Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Continuing Greek Tragedy: Scripting a Survival Strategy?

  26 July 2015

  by V. Krishna Moorthy
  Introduction: The History
  Ancient Greece, the birthplace of Western civilisation since about 2500 years ago, is known for its achievements in Philosophy, Sciences, Arts and Government. The Geek civilisation developed chiefly in City-States. They were fiercely independent and in constant rivalry with one another. The citizens were highly patriotic, took part in public affairs and established the world’s first democratic govern-ments. A common language, religion and (…)

• Politicians can no longer ignore Vyapam’s point: That India is more than Congress and BJP

  26 July 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  One of the misfortunes of our country is that everything is reduced to Congress vs BJP. This is because everything is political in nature, whether it is getting admission to a kindergarten, encashing a pension entitlement, getting into a sports team or getting out of a traffic accident you have caused. All activities revolve round recommendations, political interference, wire-pulling and bribes. If the Congress does not blame the BJP for this year’s erratic monsoon, it will be (…)

• Modi and the Naive Western Media

  26 July 2015, by Dipak Malik

  The enterprise of the post-Independence nation-building in India was given a short shrift right after 1991 with Manmohan Singh changing the essentials of the Nehruvian model of nation-building. The only residual element of the post-independence agenda, which though taken by the Congress party, was secularism in 2004 after a full-blown regime of soft Hindutva under Rajiv Gandhi, who initiated also the early phase of the globalisation-liberalisation move. From 1985 to 2014, about 30 years of (…)

• Prospect from Simla

  26 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  This month marked the 43rd anniversary of the Simla Summit. On this occasion, we reproduce the following piece by N.C. in ‘Editor’s Notebook’ (Mainstream, July 8, 1972). This needs to be read in the context of the just concluded Narendra Modi-Nawaz Sharif talks in Ufa, Russia. —Editor
  If cautious optimism marked the approach of New Delhi to the Indo-Pak Summit before it took place, it persists, more or less in the same measure, even after the Simla Agreement. At (…)

• Is It “Now Or Never” For India’s Left Forces?: Innovate To Survive

  26 July 2015, by S G Vombatkere

  The Left is usually associated with revolution. This is not surprising since “Left” has come to mean the socialist and communist political parties and organisations which adopt ideology according to Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, etc., albeit interpreted variously. In the Indian context, “Left” has usually meant the Communist Parties which, starting with the Communist Party of India (CPI), have fragmented into a large number (75, by one estimate [Note 1]) of mutually antagonistic (…)

• Bihar Elections 2015

  26 July 2015, by Badri Raina

  Most political observers and commentators seem to agree that the coming elections to the Assembly in Bihar will not only be important but perhaps definitive in suggestging the shape of mainstream political life in India till the next General Election in 2019.
  To put the matter baldly, if the Bharatiya Janata Party were to score a victory in Bihar, it might be on course to take the all-important Uttar Pradesh as well. This for two reasons: one, the party would have proved that the (…)

• Making The Right Moves

  26 July 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  Can we trust them? This is the burden of comments both in India and Pakistan after the meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. The reaction is no reflection on the effort the two are making to break the ice. However, it shows that even after 70 years of partition, the enmity between the two countries remains as entrenched as before. Any step taken to lessen the distance between the two is viewed with doubt and suspicion.
  Not many people in the two countries dare to (…)

• West Bengal Politics Recycled: Retrospect and Prospect

  26 July 2015

  by Pratip Chattopadhyay
  Introduction
  “Ek je chilo raja, tar bhaari dukhh...ahaa raja, kade raja...dakho raja ...bechara rajar aj bhari dukhh....”
  (There was a King immersed in sorrow... poor soul, the king is in tears...it’s a pity that today the King is sad...)
  The famous Bengal film maestro, Satyajit Ray, in his film, Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen (1968), composed a song (a part quoted above) that has been utilised by Ray to observe that even a powerful ruler is not immune from the (…)

• Highly Painful and Offensive Remarks of Prime Minister Modi

  25 July 2015

  COMMUNICATION
  Kapil Sibal has rightly condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Shanghai that Indians used to see their butt in India as a curse and a slight to national pride. He is cent per cent correct in stating that never in history has there been a moment when the Prime Minister went abroad and remarked that it was his misfortune that he was born in India. There has never been a Prime Minister like Modi who felt ashamed of being born in his country.
  Dr M. Hashim Kidwai, (…)

• The Image Is All

  25 July 2015, by Mukul Dube

  The view is held by many that we Indians are loud in whatever we do. To take a recent example, Kanak Mani Dixit of Nepal’s Himal is reported to have said, of Indian media people in the aftermath of the earthquake, “The shrillness, jingoism, exaggerations, boorishness and sometimes mistakes in coverage have rankled the host community.”
  The Hindu Right exemplifies this feature of Indianness. It is convinced that the pretence and the trappings of grandeur are necessary always. We have before (…)