India, July 27 -- In a city where identities jostle as tightly as commuters on a local train, Mumbai's regional, community-based publications continue to thrive-quiet sentinels of memory, language and belonging. While 'Parsiana', the polished SoBo journal of Zoroastrian life, is perhaps the most well-known with its global readership, it is within the pages of the less celebrated but equally vibrant Marathi, Gujarati and Konkani periodicals that the city's diverse inner lives find an expression.

Consider 'Marmik', the Marathi weekly founded in 1960 by Bal Thackeray. Initially conceived as a political cartoon magazine, it quickly transformed into a platform for Marathi pride and grievance-what the late Sena supremo described as "anxieties ...