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Lankesh Patrike is an Indian vernacular weekly published in Kannada language from Bangalore, Karnataka.
The weekly newspaper was started by P. Lankesh in 1980 on the lines of Harijan, a newspaper published by Mahatma Gandhi. The weekly remains to this day true to its principles and has never published a single advertisement or generated any ad revenue, surviving these last 37 years on subscription from its readers alone.
The weekly aimed to be a platform for the oppressed, , women and marginalised sections of Indian society. It popularised a brand of journalism that grew to be the voice of these sections, playing an important role in the Raitara Chaluvali (Farmers Agitation), the Dalit movement, and the Gokak agitation started by the newspaper's founder, P. Lankesh. Lankesh led the newspaper from 1980 until his death in 2000. At its peak, the weekly enjoyed a readership of 2.5 million, with a circulation of 4.5 .
Lankesh Patrike introduced a number of new writers to the Kannada literary scene. Some of them, like B.T. Lalita Naik, Vaidehi B.M.Rasheed, Sara Abubakkar, and Banu Mushtaq, later went on to win accolades as writers.
A staunch Socialism and Lohiaite, Lankesh, before starting Lankesh Patrike, along with his socialist friends Ramdass and Tejaswi, had toured the length and breadth of Karnataka, mobilising people to vote for their new socialist party. It was this trip, he recounted in one of his editorials, that took him to the remotest parts of Karnataka and opened his eyes to the plight of the poor and the Dalits, and made him realise his responsibility as a writer and an intellectual towards society.
The weekly followed this as its mission and has continued to fight for the oppressed class, the Dalits, and the poor under the managing editorship of Lankesh's son, Indrajit Lankesh, who had been associated with the paper for 25 years.
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