed.). Indian Journalism in a New Era: Changes, Challenges, and Perspectives. Oxford University Press. pp. 115–140. ISBN   9780199490820 . Retrieved 23 May 2020– via ResearchGate.
  3. ↑ Rakesh, K.M. (21 April 2020). "Arab fury erupts on BJP MP for tweet on women". The Telegraph . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  4. ↑ Kumar, Basant (3 January 2020). "Fake news, lies, Muslim bashing, and Ravish Kumar: Inside OpIndia's harrowing world". Newslaundry . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  5. ↑ "Did Mani Ratnam Sign Letter Written to Modi Over Mob Lynching? Yes". The Quint . 30 July 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Bhushan, Sandeep (26 January 2017). "Arnab's Republic hints at mainstreaming right-wing opinion as a business". Business Standard . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. ↑ Mihindukulasuriya, Regina (8 May 2019). "BJP supporters have a secret weapon in their online poll campaign — satire". ThePrint . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Chakravarty, Ipsita (25 June 2019). "'Tukde, tukde gang': How the BJP has used misinformation in the JNU sedition case to stifle dissent". Scroll.in . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  9. 1 2 "'I see a confident trans person': Siddharth slams Shefali Vaidya". Free Press Journal . 10 January 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  10. ↑ Matharu, Aleesha (20 November 2019). "#RightSideUp: A Tale of Two Universities, 'Hindu Guilt'". The Wire . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  11. 1 2 Sinha, Pratik (20 August 2017). "Swarajya magazine and Jaideep Mazumdar spread falsehood about Suhrawardy Avenue in Kolkata". Alt News . Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  12. 1 2 Chowdhury, Archis (8 January 2020). "Swarajya Peddles Misinformation About Deepika Padukone's Chhapaak". Boom. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  13. ↑ [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
  14. ↑ Emmanuel, Gladwin (10 October 2019). "Stage set for Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping's Mamallapuram summit amid row over Kashmir". Pune Mirror . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  15. ↑ Ganguly, Arnab (6 March 2018). "Grandma of an opening". The Telegraph . Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "Opinion: Lutyen's Media's Attempt To Paint The Anti-CAA Agitation As 'Secular' Was Hypocritic | Outlook India Magazine". Outlook India. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  17. ↑ Venkatesh, M. R. (29 January 2015). "Re-launching Swarajya, a voice for India's new Right". The Hindu.
  18. ↑ "Remembering Rajagopalachari the writer, with Kalki". The New Indian Express . 9 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  19. ↑ "Contributions of Rajaji and Kalki hailed". The New Indian Express . 16 May 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  20. ↑ "Comrades, friends, rivals". The Hindu . 25 May 2003. Archived from the original on 9 June 2003. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "EDITORIALS BY SHRI R. VENKATARAMAN FOR 'SWARAJYA'". President Venkataraman. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  22. ↑ "For over five decades RK Laxman immortalised passive, hapless common man". Daily News & Analysis . Pune. 26 January 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  23. 1 2 3 Bansal, Shuchi (17 September 2014). "Rajagopalachari's 'Swarajya' to be relaunched soon". Livemint. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  24. ↑ Matharu, Aleesha. "Tables Turn on Twitter's Hindutva Warriors, and It's the BJP Doing the Strong-Arming". The Wire . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  25. ↑ "Swarajya on Twitter". Twitter. Swarajya. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  26. ↑ Patel, Jignesh (8 September 2018). "Misleading reporting by Swarajya and Postcard News about Hardik Patel's weight gain during fast". Alt News . Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  27. ↑ Chaudhuri, Pooja (8 January 2020). "Does 'Chhapaak' portray acid attack convict as a Hindu named 'Rajesh'? No, false claim". Alt News . Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  28. ↑ Alphonso, Anmol (11 December 2019). "Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala And Swarajya Misquote Scindia About Support To Citizen Amendment Bill". Boom. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  29. ↑ [11] [12] [26] [27] [28]
  30. ↑ "Tables Turn on Twitter's Hindutva Warriors, and It's the BJP Doing the Strong-Arming". The Wire . Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  31. ↑ "'Ban Her': Twitterati Slam Shefali Vaidya for 'Transphobic' Post". The Quint . 10 January 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  32. ↑ Daniyal, Shoaib. "Modi goes secular? BJP's minimum outreach to Muslims is causing heartburn among party's supporters". Scroll.in . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  33. ↑ "Yes, I am a woman and I am angry". The New Indian Express . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  34. ↑ [9] [30] [31] [32] [33]
  35. ↑ "Video of ABVP member assaulting AISA student shared by journalists as Left parties attacking ABVP". Alt News . 6 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  36. ↑ Chaudhuri, Pooja (13 August 2018). "Opindia, MyNation, Postcard News declare Umar Khalid "not attacked" based on a false testimony". Alt News . Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  37. ↑ "Balrampur Puja Procession Violence Pre-Planned? Cops Deny Claims". The Quint . 9 October 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  38. ↑ "'Learn VFX': Anurag Kashyap responds to Shefali Vaidya's tweet claiming Aishe Ghosh faked her injuries". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  39. ↑ Tiwari, Ayush (23 June 2020). "OpIndia: Hate speech, vanishing advertisers, and an undisclosed BJP connection". Newslaundry . Retrieved 29 June 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.