Little Magazine Cuts A Sorry Figure In Kolkata Book Fair

 

“No, you’re making a mistake. Our magazine is not a business, it’s a commitment.”

50 plus Dipak Piplai is not alone who believes in this ideology. Most of the Little Magazines’ organizers who sit in the lonely gallery at the Kolkata Book Fair believe passion is more important than a mere business. Little magazines are principally meant for their commitment, a sort of fresh air in the middle of daily clamour.

Little Magazines are an integral part of Bengali literature culture, at least back in the 70s and 80s; these were poor men's pedestals that brought opportunities for many talented writers. In the later period, some of the little magazines’ writers earned names and fame in the literature circle. Till now, in their own discreet and humble ways, little magazines try to pave the way for nameless and faceless writers to exchange their views, spread their wings of imagination and give a platform to raise their voices.

Little magazines like their name are literally little in many aspects. However, the efforts behind writing, publication and publicizing have never been petite. In fact, some of the writers present such beautiful presentations of their imaginations that it is evident that literature for them is part matter, part spirit. The significance of little magazines cannot be measured by the size of their readership, but by the fact that those “little literature” epitomizes a voice that protests against the commercialization of literature between two cover pages.

HISTORY OF LITTLE MAGAZINES IN INDIA

The history of little magazines also called “small magazines” started with the transcendentalist publication of ‘The Dial’ (1840-44) edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller. In India, the movement started full-heartedly in Marathi literature in the period 1955-1975. The era was dominated by the little magazine movement where writers Dilip Chitre, and Arun Kolatkar published cyclostyled Shabda. In the early 1960s, the movement took the revolutionary writers by storm, ushering in the modern Dalit movement. Some of the famous Marathi magazines of that era were Aso, Vacha, Lru, Bharud and Rucha.

Mumbai being the financial capital of India witnessed an overwhelming force against liberalization, privatization, and globalization in the 1990s. Technology had affected deeply the embryonic Indian digital age group. The dramatic changes forced idealistic writers to raise their voices against the blind technological boom that affected greatly Indian society and culture. Abhidhantar, Shabdavedk, Suashtav, Aivaji, Khel,Anaghrat and Navakshar Darshan surfaced in this period. Poets like Manya Joshi, Mangesh Naryanrao Kale, Hemant Divate, Sanjeev Khandekar, Saleel Wagh and Sachin Ketkar burst upon the scene with sensible writings, unlike the revolutionary 60s writers.

KOLKATA LITTLE MAGAZINES MOVEMENT

Kolkata has played a pivotal role in uplifting the little magazine's movement. It started with Sabuj Patra and Kallol established in 1914 and 1923 respectively. The tradition of modernist movement writings continued in Bengali literature. With the arrival of Krittibash, Hungry Generation and periodicals like Kourab, Kolkata witnessed a boom in the little magazine's realm.

SOME CONTEMPORARY LITTLE MAGAZINES IN INDIA

• Aahir – The magazine based on contemporary poetry and socioeconomic, Kolkata

• Abhidhanantar-Marathi little Magazine

• Abhiyakti - Hindi literary magazine Online.

• Aanubhuti - Monthly Hindi poetry and literary magazine

• Aikya-Quarterly Bengali Literary and Cultural Magazine

• Crimson Feet Magazine - Bimonthly journal for writers and poets from the Indian sub-continent

• Graffiti - A Bengali little magazine that repeatedly promoted hungrialist movement.

• Guruchandali - Bengali e-zine

• Kahani - A South Asian literary magazine for children.

• Yugantar Punjab - online Punjabi literary magazine.

• Punjabielm - Quarterly Punjabi literary magazine

• Kledaja Kusum - an exceptional poetry magazine of West Bengal