''Mathrubhumi Azhchappathippu'' ( en, Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly) is an Indian general interest weekly magazine published by the Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company in

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second ...

. The

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

magazine started publishing on 18 January 1932.''Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly'' 2012: 3, 98. Print Some of the finest literary works produced in the Keralan local language of Malayalam were initially published in ''Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly,'' including

Uroob Parutholli Chalappurathu Kuttikrishnan, popularly known by his pen name Uroob ( ml, ഉറൂബ്; 1915 – 1979) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Along with Basheer, Thakazhi, Kesavadev, and Pottekkatt, Uroob was counted a ...

's ''

Ummachu ''Ummachu'' (''Beloved'') is a Malayalam novel written by Uroob in 1954. ''Ummachu'' along with ''Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum'' are considered the best works by Uroob and are ranked among the finest novels in Malayalam. In ''Ummachu'', Uroob exp ...

'' (1954), Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's ''Footsteps'' (1964),

O. V. Vijayan Ottupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (2 July 1931 – 30 March 2005), commonly known as O. V. Vijayan, was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel '' Khasakk ...

's '' The Legends of Khasak'' (1968) and

M. Mukundan Maniyambath Mukundan, (born 10 September 1942) commonly known as M. Mukundan, is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Many of his early works are set in Mahé (Mayyazhi) which has earned him the moniker, ''Mayyazhiyude Kathakaaran''. He is ...

's '' On the Banks of the River Mahé'' (1974). Authors such as M. T. Vasudevan Nair and

N. V. Krishna Warrier N. V. Krishna Warrier (May 13, 1916 – October 12, 1989) was an Indian poet, journalist, scholar, academician and political thinker. A prolific writer, Warrier's works covered the genres of poetry, drama, travelogue, translation, children's lit ...

served as the editors of the magazine. The magazine carries political commentaries, literary works and columns on science, films and literature. Prominent writer Ramachandra Guha, biologist Krishna Anujan, E P Rajagopalan are among the columnists.

History

Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly’s parent company, Mathrubhumi is based in the northern

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

town of

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second ...

and was founded in 1922 as a public limited company following the rise of Mahatma Gandhi’s

non-cooperation movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.Vallathol. Articles including ‘Paschyatharude Lingabandha Jeevitham’ and column ‘Rasikarasayanam’ by Kesari Balakrishna Pillai appeared in the first edition. This first issue of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly is a truncated version of how the magazine is structured today with editorials from various Keralan figures, poems, book reviews and extracts of Malayalam literature. Kerala has played a major role in the formation of Mathrubhumi. The region is a southern state in India formed in 1956, with a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

-led government assuming office in 1957. This makes the state home to one of the earliest elected communist governments in the world. Kerala has far higher rates of literacy compared to other Indian states. This makes it privy to publications like Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly, that are focused on texts that provoke and challenge the wider Indian audience. Upon its conception in 1932, the magazine was considered the mouthpiece of India’s freedom movement. This has been a key tenet in its mission statement and a driving factor in remaining a rare independent media outlet in Kerala. India map kerala

Kerala as a region has a strong association with the

Indian freedom movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

of the early to mid 20th century . In 1942 the Mathrubhumi editor K. A. Damodara Menon was arrested for his role in the Quit India movement. The arrest by British backed Indian officials came alongside a slew of actions including the deportation of

Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai K. Ramakrishna Pillai (1878–1916) was an Indian nationalist writer, journalist, editor, and political activist. He edited '' Swadeshabhimani'' (The Patriot), the newspaper which became a potent weapon against the rule of the British and th ...

in 1910, the banning of Kesari in 1930, and the confiscation of the properties of

Malayala Manorama ''Malayala Manorama'' is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew; it was first published as a weekly on 22 March 1888, and currently has ...

in 1938. Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly was a touchpoint for the movement supporting the dismantling of

British rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...

and played a significant role in the eventual resolution proposal. The Congress working committee met at

