''Civil Lines'' was an Indian literary magazine, launched in 1994 by publisher Ravi Dayal. In all its years of existence, the "magazine" has published exactly five issues, and none at all since the death of Ravi Dayal in 2006. Since the magazine is still nominally in existence, and was never "functional" to begin with, it cannot be said to be "defunct."

Inception

Ravi Dayal, the magazine's publisher, had worked with

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

between 1971 and 1987, initially as an editor and later as the CEO of OUP's Delhi office. After his retirement in 1987, he opened his own publishing company, Ravi Dayal Publishers, which did fairly well. Encouraged by this relative success, he decided to start a literary magazine in English, and in 1994, he finally started ''Civil Lines.''

Periodicity

The magazine sought to challenge the traditional literary model by refusing to publish to a set schedule. Instead, it prioritized quality, with issues appearing only when the editors felt that they had an adequate quantity of intelligent, well-written and inspirational material to justify publication. The result has been five issues to date, all defined (or so the editors claim) by their eclecticism, intelligence and originality.

Editorial focus

Inspired by the British magazine ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'', the magazine focused on high quality unpublished fiction, personal history, reportage and inquiring journalism intended to appeal to intellectual, literate Indians living in urban areas. The five issues of ''Civil lines'' were edited by Rukun Advani (two issues), Ivan Hutnik,

Mukul Kesavan Mukul Kesavan (born 9 April 1957) is an Indian historian, novelist and political and social essayist. He was schooled at St. Xaviers' School in Delhi and then went on to study history at St. Stephen's College, and at the University of Delhi. He la ...

and Kai Friese (one issue each). ''Civil lines'' was edited by practicing writers rather than academics. It therefore had no defined literary manifesto which determined content. ''Civil Lines'' is ultimately a testimony to power of the story to describe and illuminate.

Termination

Ravi Dayal died on 4 June 2006 at the age of 69, and the magazine can be considered defunct from this date onwards.Publisher extraordinary
by Keki N. Daruwalla. ''The Tribune'', 25 June 2006. A book entitled ''"Written For Ever: The Best of Civil Lines",'' edited by Rukun Advani and dedicated to Ravi Dayal as well as

Dharma Kumar Dharma Kumar (1928 – 19 October 2001) was an Indian economic historian, noted for her work on the agrarian history of India. Her Ph.D at Cambridge on the agrarian history of South India was awarded the Ellen MacArthur Prize, and was publ ...

, was published by Penguin Viking, New Delhi, in late 2009. This book is a compendium of nearly all the writings ever published in ''Civil lines.''

References

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