4.10 Italics
Italicise all non-English words and phrases, unless the word is commonly used in the English language and can be found in the Oxford dictionary.
○Examples
Italicise (this is not a comprehensive list):
>aam aadmi
>ragi
>dholak
>nadaswaram
>samadhi
>tehsil
>taluka
>gram sabha
Don’t italicise (this is not a comprehensive list):
>sarpanch
>panchayat
>panchayati raj
>saree
>bazaar
>karma
>dhoti
If quoting someone in any non-English language, use italics for the non-English words in the quotation.
All caste/ community names (singular or collective) will be capitalised and not italicised:
○Examples
>Dalit
>Adivasis
>Brahmins
>Harijan – PARI will not use this term, we will use the word Dalit. But if it is in a quote, particularly a Dalit person speaking of himself or herself, it will be retained, with ‘H’ capital.
Capitals and italics: if a word is italicised, it is generally not also capitalised. And if it is capitalised, it is generally not also italicised.
○ Exception
If the word in italics starts a sentence.
○Example
>Pung is considered the king of musical instruments by the Meitei community.
All captions will be italicised (with no full stop at the end).
All strap lines will be italicised (with no full stop at the end).
If a non-English word (that would normally be italics) occurs in the strap or caption, it will be in roman font or in single quotes.
Publications/ television shows: the titles and subtitles of books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, newsletters, online magazines, and sections of newspapers that are published separately in either print or electronic form are italicised (in the main text as well as in endnotes, if any).
○Examples
>Indian Express
>The Economist
>“In Ramachandra Guha’s book India After Gandhi…”
Note: The initial “the” in newspaper and periodical titles, even if it is a part of the official title, is lower-cased and not italicised, unless it begins a sentence.
○Examples
>The op-ed appeared in the Statesman.
–But:
>The Statesman featured an interview with Prof. Amartya Sen.
Radio and TV shows are also italicised, but radio and TV networks/ channels are not.
○Examples
>The Word This Week
>Panorama
–But:
>BBC
>Al-Jazeera
If a publication’s name is italicised in a sentence that also uses the title of an article from the same publication, use single quotes for the article title.
○ Example
>The article in the Hindu was titled ‘Banks for the unbanked’.
Highlighting/emphasising: to highlight a word or phrase in a quote, use italics to emphasise (but do so sparingly). Never underline.
If you do add italics to a quote, include the phrase (emphasis added: Ed) or (emphasis added: author’s initials) in square brackets at the end of the sentence or paragraph, and before the full stop or comma, as may be the case.
○ Examples
>Twelve states have declared zero farmers’ suicides.
–But
>The minister said, “Twelve states declaring zero farmers’ suicides? (emphasis added: Ed). I do not find this data credible.”