Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Shashi Tharoor Case Reminds Us Again that Politics Seriously Diminishes People

  15 March 2014

  IMPRESSIONS
  This is a time when even his critics would feel sorry for Shashi Tharoor. He had a dream run for the first half-century of his life— progression through the very best of schools, a prized United Nations career, acclamation as an author, political debut as a favourite of India’s ruling oligarchy, ministership at first shot as MP, recognition as a darling of high society. But he was star-crossed from the day he entered politics. One controversy ended only when another started. (…)

• On Dual Citizenship

  15 March 2014, by Eduardo Faleiro

  The recent news that two MLAs of the Goa Legislative Assembly had registered their birth at the Civil Registration Office in Lisbon created a major controversy in this State. Goa was liberated from colonial rule on December 19, 1961. Subsequently, the Goa, Daman and Diu (Citizenship) Order, 1962 bestowed Indian citizenship on all Goans born before December 20, 1961 though any such person could within one month from the publication of the Order in the Official Gazette make a written (…)

• Amrita Sher-Gil

  15 March 2014, by Anees Chishti

  TRIBUTE
  Renowned artist Amrita Sher-Gil’s birth centenary took place last year. She was born on January 30, 1913 and passed away on December 5, 1941. The following tribute, by noted writer Anees Chishti (editor of the periodical, Alp-jan), who was then associated with Mainstream, appeared in this journal’s February 22, 1964 issue, precisely fifty years ago.
  She came, she created and became immortal. This is how the brilliant painting career of Amrita Sher-Gil can be described in brief. (…)

• What Textbooks do in Gujarat

  15 March 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  BJP chief Rajnath Singh sounds like a typical bluff-master when he quips that he and his party are sorry for the ‘mistakes’ committed against the Muslims. A bluff which is so horribly crude that one should not waste a second harping on it. This time there is little use of masks and related ploys this political outfit uses for deception. In fact, as I’m keying in, I’m reminded of what the former DGP of Gujarat, R.B. Sreekumar, had told me during the course of an interview: ‘In (…)

• West Asia through the Lens of US media

  15 March 2014

  MEDIA
  by Satraajit Palchoudhury
  In the lexicon of the US, West Asia is described as a troubled periphery. The US diplomats always look at their West Asian counterparts with a suspicious eye. The recent stand-off between Washington and Tehran on the ‘civilian nuclear issue’ stands testimony to the observation made above. After the fall of the pro-US Shah Pahlavi dynasty due to the famous Islamic Revolution that Iran witnessed in 1979, America’s relationship with Iran started (…)

• Obama piles Pressure on Russia

  15 March 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The US President, Barack Obama, reached out to China on March 10 to discuss the Ukraine situation. Notably, his phone conversation with President Xi Jinping is Obama’s first such exchange with a world leader outside the Euro-Atlantic zone. This is only the latest indication that Washington is stepping up pressure on Moscow.
  Obama can derive great satisfaction from his conversation with Xi. According to the Xinhua report, Xi stressed China’s “objective and fair stance” on Ukraine and sought (…)

• Poetics of Subalternity: Remembering Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (1949-2014)

  15 March 2014, by Arvind Kumar

  TRIBUTE
  I vividly remember that sweaty summer afternoon of June 2007, when I had the opportunity to speak to maverick poet and activist Namdeo Dhasal who authored the powerful lines quoted below. I wished to speak to him in connection with my study on the 1974 Worli riots in Mumbai and the Dalit Panthers. Having grown up in the grit of a city with a difficult working class history, he was not only an icon for Dalit literature and radical Dalit politics, but for the unequal city itself. (…)

• EC Unfolds Poll Process

  11 March 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The Election Commission unfolded on March 5 the process of holding the 16th Lok Sabha poll in the country. It will take place for the first time in nine phases—from April 7 to May 12; the counting of votes will be on May 16 and the results will come out on the same day.
  As former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi notes in The Indian Express,
  India is all set to witness the biggest-ever election. With 81 crore voters and 11 million personnel conducting the polls at (…)

• Ukraine in Turmoil

  11 March 2014, by Arun Mohanty

  Ukraine continues to be in the midst of a deep crisis provoked by the country’s ultra-nationalists in connivance with the West. Opposition parties that captured power in Kiev through a coup do not know what to do in order to resolve the unprecedented crisis. The densely populated industrial regions in the east and south of the country are in no mood to recognise the federal government that came to power in Kiev through the use of force. Regional governments in the east and south, mostly (…)

• Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi: Standard-bearer of Congress’ Core Values

  11 March 2014, by Neerja Chowdhury

  tribute
  He was the quintessential backroom boy of Indian politics, and he came into his own during P.V. Narasimha Rao’s premeirship.
  Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, who died on March 2 in a Kota hospital after an illness, was Narasimha Rao’s MOS in the Prime Minister’s Office in 1993-96. It was a period of far-reaching changes, even though Rao handled them in his inimitable low-key style.
  The period was marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a unipolar world, which posed (…)