Baboos and Bande Mataram: Looking at India's inky heritage

These anniversaries slide by unremarked, except for a handful of scholars and critics who remember the little magazines from a century ago. It's hard to imagine that era now, when the printing press was as much a symbol of the new technology as the Kindle might be today.

It's equally hard for all but a few historians and scholars of the calibre of Ramachandra Guha, Alok Rai, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra or Shahid Amin to imagine the excitement of that time and the zest of the journals and periodicals that flourished a century ago.

Today's magazine stands offer journals on everything from film stars to motoring to parenting, but a century ago, political commentary, fledgling literature and (admittedly terrible) poetry reigned.

Text: Business Standard

Image: Cover of the Indian Charivari Vol. I from 1872-3

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