The first day of the Weekly

Weekly, as many preferred to call it, had something for everyone, ranging from well researched articles to cartoons by Mario and R.K. Laxman, from party jokes to a gossip column.

An edition of the magazine (Source: Wikipedia)

One of the most important and reputed magazines in Indian history started its publication on 3rd January, 1880, known as the Times of India Weekly Edition. This name was later changed to `The Illustrated Weekly of India’ in 1923. It was an English language publication that graced the mind of readers in India for almost over a century.

The magazine stood out for its brave and critical articles as well as the wide range of readers that it unfailingly catered to. Under great editors like Khushwant Singh, M.V. Kamath and Pritish Nandy, it became a go to magazine for modern urban families.

Weekly, as many preferred to call it, had something for everyone, ranging from well researched articles, cartoons by Mario and R.K. Laxman, party jokes, a gossip column and sometimes, desirable photos of models in bikinis too. This magazine was also wildly popular among the youngsters because of its western comic section, the ‘Phantom comic series’.

Along with this, the series "The India You Do Not Know", that provided long-form articles on different states of India and one on different communities of India which became authentic sources of reference during this period.

It was a magazine full of character, that generated respect and high brand value within its audience. While it started out as a soft read with literary and religious focus, it changed its focus commendably in its later years of publication to racy and topical, the focus primarily on in-house writing. Controversial topics beside human interests were a stand-out of the magazine. What stands out about Illustrated Weekly is that in a country like India, putting out aggressive political and social content for so many years is quite an achievement in itself.