Desh magazine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(June 2007) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

Desh is a noted Bengali language literary magazine published by Ananda Publishers from India. This very old publication has been edited by editors like Sagarmoy Ghosh in the past. The present editor is Harsha Dutta. Desh has been the starting platform of almost all of today's established Bengali writers^{[citation needed]} and bestselling authors. Desh under Sagarmoy Ghosh gave birth to generations of poets, short story writers and novelists. After the death of Sagarmoy Ghosh, Desh started publishing non-fiction articles and essays on topics of current, historical and cultural interest. It has drifted from being a pure literary magazine to more current affairs oriented format. Noted journalist & Ramon Magsaysay award winner Amitabha Chowdhury edited the magazine for quite some time after Sagarmoy Ghosh. Desh is published from 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata 700 001.

Desh always had a right-wing tilt like its parent Ananda Bazar Patrika. However, after Harsha Dutta assumed charges it has slowly but steadily propagating a soft-Hindutva line with known rightist faces like Sumit Mitra, Swapan Dasgupta & even Tathagata Roy, the ex-State Chief of BJP & an RSS member regularly contributing current affairs article in the magazine. The magazine is in forefront of anti-Left tirade amongst the intellectual circle. Many believe that this could be a marketing tactics, as a majority of its readers are upper caste hindus who have sympathies for the hindu nationalists. In spite of this, the circulation of Desh is plummeting at a steady rate. In fact, Saptahik Bartaman, a peepy weekly is sold 3 times that of Desh. The Desh management responded by reducing the Price to Rs 5 (i.e almost 0.1 USD) which is a bit unusual for a high-end literary magazine. Apart from that Desh has ventured into a book-review fortnightly called Boier Desh where latest books are reviewed by veteran critics. Here also, the choice of books & reviewers clearly make its Pro-Right tilt quite evident.