The Book Review

The Book Review, India’s first review journal in English, was started in 1976 by Chitra Narayanan, Uma Iyengar and Chandra Chari. From inception, an Advisory Board was set up with founding members KR Narayanan, VP Dutt, Nikhil Chakravartty, S Gopal, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Raja Ramanna and KN Raj.

The journal provides critical, in-depth reviews of books published in India and abroad on various subjects, including by not limited to social sciences, humanities, fiction, management, environment, art, culture, science and children’s literature. It renders a signal service to book lovers and scholars all over the country, including the small mofussil towns where access to the latest publications is difficult.

The Book Review is a non-political, ideologically non-partisan journal that reflects all shades of intellectual opinions and ideas. The views of the reviewers and authors writing for the journal are their own. All reviews and articles published in The Book Review are exclusive to the journal. The journal has had an eminent editorial advisory board since its inception in 1976. The board members have a policy of rigorous peer review of all submissions to ensure high standards of excellence in content and style.

The journal commenced with an aim to:

promote Indian publications and Indian authors, particularly those in the Indian languages
develop a culture of critical in-depth reviews, leveraging the expertise of the best in a given field
promote awareness of studies in particular areas of concern such as South Asian issues and gender issues
encourage and develop high-quality translations of works in the Indian languages
attract a wider audience for the areas, subjects and issues of the journal’s focus
Since its inception, The Book Review has attained many of its objectives, quickly becoming the benchmark, across the world, for critical reviews of works published in South Asia. The focus on Indian languages, South Asian studies, gender issues and children’s books has remained unwavering, with numerous special issues, seminars and publications. Leading experts in fields as diverse as international relations, Gandhian studies, and ancient Indian history regularly contribute to the journal. Covering a vast array of subjects, this pioneering venture has rendered a unique service to the literary and academic community and the reading public.

Between 1980 and 1989, Founding Advisory Board member Nikhil Chakravartty of assumed administration and publication of The Book Review as all three founding editors were no longer in Delhi. In 1989, The Book Review Literary Trust was founded to significantly expand the organization’s activities to seminars, translations, publications and lectures. The same year, the founding editors also resumed administration and publication of the journal.

In 1990, the journal adopted its current unique tabloid format, with a characteristic contents page and page layout that has since been emulated widely by other magazines in the same space. The journal’s periodicity became monthly in 1993. Subsequently, The Book Review widened the range and frequency of its special issues, including issues on South Asia, the Indian languages, gender, environment, education and Children’s Literature. The Book Fair Specials were introduced in 1998. From 1999, every November issue became Children’s Book Special. In 2000, the South Asia bumper specials were started.