Wardha Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the north, west and south bound ...

in 1942 adopting a resolution to demand complete independence from the British Government. This draft proposed large scale protests and riots if the British did not accept the demands. It was eventually passed in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. The weekly’s role in the formation and development of a public literary community in Malabar-northern Kerala is substantial. The Communist-led region had once been under the rule of the Madras Presidency, and following its disestablishment in 1947 established reading rooms and acted as a literacy facilitator. However, the Malayalam identity was still shaped by issues of caste, class, gender, and religion. The circulation of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly is cited as being a core actor in shifting the Keralan population from such traditionalist ideologies. This shift influenced the push for public reading spaces throughout this period. The early issues of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly witnessed the rise and fall of poet’s Edapally Raghavan Pillai’s work, having a substantial impact on his early career. The writer is among many that were afforded an audience by Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly, with the publication facilitating the early careers of many authors and literary contributors in India. In the 1950s and 60s Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly played a substantial role in the formation and early establishment of a democratic Indian government. The magazine’s influence as a mouthpiece for the Indian independence movement earlier in the century led them to eventually be an agent supporting trade unions and elected figures in both parliament and various industries. The magazine upholds its interests in politics and literacy from great Malayalam minds including prominent writer

Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social history, social, political history, political, contemporary history, contemporary, Envir ...

and biologist Krishna Anujan. Currently its managing editor P. V. Chandran continues to uphold the magazine’s mission statement promoting literary freedom and creative expression in a media landscape fraught with familial ties and restrictive commercial obligations.

Content and Format

Mathrubhumi Illustrated is published weekly and is one of the top circulating literary magazines in the Indian State of Kerala consisting of Malayalam short stories, novels, travel diaries, interviews, and editorials. Mathrubhumi states that their weekly publication “is the mirror image of Malayalam literature” and strives to showcase “Kerala’s intellectual depth”. Book reviews have been a mainstay of the publication since its inception, having ‘best book’ and ‘best author’ awards given out annually. Special editions of the magazine are also released on occasion with the most recent edition, Mathrubhumi at 100 years, celebrating the centenary of the Mathrubhumi company in March 2022. Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly also publishes

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

s in a serialised format. The magazine published the nation’s first graphic novel. Keralan filmmaker, comic artist, and painter

G. Aravindan Govindan Aravindan (23 January 1935 – 15 March 1991) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist, and painter. He was one of the pioneers of parallel cinema in Malayalam. He was known for his unorthodox way of filmmak ...

issued a comic strip called Cheriya Manushyarum, Valiya Lokavam translating to ‘Small Men and the Big World’ in the weekly magazine. The piece was published in a serialised format from 1961 to 1973. It’s considered India’s first graphic novel and also “the first time the Malayali reader sensed time in a cartoon strip” according to Indian billionaire and business leader

Kris Gopalakrishnan Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan is an Indian billionaire businessman who is recognized as a global business and technology thought leader for his role in growing the IT services industry worldwide. He co-founded Infosys, where he served as the ...

. Interviews in the magazine often focus on literary and political figures from Kerala and the surrounding Indian regions. Most interviews explore political issues whilst profiling a notable individual who presents their view on the matter. For example, Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly’s interview with central secretariat member of the

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 ...

Human Rights Movement, Seleena Prakkanam, investigates struggles with leadership in Indian politics and caste issues. Interviews like this one have been a central feature of the publication.

Controversies

Child Marriage in Muslim Kerala Commmunities

In 2013, the magazine played a significant role in making. public and publishing criticisms of child marriage in Kerala and the surrounding regions. Academic articles like Haneefa’s ‘Reflections on the Relationship between Child Marriage and Higher Education of Muslim Women in South Malabar’ (2013) brought the alarming rate of child marriage in Muslim Indian communities to light, exposing fundamentalist religious communities' treatment of young women in particular. The Journal was most concerned with the lower rate of education among young women who wed when they were children. Mathrubhumi’s articles ‘

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Penkuttilakkku Vendi Oru Abhyarthana’ and ‘Anungalude Indiayile Pennungalude Kalyanam’ both published in 2013 are cited extensively in the article and as texts that brought the issue to light in the region. Muslim communities argued that Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly infringed on their religious freedoms and protested the articles. However, despite much criticism and controversy from a still very traditionalist India, the Exposés were not removed. The dissatisfaction with the weekly literary magazine among Indian Muslims caused by this issue led to their next controversy in 2018 being all the more potent.

