MARG, PATHWAY TO INDIAN ART
Marg, India’s oldest art magazine, is celebrating its 71st anniversary by launching its digital archive. The collection, a total of 270 editions, is invaluable for its insight into Indian and South Asian arts and culture. The history and significance of the quarterly is inextricably linked to the passion and personality of author, thinker, activist Mulk Raj Anand.
Anand returned to Bombay from the UK in 1946, when India was on the brink of becoming an independent nation. He, along with art critic Anil de Silva and architect Minette de Silva from Sri Lanka and Bombay-based lawyer and art connoisseur Karl Khandalavala, decided the best way to contribute was to publish a magazine of the arts. In October that year, Marg (which stands for Modern Architectural Research Group, but also means pathway in Hindi) was launched with the aim of setting the standard for the arts in India. It was important to Anand that the magazine offered the nation a sense of who they were and what it meant to be Indian. By shining a light on Islamic, Buddhist, Jain and Christian architecture and art, the magazine laid emphasis on the shared history of these religions. “These ideas are as relevant today as they were then,” says Radhika Sabavala, general manager of Marg Publications.
Although Anand took great delight in uncovering some of India’s hidden treasures—including Hampi in Karnataka and Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh—he also keenly encouraged an “internationalism of thought” and a deliberation on the future, getting architects Le Corbusier and Charles Correa to publish their plans for Chandigarh and New Bombay, respectively.
JRD Tata, who took Marg under the Tata Sons wing in the 1950s, suggested that advertisers take an interest in the content of the magazine. As a result, brands such as Air India, Dunlop and Shalimar created unique advertisements that were relevant to the theme of the edition. For a design enthusiast, these ads are as fascinating as the essays. The digital archives include these advertisements, while also attempting to give readers an idea of the varied materials and papers veteran designer Dolly Sahiar used for the magazine during her long illustrious stint at Marg.
Ensuring the quality remains at its optimum is one of the reasons why it has taken the team two years to make the entire set available digitally. It is something they will continue to do with the issues to come. Currently co-edited by Jyotindra Jain and Naman Ahuja, at present Marg counts over 300 institutions, including museums and libraries, as print subscribers within India, and over 70 from other countries—including the Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Yale University Library and Museum Rietberg.