Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Question of Consciousness and Democracy — Debate Continued

  15 September 2013, by Kobad Ghandy

  I do believe this debate being carried on in the columns of Mainstream is very important given the setback in peoples’ movements worldwide and also in the socialist states. I will try and add my views to this. But I shall seek to posit the issue in the light of these reversale.
  I read Anil Rajimwale’s (AR) article (“’Consciousness from Outside’ Debate: Certain Points”, Mainstream, June 22, 2013) with much interest. Unfortunately most of the other articles mentioned did not reach me in (…)

• Correcting Historical Injustice

  15 September 2013, by Suranjita Ray

  The landmark Bill on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement 2013 brings an end to the era of forced land acquisition. It has replaced the 120-year-old unjust Land Acquisition Act 1894. Integrating land acquisition with rehabilitation and resettle-ment (R & R) and bringing transparency in the process of acquisition, compensation, and rehabilitation as a matter of right is a historic step. It was important to have a law to (…)

• Archival Work of Contemporary History

  15 September 2013, by Sagari Chhabra

  BOOK REVIEW
  Emergency Retold by Kuldip Nayar; Konark Publishers, New Delhi, Seattle; first published: 1977; paperback edition: 2013, pages: 320.
  Emergency Retold is a new edition of a book on the Emergency by the distinguished journalist and human rights activist, Kuldip Nayar. The book published by Konark Publications was released on June 26, the 38th anniversary of the Emergency, to an audience of journalists, authors and democratic rights activists at New Delhi’s India International (…)

• Egypt: Pharaoh al-Sisi Sits Tight

  15 September 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The highly opportunistic stance taken by the “big powers” who are veto-holding permanent members of the United Nations Security Council has prevented that august body from articulating an outright condemnation of the brutality with which the Egyptian military massacred more than 1000 civilians in Cairo on August 21.
  This must be counted as one of the most shameful moments that the UN Security Council has been put through in its sad history of over six decades. The fault lies entirely at (…)

• On Communal Eruption in Western UP

  15 September 2013, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  I was born in Uttar Pradesh and spent my childhood and those carefree teenaged years in that State. I have travelled to those remote villages and locales because my father, an engineer by profession, would be particular that the family—amma and my siblings and I—tagged along travelling in that open jeep or in our Baby Hindustan car. And during those long summer vacations my maternal grandfather would take out his Dodge from the garage … my cousins and I sitting stuffed (…)

• Narmada Jal Satyagraha Merits Wide Support

  15 September 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  Due to the highly unjust policies of the authorities relating to the Indira Sagar Dam Project (ISDP), the displaced and adversely affected people have been forced to start jal satyagraha from September 1. These peaceful protestors standing in deep water are demanding justice but the authorities arrested several of them including leading activist Chittaroopa Palit and 75 other satyagrahis.
  The ISDP involves truly massive displacement. This largest reservoir in India (second (…)

• Twists and Turns

  8 September 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As the West Asian crisis takes a new turn with strong indications that President Obama may launch strikes on Syria after securing the green signal from the US Congress, the fallout of such an eventuality has been invoked by the PM to urge the BJP leaders to end their animosity towards the government and allow Parliament to pass key pending Bills. The BJP leaders appear to have responded positively to the PM’s suggestion as is evident from their attitude to the pension Bill—after (…)

• No War! Hands off Syria!

  8 September 2013, by A B Bardhan

  The threat of imminent war hangs over the entire Middle East. This is bound to have unforeseen consequences in many parts of the world. The US President, Barack Obama, has announced that he is willing to order a solo armed intervention in Syria. Meanwhile the US will strive for a ”coalition of the willing”.
  The French and British had raced to announce an attack. But the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was stopped in his track by the House of Commons, which roundly rejected his war- (…)

• Obama Dips Toe in Syrian Rubicon

  8 September 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  For the first time through the two-year old Syrian conflict, the United States has mentioned the holy cow—“boots on the ground’’. The Secretary of State, John Kerry, has pleaded that the US Congress should approve the use of American ground troops although the Obama Administration may not intend to take recourse to such action.
  This is a hugely significant turning-point in the fast-developing scenario of US military intervention in Syria. There was added poignancy that Kerry was speaking (…)

• Remembering P.N. Haksar on his Birth Centenary

  8 September 2013, by SC

  P.N. Haksar’s birth centenary fell on September 4 this year. It was marked by a meeting at the Auditorium of New Delhi’s Nehru Memorial Musuem and Libary on the same day, organised by the Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and Haksar’s elder daughter, Nandita. When Haksar passed away in the Capital on November 27, 1998, it was written in this journal’s December 5, 1998 issue:
  “Parmeshwar Narain Haksar (September 4, 1913-November 27, 1998), eminent administrator and (…)