Meesha Controversy

Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly was the subject of controversy again in 2018 upon serialising Meesha, the debut novel of Malayalam author S. Hareesh. Early in the novel a conversation takes place between two male characters in which one states that

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

women dress up to go to temples so they can declare readiness for sexual relations. The character then continues to suggest women do not visit temples whilst menstruating because they aren’t ready for sex and that

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

priests are notorious womanisers. This extract was shared widely on social media wherein was met with criticism from Hindu groups and leaders. Organisations such as Yogakshema Sabha, and

BJP 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 Mo ...

, Hindu Aikya Vedi. expressed their outrage. Protestors from these groups and other followers of the

Right-Wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

Sangh Parivar The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" or the "RSS family") refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which r ...

marched on the Mathrubhumi office in July 2018. Many political figures and notable authors came out in support of S Hareesh, such as 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, ...

came out in support of the author; "Those who do not believe my warnings about the emergence of a Hindutva Taliban might learn from what has just happened to Malayalam writer Hareesh (& even more chilling, the threat to chop off his hands,

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

-style)”. The politicisation of Meesha as well as the outrage from Hindu women and the Brahmin community led to Hareesh withdrawing the novel from Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly after only three chapters were published. S hareesh

S. Hareesh spoke on the pulling of his serialised book from the publication in late July 2018; “My novel published in Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly has finished three episodes. It was a product of almost 5 years of hard work that revolved on my mind from childhood. But I happened to find a small portion of the novel being circulated on social media in a hateful way”. The novel became available in full later that year, published by

DC Books DC Books is a publisher in Kerala publisher of books in Malayalam, and one of the publishers in India . It also operates one of the largest book store chains in India, with a network of over 45 bookshops under the DC Books and Current Books b ...

. It won the

Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1958, by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy), to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit. The awards are given in various categories.

for Novel in 2019 and the English translation of the book was awarded the JCB Prize for literature in 2020. Kamalram Sajeev, who served as the editor of the weekly for 15 years, resigned from the weekly due to the controversy related to Meesha. After Ram's resignation, copy editor Manila C Mohan also left Mathrubhumi.

Circulation

The magazine is distributed in both physical and digital editions, with subscriptions offered both domestically and internationally. It is released Weekly to outlets across the Kerala region and can be found throughout India at particular retailers. In the region and beyond, the publication is printed in the local language of Malayalam. The magazine has an estimated circulation of 60,000 copies sold each week and an approximate readership of 300,000. Sister publications of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly include; the women’s interest magazine Grihalakshmi, the employment magazine Thozhil Vartha, Mathrubhumi’s main newspaper, and the monthly sports paper Mathrubhumi Sports Masika. Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weeklyhas been the number-one literary weekly in Malayalam since its launch in January 1932. Its focus on literature remains the core of the publication, but over time its focus has shifted slightly to current affairs and interviews in order to remain relevant to the intellectual population of Kerala where the magazine is circulated most heavily.

Key people

Managing Editor: P. V. Chandran
Joint Managing Editor: P. V. Nidheesh
Editor In Charge: M.P. Gopinath
Chief Sub Editor: Subhash Chandran Copy Editors: K. C. Subi and P. K. Sreekumar
Art Editor: Madanan
Artist: K. Shareef

References

{{Mathrubhumi Group Literary magazines published in India Weekly magazines published in India Magazines established in 1932 Malayalam-language magazines 1932 establishments in India