Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Nikhilda: Some Nostalgic Reflections

  1 November 2013, by P.V. Narasimha Rao

  Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao was to have released the book India-Pakistan: Themes Beyond Borders—Selections from Nikhil Chakravartty’s Writings (published by Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd.) at the meeting held in New Delhi on November 3, 2003 to mark N.C.’s ninetieth birth anniversary, but could not do so as he was indisposed. So he sent the following letter to the Mainstream editor and Secretary of the Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Foundation, which was read out at the meeting.
  My (…)

• Nikhil — A Legend

  1 November 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  The first time when I was introduced to Nikhil Chakravartty he was described as a Communist. This, however, turned out to be incorrect. No doubt, he was a Leftist but also a strong exponent of liberty and individual’s right which the communist ideology tends to minimise in the larger interest.
  I found Nikhil fighting against the regime during the Emergency, although the Communist Party of India (CPI) was an ardent of supporter of Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, who had imposed (…)

• Thoughts on a Centenarian

  1 November 2013, by S Viswam

  The birth anniversary of Nikhil Chakravartty provides another occasion to his numerous friends and admirers to recall their association with him and pay homage to his memory. It is 15 years since this great Indian, great human being and a pre-eminent media personality left us. Time passes and memories fade. But in the case of Nikhilda, 15 years have really made no difference to his friends; his memory is still green for them.
  Nikhilda was born on November 3, 1913. The centenary is defined (…)

• Nikhilda, my Dopplegänger

  1 November 2013, by Mrinal Pande

  Nikhilda observed, watched, recognised, listened to what surrounded him and was, at the same time, a part of his own life, and then wrote. In his journalistic writing he constantly arranged what he had perceived, trying to find a sense in the historic events he witnessed in his own country and the rest of the world. His presence for us, who followed his generation of journalists, referred to nothing else except what an intelligent and sensitive mind had felt, seen and reported without caring (…)

• Happy Birthday, Uncle Nikhil!

  1 November 2013, by Nandita Haksar

  I cannot believe that we are celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of Uncle Nikhil. I know that Uncle Nikhil is remembered as a journalist with formidable power of analysis and a man of cast-iron integrity. But all I can think of is the smile, a shy smile, making the dimples on both cheeks deepen and the eyes lighted up on seeing a box of chocolates.
  He loved chocolates and every time we got chocolates we would always save them for Uncle Nikhil just to see his face light up. And he would (…)

• In Memoriam

  1 November 2013

  by Bishwajit Sen
  Late Nikhil Chakravartty thought of “Plurality” when the concept itself was largely unknown. True, the Twentinth Congress of the CPSU did the essential and seminal job of leaving Indian Communists doubtful of certain “Eternal Truths”, but that was that and nothing else. Stalin was blamed for everything but the fact that the malaise was deeper was neither elaborated nor understood. Here and there in Europe, plurality was practised as a matter of mere necessity (like in (…)

• My Earliest Recollections

  1 November 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  After N.C.’s demise on June 27, 1998 three pieces were recovered from his notes as evidence that he had started writing his autobiography. Since November 3 this year happens to be his birth centenary, we are carrying the following piece (written on March 5, 1990) on his birth and childhood.
  What’s the earliest memory I have about myself? I have tried to look back to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be the earliest scene I can remember about my life.
  I don’t (…)

• Day One in Calcutta

  1 November 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The following report by Nikhil Chakravartty, the Calcutta correspondent of People’s Age (published from Bombay), appeared in the weekly’s August 24, 1947 issue (it was wired from Calcutta on August 17, 1947) under the following headlines: ‘End of a Nightmare and Birth of New Dawn!’; ‘Calcutta Transformed by Spirit Of Independence’; ‘Hindus, Muslims Hug Each Other In Wild Joy—Tears Roll Down
  Where Blood Once Soaked The Streets’.
  Frenzy has overtaken Calcutta. It is a frenzy which no city (…)

• The Story of a Gadfly

  1 November 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  This following is one of the best exposés of N.C. as a reporter and it was carried in the India Press Agency feature news service N.C. had founded with another outstanding Communist journalist, David Cohen (who thereafter left the Communist Party on the issue of Jewish persecution in the Soviet Union), in 1957. This report resulted in M.O. Mathai’s resignation from the post of the PM’s Special Assistant following a furore in Parliament in 1959.
  New Delhi, January 3—A question is very often (…)

• Indo-Pakistan Relations: New Perspective

  1 November 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Military aid has suddenly become the main topic of political discussion in New Delhi, almost downgrading Sheikh Abdullah’s olive-branch mission to Pakistan and Sri Nehru’s repeat offer to Peking to open negotiations.
  This is somewhat natural in view of Sri Chavan’s mission to Washington. But even a few weeks back, the Defence Minister’s US trip was regarded in the Capital as of secondary importance to Sri T.T. Krishnamachari’s multi-purpose approaches to America. It was also made clear (…)