Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Inquilab Zindabad!

  1 October 2013, by Chaman Lal

  September 28, 2013 marks the immortal revolutionary martyr Bhagat Singh’s 106th birth anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing the following article written and sent for publication around March 23 this year to observe the eightysecond anniversary of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom. It could not be published then for unavoidable reasons.
  It is March 23 now on the clock, the most significant day for the revolutionary movement of not only India, but the whole of South Asia, at least as (…)

• Narendra Modi Should Not be Invited to Release Shahid Bhagat Singh’s Diary

  1 October 2013

  COMMUNICATION
  It has been reported in some newspapers today (September 20) that Narendra Modi has been invited to release Shahid Bhagat Singh’s diary in Delhi on September 29 (see Rashtriya Sahara, September 20). In my capacity both as convenor of the Shahid Bhagat Research Committee as well as a family member (Bhagat Singh’s nephew), I would like to state strongly that Narendra Modi should not be invited for this purpose.
  In these difficult times it is very important to understand the (…)

• Campus Space in the Age of Clicktivism: Exploring JNU Students Union Elections

  1 October 2013

  by Gaurav J. Pathania
  Student union elections in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are festivals of ideological debates and democratic exuberance. This year’s election on September 13 gave a clear mandate to the radical Left group, the All India Students Association (AISA), with its victory over all four posts of the central panel. It defeated its main opponent, the Democratic Students Federation (DSF), with a margin of around a thousand votes. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) (…)

• Will Deng’s Gimmick Pass?

  1 October 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Democracy has gone so berserk in India that there are serious people who think a dose of dictatorship would be good for the country. In such a situation it may be difficult for us to grasp how things are in China where the economy has opened up but politics has remained closed. Which is like opening the windows of a house and asking folks at home not to look outside. The news is that a whole lot of people are looking outside and raising demands for a whole lot of things, and (…)

• Vanzara, Asaram, Concert in Kashmir

  1 October 2013, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  This piece was sent to us sometime ago but could not be used earlier because of space constraints.
  Modi getting nailed by his own men. Yes, encounter specialist D.G. Vanzara’s resignation letter from the IPS, could stand as a major obstacle in Modi’s march towards New Delhi or London or even further. So, at long last this jailed murderer cop’s conscience seems revolting, he is out with those horrifying details of getting used by politicians: Modi, Amit Shah and several more… It (…)

• On Shahid Bhagat Singh

  1 October 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  As per recent reports, a member of Shahid Bhagat Singh’s family has invited Narendra Modi to release Bhagat Singh’s diary. Kindly allow me to point out that several members of Bhagat Singh’s family have opposed this. The greatest contribution to presenting and dissemi-nating Shahid Bhagat Singh’s ideas in Hindi as well as in Punjabi has been made by Prof Jagmohan Singh, a nephew of Shahid Bhagat Singh. Jagmohan Singh has firmly opposed any move to invite Modi to release (…)

• Rethinking World Order

  1 October 2013, by Sunita Samal

  Introduction
  The term ‘new world order’ has been used to refer to any new period of history bearing testimony to a dramatic change in world politics and economics and sociology. Despite various interpretations of the term, it is primarily associated with the ideological notion of global governance in the sense of identity which addresses worldwide problems that are beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve.1 In Benedict Anderson’s notion, a nation is an imagined political (…)

• Silver Lining

  22 September 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Last Friday, that is, on September 13, all the four accused—who were found guilty of a criminal conspiracy to gang-rape, murder and commit unnatural sex on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, subsequently described by the media as ‘Nirbhaya’ or ‘Damini’, in New Delhi on December 16, 2012—were sentenced to death by a fast-track court in the Capital. The court asserted that since the “gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour” it (the (…)

• Kerry becomes first War Casualty

  22 September 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  This article was written before the attack on Syria was deferred in view of the Russian initiative, in response to Kerry’s suggestion, on the table. Launching the military attack against a far-away country in real slow motion is not an easy thing to do and the most taxing part of the diplomatic acrobatics by the United States as it embarks on the strikes against Syria is to be borne by Secretary of State John Kerry.
  The strain is beginning to show. It seems certain now that Kerry will (…)

• The Problem of Kashmir

  22 September 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Zubin Mehta, before leaving for Srinagar to conduct his orchestra, said: “There will be no violence.” German Ambassador Michael Steiner, who facilitated the concert, said at Srinagar that the world was watching Kashmir. Both observations have a ring of truth. The success of the concert has proved that.
  If New Delhi has been able to put across a message, the Hurriyat leaders have to blame themselves. They, also known as the separatists, unnecessarily made the concert an issue by playing (…)