DEAR READERS...

To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Indian edition of Reader's Digest, editors of this legacy publication share their stories of what it was like at the helm of one of the world's most widely read magazines from 1954, until today

In 1969, when I was 29 years old and had spent five years as an Assistant Editor of the Times of India, I applied to become the first Editor of the Indian Reader’s Digest (IRD)—and was selected from many candidates. After my selection, I had to spend a year in London with the British Reader’s Digest (BRD), getting to know how the Digest was brought out. My job was to ‘Indianize’ the IRD, just as many editions all over the world were already localizing their contents to an extent, with articles and jokes originating from that country itself.

During that training period with BRD, what struck me most was how RD ensured that everything they published was absolutely accurate. Even the jokes sent by readers were carefully checked for their originality. For that, there was a separate research department, which spared no effort or expense to ensure accuracy. Which is why a common refrain to end an argument in those days was, “But I saw it in the Reader’s Digest.” RD had great credibility, and was trusted by its readers—essential for a successful publication. The other unique nature of RD was the supremacy of the Editor. He or she did not report to the management, only to the International Editor (a Frenchman, Alain de Lyrot, at my time). That was how the Digest founder, Dewitt Wallace, an Editor himself, wanted it.

My first major challenge as the IRD editor came when censorship was imposed in 1975 during Indira Gandhi’s infamous Emergency rule. Every month, I had to appear before the Chief Censor, and show him what we were going to publish that month, for him to check that there was nothing that the government could object to. It was a humiliating experience for anybody who believed in freedom of speech and expression.