Little magazine movement

This article is about the Indian languages movement. For broader treatment, see Little magazine.

The little magazine movement originated in the 1950s and 1960s in many Indian languages like Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam and Gujarati, as it did in the West, in the early part of the 20th century.

Little magazine movement in Marathi

Little magazines of 1955 to 1975

The avant-garde modernist poetry burst upon the Marathi literary world with the poetry of B. S. Mardhekar in the mid-forties. The period 1955–1975 in Marathi literature is dominated by the little magazine movement. It ushered in modernism and the Dalit movement. In the mid-1950s, Dilip Chitre, Arun Kolatkar and their friends started a cyclostyled Shabda. The little magazine movement began to spread like wildfire in 2017 with hundreds of ephemeral to relatively longer lasting magazines including Aso, Vacha, Lru, Bharud and Rucha. The movement brought forth a new generation of writers who were dissatisfied with the Marathi literary establishment which they saw as bourgeois, upper caste and orthodox. Ashok Shahane was the pioneer of the little magazine movement in Marathi in the 1960s. The writers such as Dilip Chitre, Arun Kolatkar, Namdeo Dhasal, Tulsi Parab, Bhalchandra Nemade, Manohar Oak, Bhau Padhye, Vilas Sarang and Vasant Abaji Dahake came to prominence with the movement. Their writing is non-conformist and non-populist. The little magazine movement of the 1960s ran out of steam in the mid-1970s. A representative translation of many poets of this period has been done by Dilip Chitre.

Little magazines of the 1990s and 2000s

The economic reforms of the nineties in India ushered in an era of liberalization, privatization and globalization in Indian society. The boom in the telecommunications sector, cable and satellite television and digital revolution came in tandem with these economic reforms and deeply affected Indian society and culture. Mumbai, being the economic capital of India, felt the overwhelming force of these dramatic changes. Little magazines resurfaced in this period. Abhidhanantar, Shabdavedk, Saushthav and later on Aivaji, Khel, Anaghrat, and Navakshar Darshan burst upon the scene. The poets such as Manya Joshi, Mangesh Narayanrao Kale, Hemant Divate, Sanjeev Khandekar, Saleel Wagh and Sachin Ketkar who emerged from these little magazines of the 1990s bear witness to the social and cultural transformation, writing with a sensibility that is different from the generation that emerged from the movement of the 1960.

Bengali little magazine movement

Early 20th century

In Bengali literature, it started with Kallol, a modernist movement magazine, established in 1923. The most popular among the group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), Mohitlal Majumder (1888–1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903–1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882–1922), and Premendra Mitra (1904–1988). Then Bengali poetry got into the brightest light of modernism in the 1930s, through the movement of a few other little magazines, such as Buddhadeb Bosu's Kabita and Sudhindranath Datta's Parichay.

Krittibas

Krittibas first appeared in Kolkata in 1953. It played a highly influential role in the Kolkata literary scene in the decades after Indian independence, and provided a platform for young, experimental poets, many of whom went on to become luminaries of modern Bengali poetry. The editors of the inaugural issue in July 1953 were Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ananda Bagchi and Dipak Mazumdar. Gangopadhyay later became sole editor, and indeed it is his name that is most closely associated with the magazine. Others who also edited the magazine at one point or another included Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay and Samarendra Sengupta. The Phanishwarnath Renu issue of the magazine was edited by Samir Roychoudhury. During 1961-65 several poets left the magazine and joined the Hungryalist Movement.

Hungry Generation and anti-establishment movements

The little magazine explosion in West Bengal took place after 1961 when the Hungry Generation Movement took the cultural establishment by storm. In fact it changed not only the types of publication but also the naming of magazines. The Hungry Generation Movement aimed at waging a war against the literary establishment and the decadent society in general. Prominent figures included Saileswar Ghosh, Malay Roy Choudhury, Subimal Basak, Tridib Mitra, Samir Roychoudhury, Falguni Roy, Subon Acharjo, Pradip Choudhuri, Subhas Ghosh, and Basudeb Dasgupta.

There are other Bengali Writers who raised their voice against the establishment but did not join the Hungry generation Movement. Most notable among them is the maverick writer Subimal Mishra. Other experimental writers who mostly wrote in little magazines include Kamal Kumar Majumdar, Amiyabhushan Majumdar and Udayan Ghosh.

