Mainstream Weekly

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• Jayaprakash Narayan and Socialist India

  10 October 2015

  Jayaprakash Narayan (the venerable ‘JP’ of Indian politics) was born on October 11, 1902 and passed away on October 8, 1979. To make his 113th birth anniversary we are carrying the following article.
  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The initial idea of socialism captivated the mind of Jayaprakash Narayan in his student days when he was engrossed in higher studies; he realised that India was being exploited by the colonial power, a Marxian thesis, which he accepted as the real analysis to the (…)

• Female Suicides : A Challenge in the Current Indian Scenario

  10 October 2015

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Shahla Tabassum
  The loss of human life in any form is not good for any society, as we know human beings are one of most important creatures of God and, more importantly, constitute vital human resources of the country. A report on Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2014, compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau and released recently, shows the grim picture of our society. The suicide defined in this report is deliberate termination of life and the essential (…)

• As IS Terror grows, Russia bombs Syrian Targets; the World is Changing — at India’s Doorsteps

  10 October 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  When 10 million Bangladeshis poured into India to escape from the brutalities of Pakistan’s army, war followed. When 12 million Syrians were uprooted and four million of them fled across unwelcome borders to get into Europe, a good number perishing in the seas on the way, no liberation war broke out because too many players were working at cross-purposes.
  But with the rise and rise of the Islamic State, its barbarous beheadings and proclaimed goal of conquering the globe, the (…)

• Behind Lifting of US Sanctions: Washington’s Real Game-plan against Tehran

  10 October 2015

  by Michael Todd
  According to the WTO experts, a considerable part of the Iranian business will not benefit from the lifting of the US sanctions. Except in the case of some commodities, Washington intends to retain the full trade embargo. What is to be noted in particular is that in the mid-term perspective, the changes that have been contemplated do not apply to restrictions contained in the laws of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran imposed in 1996 (by virtue of the (…)

• True Education

  10 October 2015

  by D.K. Panigrahi
  Education means the acquisition of knowledge overcoming our own ignorance. Knowledge is the information, understanding and skills that we gain through education or experience. It is the state of knowing about a particular fact or situation. Knowledge is acquired in two ways: idea to object or object to idea. Education imparts knowledge. Education means the process of teaching and learning, the theory and practice of teaching and training in a particular subject. It gives (…)

• Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

  3 October 2015

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  On October 2 this year falls the 146th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The day is observed the world over as the United Nations’ International Day of Non-violence. The Mahatma, who led India’s struggle for freedom, saw the victory of that struggle but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Freedom came with the partition of India and a communal bloodbath that took a very heavy toll of human lives—Muslims as well as Hindus. During the twilight years of his life the Mahatma was (…)

• Gandhi for Today

  3 October 2015

  [On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s one hundred and fortysixth birth anniversary on October 2, 2015, we are reproducing the following excerpts from his writings and pronouncements.]
  Soldiers drunk with the pride of physical strength loot shops and are not even ashamed to take liberties with women. The administration is powerless in the war time to prevent such happenings. The army fulfils their primary need, and they wink the eyes at their misdeeds...
  Hence arise questions which a (…)

• To Mahatmaji

  3 October 2015

  I know I am one among the forty crores of people
  I have heard the announcement: the auspicious hour
  Of my life has come and all cowardly thoughts have melted away,
  There is festival in my blood, please hold my hand, Gandhiji,
  We have fought, died and taken a vow here
  We’ll wade through their dead bodies and reach the invincible kingdom
  Came flood, came death, came the storm of war
  Great Famine left its signature on every road,
  Every moment I was afraid the whole history was (…)

• M.K.Gandhi and the Founders of African National Congress

  3 October 2015, by Anil Nauriya

  A critic had once remarked of an artist that a painting is not Indian or European simply on account of whether it is painted in India or in Europe. Similarly, one may say that scholarship is not scholarly simply because it is done by academics. Although academic writing ought to advance our knowledge rather than limit our understanding, some academic writing in the last few years appears clearly to be marked by a pursuit of sectarian politics by other means. A recent trend in writing on M.K. (…)

• Unfinished Revolution

  3 October 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following editorial of N.C. was published in the October 4, 1969 issue of Mainstream marking the birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi.
  The birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi is not an occasion for rejoicing but for sorrow that the people of India are still far from the goal of social and economic equality which he cherished and for which in his own inimitable way he strove all his life. The sorrow is intensified by the fact that despite declaring ourselves a secular (…)