2601:646:8981:7460:C08B:5329:66CE:B61D at 01:26, 18 May 2021

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Girilal Jain
|birth_date=1924
|death_date=19 July 1993 <br> (age 69)
|occupation=journalist
}}
'''Girilal Jain''' (1924 – 19 July 1993), was an [[India]]n journalist. He served as the editor of ''[[The Times of India]]'' from 1978 till 1988. He was sympathetic to [[Hindu nationalism]] and authored books on the subject, the best known of which, ''The Hindu Phenomenon'', was published posthumously.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 31, 1994|first=Khushwant|last=Singh|title=Book review: Girilal Jain's 'The Hindu Phenomenon'|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19940831-book-review-of-the-hindu-phenomenon-by-girilal-jain-809565-1994-08-31|access-date=2020-10-08|website=India Today|language=en}}</ref> The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the [[Padma Bhushan]] in 1989.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Girilal Jain was born in a rural village some 50 miles (80 kilometres) south-east of [[Delhi]]. He received a bachelor's degree from [[Delhi University]]. He married Sudarshan Jain in 1951. They had a son and three daughters, among whom are the historian [[Meenakshi Jain]] and the columnist Sandhya Jain. Sunil Jain, his son, was a journalist, who was the managing editor of the Financial Express. Sunil Jain passed away on 15 May 2021 at the age of 58 due to complications from COVID-19. <ref>https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/financial-express-managing-editor-sunil-jain-succumbs-to-covid-19/2252659/</ref>

Girilal Jain died on 19 July 1993 at the age of 69.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6DF1F3DF935A15754C0A965958260 | work=The New York Times | title=Girilal Jain, 69, Editor; Backed Indira Gandhi | date=1993-07-26}}</ref>

==His views==
[[Khushwant Singh]] wrote that, towards the end of his career, Girilal Jain's writings showed a "distinct anti-Muslim, anti-Christian and anti-Sikh bias."<ref name=biased>
{{cite news |first=Khushwant|last=Singh|author-link=Khushwant Singh |title=Biased view – Book review of Girilal Jain's 'The Hindu Phenomenon' |newspaper=India Today |date=31 Aug 1994 |access-date=26 Aug 2014 |url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-of-the-hindu-phenomenon-by-girilal-jain/1/293926.html}}
</ref> Jain was reportedly fired as the editor of the ''[[Times of India]]'' as a result of his [[Hindutva]] sympathies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-girilal-jain-1486213.html|title=Obituary: Girilal Jain|last=Singh|first=Kuldip|date=July 1993|website=Independent}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19940831-book-review-of-the-hindu-phenomenon-by-girilal-jain-809565-1994-08-31|title=Book review: Girilal Jain's 'The Hindu Phenomenon'|last=Singh|first=Khushwant|date=August 1994|website=India Today}}</ref>

After retirement, he became an even more vocal supporter of the Hindutva organisations and penned the book ''The Hindu Phenomenon'' which was edited and published by his daughter Meenakshi Jain posthumously.<ref name=biased/>

Girilal Jain welcomed the movement for the [[Ram Janmabhoomi|Ram Temple]] at [[Ayodhya]] as part of the process of Hindu self-renewal and self-affirmation.<ref>''The Hindu Phenomenon'', {{ISBN|81-86112-32-4}}.</ref>

He believed that the political-economic order that [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] had fashioned was as much in its last throes as its [[Ancestor|progenitor]], the Marxist–Leninist-Stalinist order. He believed that the two major planks of this order, [[secularism]] and [[socialism]], have "lost much of their old glitter" while the third, [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-alignment]], has become redundant.<ref>''The Hindu Phenomenon'', {{ISBN|81-86112-32-4}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=August 2007}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/books/ayodhya/apex1.htm|title=Appendix 1. Girilal Jain on Hindu Rashtra|last=Singh|first=J.D|date=December 1990|website=The Koenraad Elst Site}}</ref>

According to him, the concept of nation is alien to Hindu temperament and genius. For, it emphasized the exclusion of those who did not belong to the charmed circle (territorial, linguistic or ethnic) as much as it emphasized the inclusion of those who fell within the
circle. By contrast, the essential spirit of Hinduism was inclusivist, and not exclusivist by definition. Such a spirit must seek to abolish and not build boundaries. That is why, he held, that Hindus could not sustain an anti-Muslim feeling, except temporarily and, that too under provocation.<ref>page vi, ''The Hindu Phenomenon'', {{ISBN|81-86112-32-4}}</ref>

Jain was criticized in the Congressional Record volume 142, issue 137, (September 28, 1996) published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office{{by whom|date=December 2017}} for his 1982 ''Times Of India'' editorial titled "De-Turbaning of Sikhs" for its anti-Sikh bias.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-09-28/pdf/CREC-1996-09-28-pt1-PgE1772.pdf |title=Congressional Record — Extensions of Remarks September 28, 1996 |access-date=2012-08-11}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
*[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6DF1F3DF935A15754C0A965958260 Girilal Jain, 69, Editor; Backed Indira Gandhi - New York Times]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110516213305/http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ayodhya/apex1.htm Ayodhya and After - Appendix 1 - Girilal Jain on Hindu Rashtra]

{{HinduRevivalistWriters}}{{Sangh Parivar|Girilal Jain=Girilal Jain}}{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1980–89}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Girilal}}
[[Category:Indian male journalists]]
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:Hindu writers]]
[[Category:Hindutva]]
[[Category:Writers about Hindu nationalism]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Hindu revivalist writers]]
[[Category:University of Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:Journalists from Delhi]]
[[Category:Indian political journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]

Girilal Jain - Revision history

2601:646:8981:7460:C08B:5329:66CE:B61D at 01:26, 18 May 2021