'Kaurab' cult

Some major changes occurred in the 1970s in the Bengali little magazine movement, chiefly around Kaurab, a literary and cultural magazine nearly four decades old. Prime cult-figures of Kaurab are: Swadesh Sen, Kamal Chakraborty (original editor), Barin Ghosal, Debajyoti Dutta, Pranabkumar Chattopadhyay, Shankar Lahiri, Shankar Chakraborty and Aryanil Mukhopadhyay (present editor). In international scenario Bengali poetry has been represented by Kaurab poets like Subhro Bandopadhyay, (present assistant editor).

New Poetry (Natun Kabita)

Since the mid-1980s Bengali iterature experienced a new genre of Bengali poetry called New Poetry. From the early 1990s with impetus from a Kolkata-based poetry journal Kabita Campus, New Poetry has begun to gain immense acclaim from the young contemporary poets of Bengal. In 2003 some poets of this genre have started a journal named Natun Kabita containing their ideas and poems, through both online and print media. Poets who joined this movement in the mid-1990s are: Barin Ghosal, Ranjan Moitro,Swapan Roy, Dhiman Chakraborty, Alok Biswas, Pronob Pal, Saumitra Sengupta, Rajarshi Chattopadhyay, Atanu Bandopadhyay, Rajatendra Mukhopadhay, Pradip Chakraborty.

New Age (New Century)

In West Bengal the first decade of this century (2001–10) is considered to be the period of a New Age little magazine movement. The magazines prominent in this period are: Boikhori Bhaashyo run by Indranil Ghosh and Debanjan das, Ashtray run by Nabendu Bikash Roy and Arka Chattopadhyay,'Vish(ISSN 2349-0489)run by Chandan Bangal and Tanmoy roy'Meghjanmo(মেঘজন্ম),Aahir (আহির),Sanjhbati (সাঁঝবাতি), Lalon(লালন),Joydhak(জয়ঢাক), "Chandrobhas" published from the Bangla Kobita Academy and edited by reputed poet Dr. Ajit Trivedi, Nabamanab (নবমানব), Bodhshabdo (বোধশব্দ), VAPRA, Pratishedhak (প্রতিষেধক), GhoMosh, Lemosh, snO yI, Abosardanga, Ashtray, Somoyer Shobdo(সময়ের শব্দ),"ebRo khebRo rong", "resurrection", "deowal", "aachhi", "jatnaghar", "mahool", "daur", "batighar", "Kaw (Arani)/ Kobia", "uttar etihas", " craker", "tabu abhiman", "manthan", "adorer nouka", "elora", "duende", Sutorang, point blank range, Sarbonam, "Hiranyagarva", "Kakkhapath", "Ekti Ujwal Mach", "Shunyo Degree"

2nd decade (2011–present)

Magazines prominent in this period are: " Eksho Ashi Degree " (একশো আশি ডিগ্রি ), " Bohemian " , "Jatnoghar " (যত্নঘর), "Charbak " , "Doshomik ", "Sreemayee ", "Saptannoyi" (সপ্তান্বয়ী), "Angick" , "Eka ebong koyekjon", প্রহেলিকা (prohelika), TABIK (তাবিক,সম্পাদক : বুদ্ধদেব হালদার), "BongQ (বঙ্কু)" (LGBTQ+ related), "Nibir (নিবিড়)", "Pather Sujan (পথের সুজন)".

Prominent figures rising from the period are: Nilachal Sen, Somabrata Sarkar, Mujibar Ansary, Selim Mallik, Rajib Ghosal, Sabyasachi Majumdar, Niramoy Mudi, Chandan Bangal, Prabir Chakraborty, Rajdip Roy, Abhisek Chakraborty , Rohan Bhattacharya, Prithwi Bose , Manisha Mukherjee, Anindya Sundar Roy, Abhirup Bandopadhay,Rajarshi Mazumder, Sanghamitra halder, Souptik Chakraborty, Anamoy Kalindi, Arup Ghosh, Somtirtha Sarkar, Susnato Chowdhury,Sayan Sarkar, Somen Mukhopadhay, Animikh Patra, Ratul Pal, Himadri Mukhopadhyay, Biswadip Dey, Debabrata Kar Biswas, Dipangshu Acharya, Somtirtha Nandi, Sanjhbati, Manidipa Singha, Ritam Sen, Santanu Das,Somnath Ghosal, Swadesh Mishra, Arko Chattopadhyay, Alokparna ,Saurav Sarker, Ripon Fio, Sumit Sikdar, Adhya, Santanu Das,Kumaraditya Sarkar, Tanmoy Ray, Shreeja Bhattacharya, Sourav Saha, Samitava Banerjee, Ripan Arya, Kishalay Thakur,Suprabhat Roy, Sukriti, Dhrubo Mukhopadhyay, Jubin Ghosh, Sanjoy Rishi, Biswajit Roy, Subrata Saha, Subhankar Paul,Partha Pratim Roy, Arjun Bandopadhyay , Joyshila Guha Bagchi, Rajni Palme Dutt, Manik Saha, Salim Mandal, Suman Sadhu, Sushovan Raychaudhury, Debrup Sarkar, Ashis Saha, Subhajit ghosal(মেহেরিন আলফাজ্‌),Abhishek Dey,Buddhadeb Halder (বুদ্ধদেব হালদার)

