K.R. Malkani & The Motherland : Voices of the Nation

In its brief existence of about four years, between 1971 and 1975, The Motherland, edited by K.R. Malkani (1921-2003) achieved rare distinction and recognition in the world of journalism. It established itself as a fearless and uninhibited voice of the nation, relentlessly exposing the decay seeping into Indias body-politic by the early 1970s. In that respect The Motherlands advocacy of India First and its unalloyed articulation of Indias national interest remain unsurpassed. It was also its strident and uncompromising criticism of the Indira Congress and the Prime Ministers ways, which eventually led Indira Gandhi to shut it down at the first given opportunity after she imposed the Emergency. The Motherland was, The only paper in India to announce on 26th June the imposition of the Emergency, arrest of leaders and the wave of national shock. This collection of K.R.Malkanis columns in The Motherland offers an insight into Indian politics and society in the years just before Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi. It is a record of Indias political history a quarter century after independence and is a very useful reckoner for the general reader for understanding the years that led to the imposition of the Emergency.