Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• There is a Conspiracy of the Guilty; Dramatics Will Not Erase It

  9 October 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  It is too late in the day for Rahul Gandhi to act as though he is unaware of the major policy initiatives in his party. If he did not know about the Congress-led Ordinance to protect the criminally-tainted MPs, he was an unworthy Vice-President of the party. If he knew about the deliberations that led to the Ordinance and still proclaimed that it should be torn up, then he was playing games. What games? The people of the country were outraged by the Ordinance that belittled the (…)

• Gandhi for Today

  9 October 2013

  On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s one hundred and fortyfourth birth anniversary on October 2, 2013, we are reproducing the following excerpts from his writings and pronouncements.
  Gandhi for Today
  Soldiers drunk with the pride of physical strength loot shops and are not even ashamed to take liberties with women. The administration is powerless in the war time to prevent such happenings. The army fulfils their primary need, and they wink the eyes at their misdeeds...
  Hence arise (…)

• The Mahatma Who Suffered

  9 October 2013, by Upasana Pandey

  There is an old maxim that says: “Do not judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” It means one should be judged through one’s capacity of suffering. Suffering prepares us to be compassionate to others. Suffering contains a particle of truth. Suffering enhances our ability to pray effectively. Praying is an instinctive human response to severe hardship. But effective prayer is a learned exercise. A song suggests: Pray when you are happy, pray when in sorrow. One should pray (…)

• Gandhi’s Relevance Increasing In Our Violent World

  9 October 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  As violence related distress and tensions escalate to alarming levels, Mahatma Gandhi’s enduring message of peace and non-violence is becoming more and more relevant. The costs of violence are most widely seen in the context of various war/conflict situations and acts of terrorism. There is no doubt that these problems are extremely serious. Much more so in terms of weapons of mass destruction, but no less serious is the silent distress caused by violence in everyday, routine life. Partly (…)

• Mahatma Gandhi — The Great Communicator

  9 October 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following is the text of the Gandhi Peace Foundation Lecture 1995 delivered by Nikhil Chakravartty in New Delhi on January 30, 1995. It first appeared in Mainstream (October 3, 1998) after N.C.’s demise. I am deeply touched by having been asked to deliver this year’s Gandhi Peace Foundation Lecture. Nobody is more conscious than I am about my inadequacy in speaking on this sacred occasion, the day of the martyrdom of the greatest son of my country. Perhaps my only (…)

• Thambi Naidoo and Kasturba Gandhi’s Role behind the South African Satyagraha’s Success

  9 October 2013

  by E.S. Reddy
  The Satyagraha in South Africa, led by Gandhi a century ago, owes its success, in large measure, to the sacrifice and leadership of Thambi Naidoo and to the “silent suffering” of Mrs Kasturba Gandhi. Their contribution, however, has received little recognition in the writings on the satyagraha. The satyagraha was confined to the Transvaal from 1906 when the Indian community pledged to defy the humiliating Asiatic Ordinance until it was suspended on May 20, 1911, when Gandhi (…)

• Need for Eco-Literacy

  9 October 2013, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  COMMUNICATION
  When Nature’s laws are flouted and Ecology Illiterates rule the roost, man-made disasters are bound to happen.
  The notification by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, dated December 18, 2012, correctly stated that the 135 km stretch from Goumukh to Uttarkashi is an eco-sensitive area. Its implication was that the series of hydro-electric projects planned along the river Bhagirathi needed to be abandoned and the construction of hotels and resorts needed to be (…)

• Impact of Lenin on Bhagat Singh’s Life

  9 October 2013, by Chinmohan Sehanavis

  Bhagat Singh’s 106th birth anniversary took place on September 28 this year. To mark the occasion we are reproducing the following article which appeared in Mainstream (April 4, 1981).
  Bhagat Singh was born in Punjab on September 28, 1907, and was hanged by the British on March 23, 1931. So it may be said that in his short life-span of 24 years political activities covered at the most a period of seven to eight years. The young Indian revolutionary was sentenced to death before he could (…)

• A New Opening

  1 October 2013, by SC

  “Political slugfest over V.K. Singh’s intel unit ops”—read the headline in one of the inside pages of The Times of India of September 21, 2013. A day earlier The Indian Express had a frontpage lead story under the heading: “Unit set up by V.K. Singh used secret funds to try and topple J&K Govt, block Bikram Singh: Army inquiry”. The report read thus:
  Misusing secret service funds to destabilise the Omar Abdullah Government in Jammu and Kashmir, to pay off an NGO to try change the line (…)

• Idea of India in Peril

  1 October 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has asked the Jamaat-Ulma Hind, representing the Muslims, to list four or five steps he should announce to win their confidence. The Jamaat has rightly pointed out that it was for Modi to think how to win the trust of Muslims. One thing Modi could do straightaway is to apologise for the 2002 riots in the State, reportedly blessed by him after the burning of some Hindu pilgrims in a (…)