Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why I am Returning the National Awards

  16 November 2015, by Tapan Bose

  Fundamental freedoms, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of movement are under serious threat in our country. Never in the history of independent India, we were told what kind of food we may eat and what we cannot eat, what kind of music we may hear and what we cannot, which books we may read or not read. Groups of self-appointed cultural and religious police aligned to the ruling party are roaming the streets intimidating, threatening and killing people with impunity. (…)

• Syria Peace Talks a Small Step, but Leans Forward

  16 November 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  When diplomats from seventeen countries sit down together for the first time in a particular format and after “a frank and constructive discussion” for over seven hours manage to find common ground to issue a joint statement spelling out in nine points their “mutual understanding”, although “substantial differences remain” regarding an acute regional conflict, that is a commendable effort—especially, when it is about “the grave situation in Syria and how to bring about an end to the violence (…)

• Panchayat Elections in UP Suggest New Trends

  16 November 2015

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The results of the panchayat elections in UP are indicative of the direction towards which the political power is shifting. Although these elections are not contested on party lines and are apolitical by nature, parties do support the candidates. The SP, the ruling party, emerged as the largest party. The BJP had entered the fray with the objective to rehearse the ensuing Assembly elections after two years. The Congress and BSP had also attempted to recapture (…)

• Politics of ‘Distancing’ a la BJP

  16 November 2015, by Sharad Rajimwale

  Among the many things fabricated by the BJP rulers after their assumption to power in India, one striking fixture is the politics of ‘distancing’. On a close look it appears to perfectly suit their total action plan which enjoys the benefit of being worked out with great care and meticulous vision by those who are not in power, yet are powerful. The RSS does not leave anything to chance. It believes in working out the fine blueprint and getting down to it well in advance. Even the communal (…)

• Nehru for Today

  16 November 2015, by Jawaharlal Nehru

  Jawaharlal Nehru’s 126th birth anniversary falls on November 14, 2015. On this occasion we are reproducing the following excerpts from Nehru’s speeches and writings that are of exceptional relevance today.
  Before I am anxious about anything today, it is the communal spirit in India. Before I can deal with the communal spirit of Pakistan, I want to deal with the communal spirit in India, the communal spirit of the Hindus and Sikhs more than that of the Muslims. I want this House to realise (…)

• Do We Need Nehru Today?

  16 November 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Twelve years ago Jawaharlal Nehru died is harness on May 27. Inevitably, much has changed in these twelve years among his people and in the humanity at large. He was not the man who would have preferred the status quo to change; and if the landscape and the skyline of his country have changed—at places beyond recognition—Nehru, had he been alive, would have tried to understand them, accelerate the process of change.
  What we who belong to the generations after him (…)

• India Needs Nehru Again

  16 November 2015

  by L.K. Sharma
  This is no usual anniversary for paying tributes to Nehru. He and his principles are under attack by those wanting to drag India into a direction not envisioned by the freedom fighters nor sanctified by the secular India’s Constitution.
  A debate on Nehru’s failures as the Prime Minister has been there for long and his record is a legitimate subject of criticism or praise. But today some basic principles, that Nehru, other Congress leaders and most Opposition leaders stood (…)

• The kind of India Nehru Wanted

  16 November 2015, by Girish Mishra

  Pandit Nehru, after his tour of the Western world and of the Soviet Union, realised that the socialist orientation of the nationalist vision was indispensable for making political independence in the future more than a symbolic affair and he was hopeful that even the Indian National Congress, which was conservative in its outlook, would look favourably towards the socialist ideal. He saw the commonality of interests among “the peoples of Asia and Africa struggling for freedom” and “the (…)

• Growing Relevance of Nehru’s Secularism

  16 November 2015

  by Mohd Yousuf Dar
  Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India, always tried his best for building a secular India. Nehru was in the core of his heart secular and rationalist. India emerged as a secular state in the mid-20th century mainly due to the efforts of Jawaharlal Nehru, because he played a heroic role in the development of a secular outlook during the freedom movement itself. That is because he was convinced that in a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, plural and (…)

• The Importance and Centrality of Jawaharlal Nehru in Contemporary India

  16 November 2015, by Anil Nauriya

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  Nehru’s India: Essays on the Maker of a Nation (ed. Nayantara Sahgal);Speaking Tiger Publishing Pvt Ltd, New Delhi; 2015; pages: 192; Rs 399.
  This is an engaging and timely collection of eleven recently-written essays on Jawaharlal Nehru. The introductory essay is by Nayantara Sahgal who has since also triggered the effective and widespread campaign by distinguished writers, artists and others to return state-related awards in protest against the manner in which the state, (…)