Write for The Indic Journal

The Indic Journal is looking for student writers and early career journalists who want to build a real portfolio covering India and world affairs. If you are a student with a genuine interest in politics, technology, economics, defence, geopolitics, culture or the environment, and you want your byline on a published, real publication rather than just a personal blog nobody reads, we would like to hear from you.

What we are looking for

We publish news analysis, explainers and opinion pieces, not just straight news reporting. We are especially interested in writers who can take a complicated story, an economic policy, a piece of legislation, a diplomatic development, and explain clearly why it actually matters, in plain language, without losing the nuance.

We do not expect polished, professional writing on your first submission. We expect curiosity, willingness to research properly, and openness to editing. Every piece we publish goes through editorial review and revision before it goes live, and that process is part of what this opportunity is for. You will learn how a real editorial process works, not just how to write a draft and hope it is good enough.

What this is, and what it is not

This is an unpaid, byline based contributor opportunity. You will not be paid for your articles, and this is not an internship or a job in the legal sense, there is no employment relationship, no fixed hours and no guaranteed schedule. What you do get is a published byline under your own name, on a real publication with editorial standards, that you can point to in your own portfolio, your resume, or your applications to journalism programmes or media jobs.

If you are looking for paid writing work, this is not that, and we want to be upfront about it rather than let that surprise you later.

How to apply

Send us an email through our Contact Us page with the following:

A short note about yourself, your background, what you are studying, and why you are interested in writing for us.

One or two writing samples, these do not need to be published anywhere already, a college essay or a personal blog post is fine, we mostly want to see how you think and how you write.

One or two pitch ideas, a specific story or explainer you would actually want to write for us, not just “I want to write about politics” but something like “I want to explain what the new RBI repo rate change actually means for someone with a home loan.”

What happens after you apply

If we think you are a good fit, we will respond and either greenlight one of your pitches or suggest an alternative. You write a first draft, we edit it together, and once it meets our editorial standard, it gets published under your byline. Every contributor’s first piece goes through closer editing than later ones, simply because that is how editorial relationships work everywhere, and it gets easier as we understand each other’s style and standards.

We read every application personally. Given that this is a small, independent and growing publication, response times will not always be fast, but we do read everything that comes in.