The Journal of National Indian Association

Other names:

The Indian Magazine, The Indian Magazine and Review

Date began:

01 Jan 1871

Date ended:

01 Jan 1933

About:

The National Indian Association [1] began to produce a monthly journal in 1871 known as The Journal of National Indian Association. From 1886, it was known as The Indian Magazine and then renamed in 1891 to The Indian Magazine and Review. The publishers of the journal were as follows: W. H Allen until 1877; G. Kegan Paul after 1877; Archibald Constable from 1891; National Indian Association from 1914.

The journal included notices about the activities of the NIA [1], pieces about Indian affairs, information about Indian students, reviews of books about India and (rarely) poems or short stories. In 1896, the Society for the Encouragement and Preservation of Indian Art adopted The Indian Magazine as its mouthpiece and contributed articles on artistic matters.

From 1920, the Journal was no longer able to produce monthly issues owing to financial restraints. The journal stopped printing in 1933 with the retirement of the National Indian Association [1] secretary, E. J. Beck [2].

Key Individuals' Details:

Editors: Mary Carpenter [3] (1871-7), Elizabeth Adelaide Manning [4] (1877-1905), A. A. Smith (Miss) (from 1907).

Connections:

Contributors included: Abdullah Yusuf Ali [5], E. J. Beck [2], M. K. Gandhi [6], E. B. Havell [7], Lady Mary Hobhouse [8], Sarojini Naidu [9] née Chattopadhyaya, John Pollen, Abdul Qadir, Samuel Satthianadhan [10], Saint Nihal Singh [11], Cornelia Sorabji [12], Flora Annie Steel.

Books Reviewed Include:

Various by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [13]

Dutt, Toru, The Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields

Ghose, Manmohun, poems in Primavera

Various by Sarojini Naidu [9]

Pandian, Rev T., England to an Indian Eye; or, English Pictures from an Indian Camera

Satthianadhan, Samuel, Four Years in an English University

Various by Rabindranath Tagore [14]

Secondary works:

Burton, Antoinette, ‘Institutionalizing Imperial Reform: The Indian Magazine and Late-Victorian Colonial Politics’ in David Finkelstein and Douglas M. Peers (eds) Negotiating India in the Nineteenth-Century Media (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), pp.23-50.

Archive source:

National Indian Association Minute Books, Mss Eur F147, Asia and Africa Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras