The Caravan
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''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
covering politics and culture.


History

In 1940, Vishwa Nath launched ''Caravan'' as the first magazine from the Delhi Press; it went on to establish itself as a leading monthly for the elites but closed in 1988. It was again revived in 2009 by Anant Nath, the grand son of Vishwa Nath; Nath was deeply impressed by publications like
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
,
Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
etc. during his graduation from Columbia University and sought for ''The Caravan'' to be a home for S. Asia's rich literary talents. In Nath's words, "the idea was [] to have a magazine on politics, art, and culture, with a liberal bend of mind." A few months later, Vinod Jose was roped in as the executive editor; drawing inspiration from long-form American magazines such as '' Harper's'' and ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', he designed the magazine as the home for
New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non- ...
in India. The establishment was successful and its earliest issues featured a host of giants in S. Asian Anglophone cannon —
Pankaj Mishra Pankaj Mishra FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014. Early life and education Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...
,
Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...
, and
Fatima Bhutto Fatima Bhutto ( ur, ; , born 29 May 1982) is a Pakistani writer and columnist. Born in Kabul, she is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, sister of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and gran ...
among others. Gradually, both Nath and Jose planned to cover stories that were ignored by mainstream media —
Siddhartha Deb Siddhartha Deb (born 1970) is an Indian author who was born in Meghalaya and grew up in Shillong in northeastern India. He was educated in India and at Columbia University, US. Deb began his career in journalism as a sports journalist in Calcut ...
notes the magazine to have simultaneously carried traits of being a newsweekly, book review forum, and a litzine, during those days. By 2010, the journal had become a monthly and the print-circulation exceeded 40,000; Jonathan Shainin joined the same year as an associate editor. Beginning 2014, with the rise of Narendra Modi in national politics, the magazine has become almost exclusively focused on politics — Nath explains this as a product of mainstream media's increasing reticence to be critical of the government. , the magazine employs 38 people and the website gets about 1.5 million pageviews per month.


Reception

Jose's profile of
Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
in the issue of March, 2012 won international acclaim and was referenced to by ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''The'' ''Wall Street Journal'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', and ''The'' ''New York Times''.
Dexter Filkins Dexter Price Filkins (born May 24, 1961) is an American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for '' The New York Times''. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his dispatches from Afghanis ...
writing for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' in 2019, noted ''The Caravan'' to be the most prominent among the few media outlets who dared to provide critical coverage of the incumbent
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
government notwithstanding state-intimidation. In Summer 2020,
Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion" ...
commissioned a feature on the magazine, which introducing it as a publication committed to "protecting India’s tradition of democracy and religious pluralism", reiterated Filkin's observation and emphasized the relevance of the publication at a time when the traditional mainstream media had all but buckled before the government. That the Caravan did not receive advertisements from the government, it was not possible for the government to use the traditional "
carrot and stick The phrase "carrot and stick" is a metaphor for the use of a combination of reward and punishment to induce a desired behaviour. In politics, "carrot or stick" sometimes refers to the realist concept of soft and hard power. The carrot in this ...
" approach.


Awards


Individual journalists

Multiple journalists have received awards for their reportage published in The Caravan. In 2010, Mehboob Jeelani won a Ramnath Goenka Award for his profile of Syed Ali Geelani. In 2011, Jose won a Ramnath Goenka Award for his profiles of Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi; two years later, he was conferred with the Osborn Elliott Prize by the
Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Man ...
for two articles — one on the rebranding of Narendra Modi after the Gujarat Riots, and the other on media ethics. In 2011, Christophe Jaffrelot had also won the Ramnath Goenka Award for a series of op-eds. In 2012, Samanth Subramanian was conferred with Red Ink Award in the category of political reporting as well as media reporting by the Mumbai Press Club for his profiles of
Subramanian Swamy Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu n ...
and
Samir Jain Samir Jain (born 11 March 1954) is an Indian publisher and the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director (VCMD) of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., also known as The Times Group, a leading media conglomerate with its primary base of operations in India, ...
respectively. In 2014, the publication swept Red Ink Awards — Dinesh Narayanan won two in the category of political reporting for a profile of
Mohan Bhagwat Mohan Bhagwat (, Marathi pronunciation: oːɦən bʱaːɡʋət̪ born 11 September 1950) is an activist currently serving as the 6th and current Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India. He was chosen as the successor to ...
and in the category of business reporting for a profile of Jignesh Shah, Leena Gita Reghunath won the one in the category of crime reporting for a profile of Swami Aseemanand,
Salil Tripathi Salil Tripathi is an American author and editor. He is Chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. He is a contributing editor to ''The Caravan''. and Mint. Biography Tripathi was born in Mumbai. He was educated at the New Era Sch ...
won the one in the category of human rights reporting for a discussion of the 1971 war-crimes in Bangladesh, Nikita Saxena won the one in the category of health reporting, and Rahul Bhatia won the one in the category of sports reporting for a profile of
N. Srinivasan Narayanaswami Srinivasan (born 3 January 1945) is an Indian industrialist. He is a former Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and former President of the BCCI, the governing body for cricket in India. He is also the managing ...
. Bhatia also won a Ramnath Goenka Award for the same article. In 2018, Nileena M S won the ACJ Journalism Award in the category of investigative reporting for detailing the rampant corruption in the allocation of coal-blocks in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The same year, Reghunath won a Red Ink Award for her reporting of gender-biases in Malayalam television under the women empowerment category while Aruna Chandrasekhar won another in the environment category for reporting on the tribal opposition to bauxite mining in Orissa. In 2019, Sagar won Red Ink Award in the category of political reporting for investigative reporting on the Rafale scam while Zishaan A Latif won a Ramnath Goenka Award for documenting the struggles of inclusion in NRC. In 2020, Prabhjit Singh and Arshu John's probings into the Delhi riots won them the ACJ Journalism Award in the category of investigative reporting. In 2021, Sagar won Red Ink Award in the category of crime reporting for his fact-checking of claims made by
Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...
in the context of
Muzaffarpur shelter case Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Rape case refers to a shelter home that ran under a non-governmental organization called "''Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti''" at Muzaffarpur, Bihar, where cases of sexual abuse, rape and torture were reported. In a medic ...
.


