Swarajya (magazine)

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]}

Swarajya

Swarajya Official Logo
Editorial Directors	R. Jagannathan Sandipan Deb
Editorial Advisory Board	Jerry Rao Surjit Bhalla Swapan Dasgupta Manish Sabharwal^[1]
Categories	News magazine
Frequency	Monthly (2015–present) Weekly (1956–1980)
Publisher	V. Murali Amarnath Govindarajan
Founder	Khasa Subba Rao
Founded	1956
First issue	14 July 1956 (1956-07-14)
Company	Bharathan 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

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 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]

References

1. "About Us". Swarajya. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
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. "'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. Sinha, Pratik (20 August 2017). "Swarajya magazine and Jaideep Mazumdar spread falsehood about Suhrawardy Avenue in Kolkata". Alt News. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
12. 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. . The New Indian Express. 9 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
19. . The New Indian Express. 16 May 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
20. . 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. 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.

External links

• Official website

 

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