Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Modi in the Frame of the RSS’ Vision of a Hindu India

  31 August 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remark certainly does reflect the concern of an overbearing parent that the progeny would go astray. Bhagwat, through his observation that the BJP came to power at the Centre because the common man wanted a change and an individual alone could not have ensured the party’s victory, primarily aimed to shield Narendra Modi from the accusation that he was implementing the RSS agenda. We ought to remember that the RSS under Bhagwat is not the RSS of (…)

• Ukraine Crisis: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Novorussia

  31 August 2014, by Arun Mohanty

  Ukraine has been plunged into deep chaos and violence of unprecedented magnitude in less than a year. The crisis—that began with the throwing of Molotov cocktails against the riot police in Kiev’s Euro Maidan—has snowballed into a full-scale civil war with use of heavy artillery, airstrikes, even ballistic missiles. Though Ukrainian President Pyotor Parashenko had promised to put down the rebellion in the east of the country in a few hours, the military confrontation between the government (…)

• Another Chapter in Iraq

  31 August 2014, by Uttam Sen

  When a tentative nuclear deal was struck with Iran around November last year there was conjecture on repositioning of groupings in West Asia and its consequences. Iran, Iraq, and Syria, among others, share the Shia persuasion and were assumed to comprise the counter-weight against the Sunni Al-Qaeda and its formidable, if sometimes contradictory, patrons among the Arab rich. The earlier “Arab Spring” casualties included Egypt, particularly its authoritarian President, Hoshni Mubarak, also (…)

• Youth and the Struggles for Equality and Justice

  31 August 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  Over a long historical period, one factor which has provided strength and dynamism to human society generation after generation has been a natural tendency on the part of a large number of youth to take sides against injustice and in favour of justice, against inequality and in favour of equality. One can call this a ‘natural’ tendency because youth is the age of innocence when truth and ideals have an almost natural appeal. As this is the most energetic age-group, every generation of human (…)

• ‘No Foreign Christian Missionary is Working in India’: Interview with civil rights activist Dr John Dayal

  31 August 2014

  Six years after the outbreak of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district of Odisha, killing more than one hundred Christians, mostly Dalits and tribals, and displacing sixty thousand of them, justice remains denied to the victims and survivors. While the civil society observed the anniversary of Kandhamal violence on August 25 all across the country, Md. Eisa, Abdul Raheem Umary and Abhay Kumar conversed with Dr John Dayal, a well-known civil rights activist who has been a (…)

• Corrupt China and Lessons for India

  31 August 2014

  by Prachi Aggarwal
  Since Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in India in September, comparisons and contrasts of both the leaders has begun with renewed vigour. It cannot be doubted that Narendra Modi received a landslide victory because he was perceived as a strong alternative to the 60-year-old corruption plaguing the Indian political system. However, corruption has not only been bearing resonance in weak democracies like India but also has reverberation in strong political (…)

• INLD Victory in Hisar: A Game-changer in Haryana Politics

  31 August 2014, by Ranbir Singh

  by Ranbir Singh
  The victory of the INLD candidate, Dushyant Chautala (grandson of O.P. Chautala and great grandson of legendary Jat leader Devi Lal), over the BJP-HJC alliance candidate, Kuldeep Bishnoi (son of former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal), by a margin of 31,847 votes from the Hisar parliamentary constituency may prove to be a game-changer in Haryana politics. It is pertinent to mention that Kuldeep Bishnoi had been projected by the alliance as the prospective candidate for (…)

• Nabarun Bhattacharya [1948-2014]

  31 August 2014

  TRIBUTE
  Recently Bengal lost a prominent literary figure who never compromised with the establishment. One had worked with Nabarun in the students’ movement of the sixties and interacted with him on literary issues subsequently. While offering our sincere homage to his memory we are carrying the following tribute.
  by Bishwajit sen
  Nabarun Bhattacharya was born on June 24, 1948 in Bahrampur. His father was Bijan Bhattacharya, who wrote “Nabanna”, the play which kept alive the faith of (…)

• Defending Freedom in Perilous Times

  15 August 2014, by SC

  Editorial
  Our sixtyeighth Independence Day is being observed in the country against the sombre backdrop of the BJP’s return to power at the Centre after 10 long years.
  But it is not just the BJP’s return to power that is a matter of alarm. It has secured absolute majority in the Lok Sabha—the first party to do so after 25 years. That is doubtless a source of grave concern.
  Of course, the party used the twin planks of ‘development’ and ‘governance’ during the election campaign to storm (…)

• Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Only a few days, dear one, a few days more

  15 August 2014

  Under oppression’s shadows condemned to breathe,
  Still for a time we must bear them, and tears, and endure
  What our forefathers, not our own faults, bequeath:
  Fettered limbs, each impulse held on a chain,
  Minds in bondage, our words all watched and set down—
  Courage still nerves us, or how should we still exist,
  Now with existence only a beggar’s gown,
  Tattered, and patched every hour with new rags of pain?
  Yes, but to tyranny not many hours are left now;
  Patience a little, (…)