Publication

In 2021, the publication was conferred with the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism's class of the year at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
; the citation highlighted Caravan's "commitment to conscience and integrity" notwithstanding intimidatory tactics by the state.


Controversies

In addition to receiving threatening messages, the magazine has been sued repeatedly for alleged defamation. These lawsuits are costly and typically take years to fight in court. In 2011, the magazine was the subject of a Rs 50 crore defamation suit by the
Indian Institute of Planning and Management The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) was an unaccredited institute headquartered in New Delhi, which previously had 18 branches across India. The institute has been widely criticized for false advertisements and fraudulent p ...
after it featured a profile of its head,
Arindam Chaudhuri Arindam Chaudhuri is an Indian national best known for his involvement with the now-defunct Indian Institute of Planning and Management, an unaccredited institute that was previously headquartered in New Delhi and had 18 branches across India ...
. During the years-long lawsuit, the magazine was ordered to take the article off its website. In 2018, the High Court allowed the magazine to re-publish the article, but the
gag order A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...
was partly reinstated by a different court two months later. The magazine was issued legal notices in April 2013 regarding its May cover story about Attorney General
Goolam Essaji Vahanvati Goolamhussein Essaji Vahanvati was an Indian senior counsel who served as the 11th Attorney General for India. His first term in office began in June 2009 and was for three years. Early life Goolam was born to Essaji Vahanvati, a lawyer, in a ...
but the top three editors decided to continue with its publication. In 2015, The Caravan was served a legal notice by the
Essar Group Essar Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, founded by Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia in 1969. As Essar Global Fund Limited (EGFL), the company controls a number of assets across the core sectors of energy (oil refining, oil a ...
because the magazine described the business and the family that runs it unfavorably, including evidence that the business gave iPads to 195 journalists, government employees, and politicians. Essar later filed a 250 crore civil defamation suit against the magazine; the business did not deny any of the facts presented in the magazine article. In 2021, many journalists and politicians who reported about the
death of Navreet Singh Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
during the 2021 Farmers' Republic Day parade were charged with
sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...
by the Delhi Police and the police departments of three
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
–ruled states. The police cases were filed against editor and founder Paresh Nath, editor Anant Nath, executive editor Vinod K. Jose and one unnamed person. Those charged also included Congress MP
Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...
, ''
India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...
'' journalist
Rajdeep Sardesai Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian news anchor, reporter, journalist and author. He is a consulting editor and an anchor of India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 ...
, ''
National Herald The ''National Herald'' is an Indian newspaper published by The Associated Journals Ltd and owned by Young India Limited a company by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. It was founded by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938 as a t ...
'' senior consulting editor
Mrinal Pande Mrinal Pande (born 26 February 1946) is an Indian television personality, journalist and author, and until 2009 chief editor of Hindi daily '' Hindustan''. Early life and education Pande was born in Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh, 26 February 194 ...
and ''
Qaumi Awaz ''Qaumi Awaz'' () is an Urdu language newspaper published in India by Associated Journals Limited, which was started by Jawaharlal Nehru in November 1937. It was shut in 2008 company was incurring losses. Its sister publications are the ''Nati ...
'' editor Zafar Agha. Varadarajan has called the police FIR "malicious prosecution". The Press Club of India (PCI), the Editors Guild of India, the Press Association, the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Indian Journalists Union in a joint press conference asked the sedition law to be scrapped. The Editors Guild of India spoke against invoking of the sedition charge on journalists. The guild termed the FIRs as an "attempt to intimidate, harass, browbeat and stifle the media".


References


External links

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U.S. Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...
entry: ; archived web sit
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Caravan 1940 establishments in India Cultural magazines English-language magazines published in India Magazines established in 1940 Magazines disestablished in 1988 Magazines established in 2009 Magazines published in Delhi Monthly magazines published in India Political magazines published in India