R. Jagannathan is the current editorial director. Originally established in 1956 as a weekly under the patronage of C. Rajagopalachari, it shut down in 1980 but was relaunched in September 2014, as a daily news website; a monthly print magazine was launched in January 2015.[2]
History
First page of Swarajya Magazine's first issue.
Swarajya was launched as a weekly magazine in 1956 by journalist Khasa Subba Rao, under the patronage of C. Rajagopalachari, a prominent independence activist and one of the founders of the Swatantra Party.[3][4]
The magazine strongly advocated individual freedom and freedom of enterprise as against Nehru's socialist policies.[5]Minoo Masani, Ramaswamy Venkataraman, and R. K. Laxman have contributed to the magazine.[6][7] After Rajagopalachari's death in 1972, the magazine slowly began to decline and eventually closed in 1980.[8]
Relaunch in 2014
The magazine was relaunched as an online daily in September 2014, with Sandipan Deb as the Editorial Director; the first edition of the print magazine was launched in January 2015.[8]Coimbatore-based Kovai Media Private Limited purchased the rights to the magazine from Chennai-based Bharathan Publishers, along with 40,000 pages from the earlier editions of the magazine.[8] The magazine describes itself as "a big tent for liberal right of centre discourse".[1]
In October 2016, it acquired OpIndia; in 2018, it became an independent entity.[9] In 2018, Swarajya launched its Hindi edition.[10]
