Janata, a weekly journal, began its publication in January 1946, at a time when socialist consciousness in India was in its formative stage. It was started by a group of socialist intellectuals, political workers and trade unionists, as an organ of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) – which at that time was a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. The purpose of starting the weekly was to disseminate democratic socialist thought, stimulate discussion on national and international problems from a democratic socialist perspective, and promote struggles of the oppressed for radical social transformation.

Post-independence, the CSP merged into the Socialist Party, and then the latter merged into the Praja Socialist Party (PSP). Janata Weekly now became the official organ of the PSP. In August 1971, at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Praja Socialist Party, it was resolved that Dr. G.G. Parikh be given the responsibility of bringing out Janata Weekly; he was also authorised to determine its form of management. He decided to vest the ownership of Janata Weekly in a trust, and so the Janata Trust was created on 17 October 1977. The trust had on its board several eminent socialists, including S.M. Joshi, N.G. Goray, Rohit Dave, Prem Bhasin, and Surendra Mohan.

During its initial days, Janata was edited, printed and published by Edata Narayanan at Roxy Press, New Delhi. In 1949, when Achyut Patwardhan took over its editorship, the printing and publication of the magazine was shifted to Bombay. This was done because by now, Janata Weekly had become the official organ of the Socialist Party, and it was felt that the party journal should be more closely associated with the Central Office of the Socialist Party, which was located in Bombay. Also, Bombay had better facilities as regards production and circulation. Even though Janata later became an independent socialist journal, its printing and publication has continued to be from Bombay (now Mumbai).

Among the subsequent editors of Janata Weekly have been distinguished socialists and journalists like Aruna Asaf Ali, Purshottam Tricumdas, Rohit Dave, S. Natarajan, N.G. Goray, Dr. H.K. Paranjpe, J.D. Sethi, Prem Bhasin, Prof. Madhu Dandavate and Surendra Mohan. Some of the most prominent and dedicated socialist leaders of the country like Acharya Narendra Deva, JP (Jayaprakash Narayan), Rammanohar Lohia, Yusuf Meherally and Asoka Mehta have been closely associated with Janata, and have provided it valuable guidance.

Ever since its founding in 1946, Janata Weekly has voiced its principled dissent against all conduct and practice detrimental to the cherished values of nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism, while upholding the integrity and the ethical norms of healthy journalism. For more than seventy years now, week after week, it has continued to analyse the changes taking place in the country and the world from a socialist standpoint, and thus promote the spread of socialist ideology in the country.

Janata Weekly has an envious record of uninterrupted publication for the past more than seven decades (except during 1975–77, when under the Emergency it was banned). It can modestly claim that during this period, despite the ups and downs of the socialist movement, by its uncompromising promotion of the socialist perspective, Janata has kept the flame of socialism aloft in the country.

With the growth of fascist forces in the country, which are threatening the very conception of India as a secular and democratic republic, as enshrined in the Constitution, the role of Janata Weekly in spreading light and nourishing hope in a period of darkness has become even more important.

Dr. G.G. Parikh is the present editor of Janata. He took over the editorship after the death of Surendra Mohan in 2010. Beginning activism at a very young age when he became involved in the freedom struggle, GG (as he is popularly known) has been deeply involved in social and political activities in Maharashtra for the last more than 80 years (he turned 96 on 30 December 2019). A dedicated and uncompromising Gandhian socialist, he has devoted all his life to comprehensive rural development, health, education and sustainable employment generation activities.

Neeraj Jain is the Associate Editor of Janata. An activist–intellectual for the last four decades, and author of many books, he is a committed socialist; he joined Janata in April 2018. Guddi is the Managing Editor of Janata, and looks after the printing, publication and circulation of the weekly. She has been associated with Janata for the last more than a decade.