Early 20th century
In Bengali literature, it started with Kallol, a modernist movement magazine, established in 1923. The most popular among the group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), Mohitlal Majumder(1888–1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903–1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882–1922), and Premendra Mitra (1904–1988). Then Bengali poetry got into the brightest light of modernism in the 1930s, through the movement of a few other little magazines, such as Buddhadeb Bosu's Kabita and Sudhindranath Datta's Parichay.
Hungry Generation and Anti-establishment Movements
The little magazine explosion in West Bengal took place after 1961 when the Hungry Generation Movement took the cultural establishment by storm. In fact it changed not only the types of publication but also the naming of magazines. The Hungry Generation Movement aimed at waging a war against the literary establishment and the decadent society in general. Prominent figures included Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Subimal Basak, Tridib Mitra, Samir Roychoudhury, Falguni Roy, Subon Acharjo, Pradip Choudhuri, Subhas Ghosh, and Basudeb Dasgupta.
There are other Bengali Writers who raised their voice against the establishment but did not join the Hungry generation Movement. Most notable among them is the maverick writer Subimal Mishra. Other experimental writers who mostly wrote in little magazines include Kamal Kumar Majumdar, Amiyabhushan Majumdar and Udayan Ghosh.
Kaurab Cult
Some major changes occurred in the 1970s in the Bengali little magazine movement, chiefly around Kaurab, a literary and cultural magazine nearly four decades old. Prime cult-figures of Kaurab are: Swadesh Sen, Kamal Chakraborty (original editor), Barin Ghosal, Debajyoti Dutta, Pranabkumar Chattopadhyay, Shankar Lahiri, Shankar Chakraborty and Aryanil Mukhopadhyay (present editor).
New Poetry (Natun Kabita)
Since the mid-1980s Bengali iterature experienced a new genre of Bengali poetry called New Poetry . From the early 1990s with impetus from a Kolkata-based poetry journal Kabita Campus, New Poetry has begun to gain immense acclaim from the young contemporary poets of Bengal. In 2003 some poets of this genre have started a journal named Natun Kabita containing their ideas and poems, through both online and print media. Another new age poetry magazine in the same sphere is Boikhoribhashya. Poets associated with this literary movement are: Barin Ghosal, Ranjan Maitra, Swapan Roy, Dhiman Chakraborty, Alok Biswas, Pronob Pal, Saumitra Sengupta, Arupratan Ghosh, Indranil Ghosh, Amitava Praharaj and Debanjan Das. Rajarshi Chattopadhyay, Atanu Bandopadhyay, Pradip Chakraborty are the poets who joined this movement in the mid-1990s.
New Age (New Century)
In West Bengal the first decade of this century (2001–10) is considered to be the period of a New Age little magazine movement. The magazines prominent in this period are:@Aahir.com,Meghjanmo, Sanjhbati, Lalon, Joydhak, Nabamanab, Bodhshabdo, VAPRA, Pratishedhak, GhoMosh, Lemosh, snO yI, Abosardanga, Ashtray, Somoyer Shobdo,"ebRo khebRo rong", "resurrection","deowal","aachhi","jatnaghar","mahool","daur","batighar","arani","uttar etihas"," craker","tabu abhiman","manthan","adorer nouka","elora" "duende",Sutorang,point blank range,Sarbonam.
Prominent figures rising from the period are: Somabrata Sarkar,Selim Mallik,Sabyasachi Majumdar,Prabir chakraborty, Rajdip Roy, Rangeet Mitra, Atanu Singha, Krishnendu Mukherjee, Souptik Chakraborty,Chandan Bangal, Arup Ghosh, Rangeet Mitra, Somtirtha Nandi, Saurav Chattopadhyay,Sayan Sarkar, Atindriyo Chakraborty, Debanjan Adhikary,Sohom Nandy, Joydeep Dam, Atri Bandopadhyay, Animikh Patra, Ratul Pal, Rohon Kuddus, Himadri Mukhopadhyay,Debabrata Kar Biswas, Aritra Sanyal, Dipangshu Acharya, Somnath Ghosal, Swadesh Mishra, Arko Chattopadhyay, Arpan Chakraborty, Argha Datta Bakshi, Ripon Fio, Subha Adhya, Kumaraditya Sarkar, Tanmoy Ray, Ric Sourock, Sujit Patra, Ripan Arya, Kishaylay Thakur,Shayak Mukhapadhyay, Jubin Ghosh, Sanjoy Rishi,Arup Palmal,Biswajit Roy,Subhodip Roy, Gouranga das,Gishan Roy, Torsha Bandopadhya,mujibar Ansary, sanny Sarkar.
Postmodern Bengali Poetry
Samir Roychoudhury and Prabhat Choudhuri heralded a new phase in Bengali poetry known as Postmodern Poetry with the launching of Haowa#49 and Kabita Pakshik respectively.
Little Magazine Library and Research Centre
There is a Little Magazine Library and Research Centre at Tamer Lane (run by Sandip Dutta since 1978), Kolkata, India, which collects Bengali little magazines published anywhere in the world.
Sahitya Academy
The Sahitya Akademi (Indian Academy of Letters) also publishes two literary journals, namely Indian Literature in English and Samkalin Bhartiya Sahitya in Hindi. However they cannot be considered as "little magazines" as they have state support and appear regularly. A prime example of this continuing tradition is The Little Magazine, published from New Delhi since May 2000., Civil Lines and Yatra.
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