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

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. The weekly newspaper was started by P. Lankesh in 1980 on the lines of ''

Harijan Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

'', a newspaper published by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. 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 sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

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 The Gokak agitation ( kn, ಗೋಕಾಕ್ ಚಳುವಳಿ) was a successful language rights agitation in the 1980s that fought for the first-language status of the Kannada language in the South Indian state of Karnataka. It was named af ...

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 lakhs. ''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 '' P. Lankesh'' 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 located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univer ...

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 a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

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, and director of Kannada and Hindi films. He is also the publisher of the weekly Kannada tabloid '' Lankesh Patrike''. He is the son of iconic writer, journalist and film maker P. Lankesh. Lank ...

, 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 Gauri Lankesh (29 January 1962 – 5 September 2017) was an Indian activist and former journalist from Bangalore, Karnataka. She worked as an editor in '' Lankesh Patrike'', a Kannada weekly started by her father P. Lankesh, and ran her own we ...

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 to death by unknown assailants outside her home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, for her views against Hinduism.

1980–2000: P. Lankesh

After P. Lankesh's death

References

See also