The Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) is a weekly peer-reviewedacademic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust.[1] In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal.[2] Guru will be Editor for a period of five years. The previous full-time editor was Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.[3] The Trust had earlier appointed Guha Thakurta as the new editor of the journal with effect from 1 April 2016.[4] His appointment came at a time when many social scientists were opposing the supposed removal of the previous editor C. Rammanohar Reddy, who resigned in January 2016[5] only to controversially end in 2017 with Guha Thakurta also resigning.[6]
The journal was established in 1949 as the Economic Weekly and edited by Sachin Chaudhuri.[11] It obtained its current name in 1966.[12] It was edited by Krishna Raj for more than three decades[13] and is among the most prestigious scholarly journals in India,[14] having had contributions from many of the country's best known scholars.[13]
The journal is known for its strong editorial stance with a "social conscience"[15] and for taking left-leaning positions in its editorials, which were occasionally critical of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government in West Bengal for not being radical enough.[16] The journal was harshly critical of some of the policies of the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency, as well as of state complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots.[17]
Factiva and JSTOR have EPW content on their databases for their registered users.
Controversy
In 2016, C. Rammanohar Reddy quit as editor in a controversial move which led to several academics expressing concern in an open letter,[20] and at least one board member, Jean Dreze, resigning from the board.[21][22] Shortly after, his successor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta also quit in 2017 after a controversial article about the Adani Group was removed from the website amidst reasons that many felt were unclear or unjustified.[23][24] In its defence, the Trust posted a statement on the EPW website stating that Guha Thakurta had violated his position by responding to a legal notice sent by the Adani Group without informing the Trust.[25] This once again led to various scholars and commentators questioning the Sameeksha Trust that runs the journal.[26][27][28]
Eventually professor and scholar Gopal Guru was appointed as the new editor in January 2018.[29]