''Lankesh Patrike'' is an Indian vernacular weekly published in Kannada language from

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. The weekly newspaper was started by

P. Lankesh Palya Lankesh (8 March 1935 – 25 January 2000) was an Indian poet, fiction writer, playwright, translator, screenplay writer and journalist who wrote in Kannada. He was also an award-winning film director. Early life and career Lankesh wa ...

in 1980 on the lines of ''

Harijan Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

'', a newspaper published by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

. The weekly remains to this day true to its principles and has never published a single advertisement or generated any ad revenue, surviving these last 37 years on subscription from its readers alone. The weekly aimed to be a platform for the oppressed,

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

s, women and marginalised sections of Indian society. It popularised a brand of journalism that grew to be the voice of these sections, playing an important role in the ''Raitara Chaluvali'' (Farmers Agitation), the Dalit movement, and the Gokak movement started by the newspaper's founder, P. Lankesh. Lankesh led the newspaper from 1980 until his death in 2000. At its peak, the weekly enjoyed a readership of 2.5 million, with a circulation of 4.5

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

s. ''Lankesh Patrike'' introduced a number of new writers to the Kannada literary scene. Some of them, like B.T. Lalita Naik, Vaidehi B.M.Rasheed, Sara Abubakkar, and Banu Mushtaq, later went on to win accolades as writers.

1980–2000: P. Lankesh

The

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

-winning writer ''

'' was the founder and editor of ''Lankesh Patrike'' from 1980 until his death in 2000. Lankesh quit his job as an assistant professor of English at

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by University Gra ...

in 1980 to start ''Lankesh Patrike'', the first Kannada tabloid, which went on to have an enormous impact on Kannada culture and politics. A staunch

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and Lohiaite, Lankesh, before starting ''Lankesh Patrike'', along with his socialist friends Ramdass and Tejaswi, had toured the length and breadth of Karnataka, mobilising people to vote for their new socialist party. It was this trip, he recounted in one of his editorials, that took him to the remotest parts of Karnataka and opened his eyes to the plight of the poor and the Dalits, and made him realise his responsibility as a writer and an intellectual towards society. The weekly followed this as its mission and has continued to fight for the oppressed class, the Dalits, and the poor under the managing editorship of Lankesh's son,

Indrajit Lankesh Indrajit Lankesh is an Indian filmmaker, producer, director, screenwriter, and television Personality of Kannada and Hindi films. He is also the publisher of the weekly Kannada tabloid ''Lankesh Patrike''. He is the son of iconic writer, journa ...

, who had been associated with the paper for 25 years.

After P. Lankesh's death

After the death of P. Lankesh, his son

became the paper's proprietor, managing editor and publisher, while his daughter Gauri Lankesh became the editor. Soon after, differences developed between Gauri and Indrajit over the paper's ideology. In February 2005, the siblings made public accusations against each other: Indrajit accused Gauri of promoting Naxalism through the paper; Gauri denied these charges and stated that Indrajit was opposed to her social activism. Gauri subsequently left ''Lankesh Patrike'' and filed a complaint alleging that her brother had threatened her. Police after investigation filed a B report stating that it was a false FIR. The court passed the order in favour of Indrajit Lankesh. Gauri started her own Kannada weekly called ''Gauri Lankesh Patrike''. On 5 September 2017, Gauri was shot dead, at her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, by unknown assailants, reportedly for her views against Hinduism. She had received multiple death threats previously for a range of views.

1980–2000: P. Lankesh

After P. Lankesh's death

References

See also