Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Vicious Cycle of Insecurity in Afghanistan

  27 May 2013

  by M. Ashraf Haidari
  Almost twelve years have passed since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but peace remains elusive. Four interlocking challenges with internal, regional, transnational, and inter-national dimensions impede Afghanistan’s stabilisation and reconstruction. Each challenge facing Afghanistan feeds off the others, and together they have engendered a vicious circle that is destabilising the country.
  First, Afghanistan is an underdeveloped country and much of its (…)

• Pakistan: Democracy Triumphs: Nawaz Sharif on Trial

  27 May 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  It was an emotional expression, that of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after winning the polls in Pakistan. By inviting Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh to his oath-taking ceremony he fulfilled the desire to strike real friendship with India. But this should not come as a surprise. Nawaz Sharif had once fought and won an election against Benazir Bhutto on the plank of friendship with India.
  Unfortunately, New Delhi’s response was tepid. I wish there had been an Atal Behari Vajpayee to travel (…)

• India without Nehru

  27 May 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following piece, which appeared in the ‘New Delhi Skyline’ of Mainstream, was written two days after Jawaharlal Nehru’s demise on May 27, 1964. It was published on May 30, 1964.
  As the golden flame licked up the funeral pyre, an unforgettable scene ended near the banks of the Jumna and under the shadow of the Red Fort.
  It was an emotional experience without precedence, to watch this mightiest demonstration of love and respect that this great country has paid to (…)

• Jawaharlal Nehru on India - Pakistan Relations

  27 May 2013

  May 27 this year happens to be Jawaharlal Nehru’s fortyninth death anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing excerpts from Nehru’s speeches on India-Pakistan relations.
  Some recent events, more especially the talks which I have had with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, have resulted in an agreement which has produced a very marked change in the tense atmosphere. This change was immediately reflected, to a large extent, in the press of the two countries. This is, indeed, remarkable. I (…)

• Women’s Resurgence: The Gandhi - Nehru Alchemy

  27 May 2013, by Aruna Asaf Ali

  While remembering Jawaharlal Nehru on his fortyninth death anniversary this year on May 27, we reproduce some of the tributes paid to his abiding memory by eminent personalities who were also members of the National Committee set up for the commemoration of Nehru’s birth centenary. These contributions, as well as of others, came out in book form on November 14, 1989 following yearlong commemoration of Nehru’s birth centenary.
  Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution in the post-independence years (…)

• A Total Commitment

  27 May 2013, by Bipan Chandra

  We, who have lived through one part or the other of the Nehru era, look back on that period with nostalgia as a sort of Golden Age; we tend to regard those times as the “good old days”. In fact, those years were, more than at present, filled with poverty and misery. Yet, the existence of a Jawaharlal Nehru made all the difference.
  Nehru’s place in history would be assured by the leader’s role he played in the anti-imperialist struggle. As a national liberator, he was second only to (…)

• This was a Man

  27 May 2013, by Hiren Mukerjee

  For four decades and more, this gentle colossus strode our Indian world and his place among the great figures of our time is secure. But his uniqueness lay in the unobtrusive opulence of endowment which gave him, in the thick of politics and in the face even of frustrations, a peculiar refinement and grace of spirit. It was not only that he was “a man without malice and without fear” but that he carried an ache in his mind and heart, an ache which betokened kinship with the whole wide world. (…)

• His Economic Philosophy

  27 May 2013

  [Excerpted from the Gentle Colossus]
  by V.K.R.V. Rao
  Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is not only a great patriot and one of the great sons of India, but also a great son of the world who played a significant role in the achievement of freedom for the colonial countries in both Asia and Africa. Even before he became Prime Minister, when he was in the Interim Government, he arranged to convene the Asian Relations Conference in early 1947, where he brought together all the sovereign and (…)

• The Statesman as Historian

  27 May 2013

  by Ravinder Kumar
  A number of very distinguished individuals, drawn from different walks of life, have paid tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru on his birth centenary. Some of them have touched upon his unrivalled popularity with the common people of India; others have assessed his role in national and international politics; others, yet again, have focused upon his political and social ideas; finally, some, who knew him personally, have written about the warmth of his presence and the devastating (…)

• Secular Outlook

  27 May 2013, by Rafiq Zakaria

  Jawaharlal Nehru while in power, it must be conceded, could not implement many of his ideas which he so passionately advocated when fighting against the British during our freedom struggle. He himself admitted: “Some years earlier I would not have been so hesitant. There was a definiteness about my thinking and objectives then, which has faded away since and events of the past few years in India, China, Europe and all over the world have been confusing, upsetting and distressing, and the (…)