Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• ‘Bangladeshis Reject Religion-based Violence’: Interview of Veena Sikri, India’s Former High Commissioner in Dhaka

  19 December 2013

  The following is an interview Veena Sikri, India’s former High Commissioner in Dhaka, gave to the Mainstream editor. She was till recently a Professor at the Acadamy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. Currently she is the Vice-Chairperson, South Asia Foundation (India Chapter).
  Ques: What is your assessment of the present situation in Bangladesh?
  Ans: Bangladesh is facing a very serious challenge once again. It has faced many challenges over the last 42 (…)

• Islamist Terrorism — A Tragic Oxymoron

  19 December 2013, by Monaem Sarker

  The literal meaning of the Arabic word ‘Islam’ is peace. Islam is a religion of peace. Unfortunately the word Islam has become synonymous with terrorism. A deeper analysis and examination is required to understand these tragic phenomena. Global politics has led to the birth of certain issues which have always been witnessing the volcanic eruption of terrorism pretentiously described as Islamist Terrorism.
  The trouble did not originate from preaching religion. Let us cite the example of (…)

• Shahbag Movement: Contesting Religious Fundamentalism and Charting a New Beginning?

  19 December 2013

  by Anindita Ghoshal
  Since the partition of 1947, the tradition of emergence of the ‘nationalism-borne state system’, rather, the concept of the independence movement, ushered in different geographical territories of South Asia. Hence, it altered the society, culture, religion, economy, nature of politics, indeed the issues of development, by a shift from the colonial framework to a self-directed or a self-governing state-system. Bangladesh was born through the process of a civil war (…)

• High Voter Turnout, WTO Talks in Perspective

  7 December 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Polling for the five State Assembly elections being over yesterday, attention has now shifted to the counting of votes on Sunday (December 8). One should not give too much importance to exit polls even though these do provide an idea of electoral trends, that is, which way the wind is blowing. However, there is always a question-mark on their accuracy. But if one is to believe those polls, it is bad news for the Congress which “faces a blank-out in four States”, as The Times of (…)

• Tribute: Rajendra Yadav

  7 December 2013, by Mrinal Pande

  In his lifetime Rajendra Yadav, one of the most complex of Hindi writers, editors and literary critics, appeared to outsiders a deceptively ageless two dimensional black and white figure from Hindi literature of the late 20th Century. The last I saw him, he was a frail old 84-year-old in a wheelchair scowling behind his tinted glasses, eyeing the women in the auditorium at the India International Centre with interest. He cackled as I approached him and held my hand before trying to crack a (…)

• India-Japan: Waiting for the Defining Moment

  7 December 2013, by Uttam Sen

  India, China and Japan have been treading lightly while doomsday scenarios abounded barely a week ago. Japan’s discovery of India (tenjiku, the divine land) via China following Buddhism’s passage to East Asia between the sixth and eighth centuries sounds remote today but the memory has not been entirely lost in the mists of time. Even contemporary Chinese scholars insist that the quest for harmony, (rather than uniformity) is their civilisational inheritance. In the hour of need agreement (…)

• Nepal Constituent Assembly Elections: A Review

  7 December 2013

  by Sangeeta Thapliyal
  Amidst high drama, the Constituent Assembly elections took place in Nepal on November 19, 2013. There were many who had apprehended the possibility of postponement of elections due to boycott by 33 political parties led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a breakaway faction from the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN(M)]. The boycotting parties wanted the elections to be conducted by a national government rather by a Supreme Court judge, Khil Raj (…)

• In the Name of Ram

  7 December 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following piece, which appeared within a fortnight of the demolition of the Babri Masjid (December 6, 1992), is being reproduced on the twentyfirst anniversary of that infamous event.
  To build a temple to mark the brithplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit.
  Those who swiftly and competently did the demolition job on Sunday (December 6, 1992), did so before the very eyes of those leaders who had been assuring Parliament and the public that the disputed (…)

• Fixing India’s Bilateral Investment Treaty Framework

  7 December 2013, by Kavaljit Singh

  In October 2013, Khaitan Holdings Mauritius Ltd (KHML), a Mauritius-registered company owning 26 per cent equity in Loop Telecom, slapped an international arbitration notice against the Indian Government seeking a compensation of US $1.4 billion over the cancellation of its 21 telecom licences by the Supreme Court of India on February 2, 2012. The Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences of 22 telecom operators as it found the allotment of spectrum was “unconstitutional and arbitrary” and (…)

• An Idiot for PM?: (Non-)Sense of History in NaMo

  7 December 2013, by Subhash Gatade

  ‘Though this be madness yet there is method in it’ —Hamlet, Shakespeare
  The 2014 elections aren’t merely about changing the government. The rhetoric ahead of the polls makes one believe that it’s an attempt at once to change historical narratives handed down to successive generation of Indians. And the man in the forefront of it all is the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
  (http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/separated-at-birth/2013/11/11/debating-history-berating-history/) (…)