Postmodern Bengali poetry

Samir Roychoudhury and Prabhat Choudhuri heralded a new phase in Bengali poetry known as Postmodern Poetry with the launching of Haowa#49 and Kabita Pakshik respectively.

Little Magazine Library and Research Centre

There is a Little Magazine Library and Research Centre at 9, Tamer Lane (run by Sandip Dutta since 1978), Kolkata-700009, India, which collects Bengali little magazines published anywhere in the world.

Midnapore Little Magazine Library

Midnapore Little Magazine Library – A digital library for little magazines of East and West Medinipur district. Information about more than 600 little magazines published from Medinipur District, from the year 1870 to now.

Sahitya Academy

The Sahitya Akademi (Indian Academy of Letters) also publishes two literary journals, namely Indian Literature in English and Samkalin Bhartiya Sahitya in Hindi. However they cannot be considered as "little magazines" as they have state support and appear regularly. A prime example of this continuing tradition is The Little Magazine, published from New Delhi since May 2000., Civil Lines and Yatra

Grasshoppers

In January 2014, little magazine movement got a new way to spread their voice. Arunava Chatterjee, a Kolkata-based IT Entrepreneur and writer, formed Grasshoppers! - the first ever e-Commerce website for selling little magazines online along with one of the most eminent magazine Ekak Matra. It is already actively spreading in different areas across the world with a strong delivery backbone.

Little magazine movement in Indian English Literature

• Indian Literature (journal) - It is official English Language literary journal published bi-monthly by the Sahitya Akademi .
• Kavya Bharati - An annual journal, The Study Centre for Indian Literature in English and Translation
• Coldnoon: Travel Poetics - International Journal of Travel Writing
• Kritya- A bilingual journal of international poetry.- www.kritya.in

