A page from the forces

A century-old house journal is more than a magazine for the armed forces.

Recently, V K Joshi, editor of the Indian Armed Forces’ house journal Sainik Samachar, received a phone call from an elderly ex-serviceman. The gentleman wanted to meet him. The man turned up the following morning only to say that he had not received the past three issues of the magazine and was disappointed. The lapse had upset a ritual. A regular reader of the journal for the past 30 years, the retired officer would routinely invite his friends to have them read various issues of the magazine, all of which he had neatly stacked over the years.

 

Priced at Rs 5 a copy and running to 32 pages — courtesy the Government of India — Sainik Samachar is more than a slick magazine. “For people associated with the forces, it’s a matter of maintaining the bond they share with the Indian Army,” says Joshi.

The magazine started over a century ago, in 1909. It was then called Fauji Akhbar — a journal that brought news of accomplishments, breakthroughs, important visits by dignitaries, expeditions, celebrations, technological advancements, even snippets. The idea was to keep the soldiers informed and also bring a smile to their lips through comic strips and caricatures.

“The journal,” says Joshi, “is designed keeping in mind the soldier who sits inside a bunker in some desolated terrain of the country.” The inside back cover of one issue features ace cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni presenting an autographed bat to Air Chief Marshal P V Naik.

The magazine, which has a circulation of 25,000 and comes out in 12 Indian languages and English, is brought out by an editor and three assistant editors. Inputs are collected from 25 correspondents, who are public relations officers (PROs) in the defence ministry’s Directorate of Public Relations (DPR). Some armed forces personnel also serve as PROs.

It all started in the heyday of the British Raj. A need was felt to bring out a periodical that would cater to the army personnel. On January 2, 1909, Fauji Akhbar was published from Allahabad, with office located in Simla (now Shimla). Printed in Urdu — the language extensively used in the Indian Army at the time — and priced at an anna a copy, the 16-page weekly read much like a news digest comprising snippets on promotions and appointments, some highlights of the Services, a short story and a tactical essay competition.

“In the early years, the British bias was conspicuous,” says Sitanshu Kar, Additional Director General (Media and Communications), DPR. The magazine would offer news from Great Britain and other countries of the Empire. News about India mostly featured British officials’ activities. At one point, it contained criticism of the Non-cooperation Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. For instance, an article in the issue dated November 6, 1920 read: “The government of Hind thinks this proposal is unacceptable since it aims at disturbing the country’s current set-up. Even so, the government has not taken any action against the proponents.”

In the years that followed, the journal was published from Lahore, moving to Shimla again, and finally to Delhi after Partition in 1947. The division of the country meant a sudden migration of the publication’s staff and printers. “Some early issues got lost. Later, we wrote to the Pakistan embassy hoping we’d find some of them. We never got a reply,” says Kar. He has been instrumental in compiling various issues of Sainik Samachar through the years for a coffee-table book, Soldiering On, which was published on 2009 to mark the centenary of the journal.