Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Restoring Peace and Democracy in Chhattisgarh: Inherent Message of a Political Memoir

  27 November 2015, by Gabriele Dietrich

  BOOK REVIEW
  Inside Chhattisgarh: A Political Memoir by Ilina Sen; Penguin Books India; 2014; pages: 307; Price: Rs 399.
  This is an extraordinary book, based on an unusual life-journey, rooted in search of solidarity and democratic transformation of society. It is unfortunate that Ilina and Binayak Sen have been in the national and international limelight because of the trumped-up Binayak Sen case and the subsequent “Free Binayak Sen Campaign” which was, of course, very positive. This (…)

• Writers, Scientists, Artists Cannot See their Land Wrecked by Fascist Forces

  27 November 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Whilst the 2002 Gujarat pogrom was peaking, I was attending a Governing Council meet of one of the colleges here in this Capital city. Seated next to me was a woman lawyer who later became one of the spokespersons for the BJP ... Towards the end of that meet, she asked me what I thought of the news reports on the killings in Gujarat. Quite obviously I didn’t mince words and told her rather too bluntly that more detailed reports should be out, naming-nailing the murderers—that is, (…)

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  Paris and Burma: Complex Global Reality

  21 November 2015

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The entire West, led by the United States, has vowed to wage a ‘fight-to-the-finish’ battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Terrorists of the ISIS made a bloodbath of the innocent in a series of acts of butchery in Paris on November 14, killing 129 persons and wounding several hundred. French President Francois Hollande has called it ‘an act of war’ and declared a state of emergency in his country following the attack.
  The ISIS today controls a vast (…)

• Modi At Wembley: Empire Strikes Back in a Football Stadium

  21 November 2015

  by L.K. Sharma
  Move over Bollywod! Move over Hollywood! Modiwood rules the world! Prime Minister Modi’s London show on November 13, 2015 will be recorded as a landmark event in the history of the Anglo-Indian encounter.
  Imagine Prime Minister Narendra Modi landing on the stage of the Wembley Stadium in the Pushpak Viman, the flying machine invented in India.The crowds turn hysterical seeing their God descend in an aeroplane that was copied by the Western scientists without royalty (…)

• India Loses Way in its Neighbourhood

  21 November 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  At a meeting with the President of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at his residence in New Delhi on November 6, the functionaries of the Hindu nationalist organi-sation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which mentors the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reportedly expressed “grave concern” over the mishandling of the country’s relations with Nepal.
  The RSS functionaries censured the govern-ment for the current India-Nepal standoff, blaming the leadership for (…)

• The Fall of the Tinsel God

  21 November 2015, by Rajindar Sachar

  How the mighty have fallen fits in completely with the rout of the BJP in the recently held elections to the Bihar Assembly! To any analyst it looked that it was going to be a close fight —it is no hidden secret that progressive forces in the country like academics, writers and social activists, who were passive at the start, were forced to be active as the real face of the BJP through its boss, the RSS, emerged threatening the very core values guaranteed by Indian Constitution, and thus (…)

• Has Modi’s Magic Waned?

  21 November 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  Whether or not the Narendra Modi magic has waned or whether the strategy of campai-gning had been faulty, the fact remains that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been routed in Bihar. The BJP is putting up a brave front and feels its loss is because of the Opposition unity.
  The Bihar Assembly election results have, nevertheless, delivered a body blow to the BJP, more specifically to the Prime Minister-party President duo of Modi and Amit Shah. The blame-game that began within a couple (…)

• Bihar Verdict Checked Intolerance and Defeated the Politics of Hate

  21 November 2015, by Ravindra Sharma

  Historical Background of Bihar
  Historically, Gautam Buddha was born in Bihar (in Lumbini, now in Nepal). The famous Indian thinker, Chanakya, was from Bihar and so was Aryabhatt. Between the 5th and 7th centuries, many eminent Chinese Buddhist scholars—such as Fa Xian, Xuanzang and Yi Jing—visited India and studied at the Nalanda University (in Bihar). During the Mughal empire, handicrafts, agriculture and architecture of Bihar prospered considerably and Sanskrit remained as popular as (…)

• Why Narendra Modi Lost the Historic Battle of Bihar

  21 November 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  The BJP-led NDA, which was riding high on the Narendra Modi wave, eventually lost to the mahagathbandhan in the Bihar elections. After being severely mauled in the Delhi elections with the BJP winning just three seats in the 70-member Assembly, the loss in Bihar has completely eroded the political credibility of Modi. Till a week back Modi was visualised as invincible. But now he is not even treated as one among equals.
  For creation of this situation no one but Modi (…)

• The Mission of Religion: Hierarchy, Power and Emancipation in Indian Political Thought

  21 November 2015

  by Sri Ram Pandeya
  With the advent of modernity, the Middle Ages were characterised as dark ages as the Church had assumed power at that time (in the Middle Ages) and it produced knowledge as a consequence of that—further it could be said to have monopolised knowledge in the sense of prohibiting any other claims on it as power had become the precondition for knowledge, leading to knowledge becoming a closely guarded secret as it could not have passed the test of verification.
  On the (…)