Literary Bengali little magazines in India

• Tinpahar —Dedicated to Bangali Literature(Bilingual)
• @Aahir.com - BENGALI poetry and serious socioeconomic topic based little magazine published from Baghbazar, Kolkata, West Bengal
• "Aamon"- Abengali little magazine
• Abhidhanantar-Marathi little magazine
• Aadorer Nauka-Bengali little magazine
• Angick- (ISSN 2348 6244) Bengali Little Magazine Edited by Suman Sadhu
• Ababhas Bengali little magazine.
• Aneek- Sociopolitical monthly, published since 1964
• Anustup- sociocultural magazine, since 1965
• Baundule-Bengali little magazine
• Bodhshabdo-Bengali little magazine edited by Susnato Chowdhury (mainly on poetry and the culture of poetry)
• BongQ(বঙ্কু)-Bengali little magazine (mainly on LGBTIQHA+ related issues & Queer literature)
• Birutjatio
• Abhiyakti - Hindi literary magazine Online.
• Aanubhuti - Monthly Hindi poetry and literary magazine
• Aikya-Quarterly Bengali Literary and Cultural Magazine
• Amritalok-An influential Bengali Literary and Cultural Magazine
• Bharat Darshan - Hindi literary magazine
• Crimson Feet Magazine - Bimonthly journal for writers and poets from the Indian sub-continent.
• Civil Lines - English literary magazine
• Diyala - Bilingual(Bengali and English) online magazine for under 16 age group
• Darpan - Literary Magazine.
• Dotara - Literary Magazine.
• Duende - Bengali little magazine.
• Drighangchoo
• EKAK MATRA - Bengali little magazine.
• " Sreemayee ( ISSN 2320-9909 ) " - Trimonthly Bengali Little Magazine
• Ebro Khebro Rong - Bengali little magazine.
• Guruchandali - Bengali e-zine
• Graffiti - A Bengali little magazine that repeatedly promoted hungrialist movement & literature as well as postmodern literary movement, Graffiti has contributed a part of it in the field of translation & transcreation literature.
• HindiElm - Quarterly Hindi literary magazine
• Haowa 49 - Quarterly Bengali Magazine of changing poetry and literary theories.
• Haptak Kachra - A little magazine run by few young writers in Kolkata.
• Hatpakha - [ISSN 2321-3035] Online Magazine (Bengali English)
• Itykatha - Bengali Magazine of pottery, stories and lot more.
• Jolphoring - [ISSN 2395-7913] Monthly Bengali Magazine.
• Joydhak - Quarterly Bengali Magazine for children
• Kabita Parabasey - Collection of Bengali poems from all over the world outside Bengal. Published from Mumbai.
• Kaw- Irregular Bengali little magazine (2009) published from Hooghly, West Bengal. The name Arani is changed from 2013. Now it is Kaw (Bengali letter- ক ), a production company itself. There is another baby Production of it, named KOBIA (a smart handmade literary journal).
• Kahani - A South Asian literary magazine for children.
• Kaurab - Perhaps the most influential of the contemporary Bengali little magazines with both online and print editions. www.kaurab.com
• Kledaja Kusum - an exceptional poetry magazine of West Bengal
• Kottapalli.in - A Telugu monthly magazine for Children (Available both in Print and online).
• Maadhukari - Online Bengali literary magazine
• Magic lamp- Online Bengali magazine for children
• Meghadutam - Online magazine on literature and poetry
• Natun Kabita - The Bengali little magazine promoting the 'Notun Kobita' or new poetry movement, newest literary movement in Bengali
• Nabamanab - Bi-monthly Bengali little magazine edited by Enamul Kabir.
• Nibir - Published from Kolkata, Editor: Shreyon.
• Abosardanga - A contemporary Bengali Little magazine gaining immense popularity
• Parabaas - a Bengali literary e-zine
• Pather Sujan (পথের সুজন ) - Published by Sujan Publication, Howrah. Editor: Vicky Souvik
• Patrika - Online Bengali literary magazine
• PostMan-Bangla little magazine. Published from Kolkata.
• Poddu.net - A Telugu literary web magazine
• Pratishedhak - A new little magazine run by a young group of new-age writers in Kolkata
• Punjabielm - Quarterly Punjabi literary magazine
• Purwai - London-based quarterly magazine on Indian languages
• Pustakam.net - A Telugu web magazine on the world of books
• প্রহেলিকা(prohelika)-A new age Bengali literary magazine about literature,translation and transcreation,film,painting etc.
• Sangket - Quarterly Bengali Web Magazine published by WECAN SOCIETY
• "Sangbartak" -Bengali little mgazine
• Sambit - Oriya literary magazine
• "Saptannoyi" (সপ্তান্বয়ী) - Bengali literary magazine (ISSN 2350-0433)
• The Brown Critique - Literary quarterly for Indian writings in English.
• The Journal of The Poetry Society (India )
• The Little Magazine - English literary magazine
• Udgam - a literary Hindi magazine.
• Ultodurbin - Tetra-monthly Bengali little magazine from Kolkata, India.
• UrduElm - Quarterly literary magazine
• Utsab - Bengali literary magazine
• Uttar Bhasha / উত্তর ভাষা - BI-ANNUAL LITERARY MAGAZINE EDITOR: Kaushik Ranjan Khan সহ সম্পাদক বরুণ তালুকদার PUBLISHING FROM:Balurghat,D/dinajpur
• Yugantar Punjab - online Punjabi literary magazine.
• Kledaja kusum - Quarterly Bengali poetry magazine.
• Vapra - Bengali little magazine....
• Vish (ISSN 2349-0489) A Monthly literary and cultural Bengali magazine. Editor: Tanmoy roy. Chief-Editor: Chandan Bangal. visit www.vishwb.weebly.com
• Resurrection - Bengali little magazine....
• Purba (ISSN 2229-6344) - a literary and cultural magazine, started publishing from 2005 from Medinipur of west Bengal.

Swasthyer Britte - Bengali little magazine fully focused on health and its relationship with MNCs, state power and more.

• The Postcard—Bengali little magazine
• . . PARISHILAN: BENGALI LITERARY AND CULTURAL MAGAZINE, Editor : RINA GIRI

Literary Bengali little magazines in Bangladesh

• Cherageeaadda
• Ekobingsho (since 2001; Bengali little magazine edited by Khondakar Ashraf Hossain)
• Dheu (since 2001; Drishtantoist Bengali little magazine edited by Shobuj Taposh)
• Puspakrath (Bengali little magazine edited by Hafiz Rashid Khan)
• Shonkhobash (since 2009; Drishtantoish Bengali little magazine edited by Moheen Reeyad)
• Uttaradhikar