Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Nehru’s Scientific Attitude

  30 May 2015, by Anees Chishti

  Science has brought all these mighty changes and not all of them have been for the good of humanity. But the most vital and hopeful of the changes that it has brought about has been the development of the scientific outlook in man. —Jawaharlal Nehru
  Nehru’s understanding of science in relation to the country’s development was penetrating. He, unlike some of his senior contemporaries, viewed science with an unbiased and realistic attitude. His belief in the scientific method was unshakable. (…)

• Nehru’s Chairmanship of Allahabad’s Municipality, 1925-1927 its relevance for Delhi’s governance

  30 May 2015

  by Urvashi Dhamija
  While the cityscape of Allahabad may be quite unremarkable today, the management of its municipality under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru from 1925 till 1927 is generally regarded as a bright patch in the city’s history. It is also a phase in India’s past which Delhi’s governing elite could consider reflecting upon because like Nehru in the early 1920s they face a double challenge of undertaking measures to improve the quality of life of ordinary citizens in the (…)

• Nehru’s Struggle for Secularism

  30 May 2015, by Sumit Chakravartty

  The French writer, André Malraux, had once asked Jawaharlal Nehru what had been his “greatest difficulty since independence”. Nehru’s instant reply was: “Creating a just state by just means.” Soon he added as an afterthought: “Perhaps, too, creating a secular state in a religious country.” [André Malraux, Antimemoirs, translated by Terence Kilmartin (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968), p. 145; the conversation took place sometime in 1958—cited in Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History (…)

• Revisiting P.C. Joshi in Today’s Context

  30 May 2015, by Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

  BOOK REVIEW
  People’s ‘Warrior’: Words and Worlds of P.C. Joshi by Gargi Chakravartty (ed.); Tulika Books, New Delhi; 2014; 474 + xxii pages; Rs 995.
  It is an irony of history that P.C. Joshi, the architect of united front politics in pre-independence India, is a much-maligned, almost forgotten, figure in today’s Left circles, although it is precisely his idea of forging unity with the secular, nationalist forces under the slogan “Left-democratic unity” that is the key issue which now (…)

• Unmasking Modi Government’s Real Intentions

  22 May 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  PM Narendra Modi has returned from his sojourn to China, Mongolia and South Korea, and is now busy preparing himself to celebrate the first anniversary of his advent to power at the Centre. Laudatory articles are being published in leading newspapers, mouthpieces of the corporate-driven media, in the run-up to the anniversary next week. These speak of the achievements of the Modi Government in the past one year both at home and abroad while mildly criticising the BJP-led NDA (…)

• An Indefensible Decision

  22 May 2015

  by Kaleeswaram Raj
  Chief Justice H.L Dattu has refused to participate in the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) which practically “stalled any immediate chances of constituting the new judicial appointments body”. (Krishnadas Rajagopal, The Hindu, April 28, 2015) Thus, even without a judicial interdiction against the NJAC, an impediment has been created by the Chief Justice by his personal decision to stay away from the Commission.
  The vacuum due to non-constitution of the (…)

• Modi’s Trips to China, Mongolia, South Korea: Treading Carefully

  22 May 2015, by Uttam Sen

  The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s China visit must be intriguing experts and amateurs alike. There was a huge line-up list to be addressed. But the impression, that it was being negotiated withal through the symbolic representation of culture, realpolitik, trade and finance, was thought-provoking. Modi’s reception in Xi Jinping’s hometown of Xian corresponded with Xi’s scheduling of Ahmedabad as his first stop in September last year. Modi’s visit to the Giant Golden Goose Pagoda, which had (…)

• India Tries to Forge a New Relationship With China

  22 May 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China last week (May 14-16) was never going to be easy. Modi was hard-pressed to juggle his agenda of economic reinvigoration at home (“development agenda”) with his firmer assertion of India’s security interests. The balance-sheet of his visit underscores the policy dilemma.
  Modi has reason to feel relieved that he is not returning to India quite empty-handed. His travels abroad and wanderlust (visiting 18 countries in the past one year) (…)

• Do Our Leaders Follow Kings’ Six Qualities? Do they Avoid 14 Vices? Are Priests Pure?

  22 May 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  These are frustrating times. True, there are big things that put India on centre-stage, such as the Prime Minister’s visit to China. But there are also petty things that shame us. We have farmers whose sense of honour makes them commit suicide when they are unable to repay their debts—and we have a Minister in Haryana who calls them “cowards”. We have a film star who runs his car over destitutes sleeping on footpaths, killing one—and his friend condemns
  footpath sleepers as (…)

• The Indian National Congress: It Is Back

  22 May 2015, by Badri Raina

  One of the least prepossessing features of some recent Indian journalism—especially of the electronic channels—has been an unpleasantly motivated obsession with Rahul Gandhi. Barring a few “senior” journalists, who have sensitively sought to context Mr Gandhi;s difficulties within the limitations and impera-tives of an embracing historical framework—both of the Congress and the country—most embedded commentaries tiresomely, one suspects even to the commentators themselves who could be seen (…)