Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• When the Voter is Treated as a Fool, Beware the Ire of the 99 per cent

  18 May 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  This piece was written before the Karnataka Assembly elections.
  The larger picture casts doubt on the very viability of democracy in our country. As the world knows it, democracy is a government of the ordinary people, by fairly elected people, for the good of all people. To some extent, we had that kind of democracy in the first few years of independence. What we have today is a govern-ment of manipulators, by manipulators, for manipulators.
  With every election the (…)

• Long-run Foreign Investors: Are they Easy Nuts to Crack?

  18 May 2013, by Anshuman Gupta

  Recently the Finance Minister was on a tour to Europe to lure the foreign investors to invest in India. Some years back, India was among the preferred destinations for the foreign investors. However, that is no more the case. If one attempts to verify it through figures, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been at an all-time low during the last two years. India’s current account deficit (CAD) is at an all-time high as a proportion of the GDP, and this is being met mainly through portfolio (…)

• Kerry couldn’t set Moscow River on Fire

  18 May 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The foreplay of the Russian-American high-level exchanges can be very revealing. This time too the two sides indulged in some robust shadow-play in the run-up to the overnight “working visit” of the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, to Moscow on May 7.
  Kerry’s talks produced a significant result with Washington and Moscow agreeing on a “road map” for the resolution of the Syrian crisis. Part of the reason why the perception of a “breakthrough” formed almost instan-taneously is (…)

• Beware of Beijing

  18 May 2013, by Sushil Vakil

  This article was written before Beijing ended its stand-off with New Delhi on the Sino-Indian border and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid visited Beijing.
  Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that the world was laughing at us because we have made a mockery of our democratic system where the Opposition stalls functioning of Parliament instead of debating contentious issues. The statement sounds illogical as there are other issues that would cheer up other countries to laugh at (…)

• How Long Will Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Exile Continue?

  18 May 2013, by Shamsul Islam

  India’s First War of Independence (described by the British colonial masters as ‘Mutiny’) began on May 10, 1857 at the Meerut Cantonment. The rebel sepoys of the East India Company marched to Delhi, the seat of the Mughal King, accompanied by thousands of villagers who had joined the rebellion on the way to Delhi. On May 11, this mass of rebels, of which more than 75 per cent were Hindus and Sikhs, had an audience with the 82-year-old King Zafar and prevailed upon him to lead the liberation (…)

• Dalit-Muslim Relations in Pre-Partition Bengal: Paradigm Shift in Dalit Discourse

  18 May 2013

  by K.S. Chalam
  Indian historiography is undergoing several challenges today. One of the issues that the contemporary historian encounters is about the selection of social categories to narrate changes that have taken place in the recent past. It is only by studying the contemporary history and relating it with the past that we can save/sustain the discipline of history in India. This has been the penchant of one of our most distinguished historians, Prof Sekhar Bandyopadhyay. He is now (…)

• How to Reform Parliamentary Democracy in India?

  18 May 2013

  by B.K. Kaushik
  Keeping in view the pluralist nature of the Indian polity, the makers of the Indian Constitution decided to adopt the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy instead of the American pattern of the presidential system. They were of the considered opinion that the former was more suitable for India than the latter as it could provide a share in the power structure to the various social, cultural, linguistic and regional groups at the national and State levels. Besides, (…)

• Civil Society Initiatives: The Case of BPAC in Karnataka

  18 May 2013

  by M. Manisha
  In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Karnataka, there was an interesting initiative by eminent citizens of Bangalore called the Bangalore Political Action Committee or BPAC.
  The BPAC team has some of the most eminent personalities from the world of business, sports and entertainment, including Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, T.A. Mohandas Pai, Prakash Bidappa, Ashwini Nachappa, Charu Sharma to name only a few. It also has the support of other distinguished persons such as (…)

• Caring For Children — Preventing Child Rape

  18 May 2013, by Sagari Chhabra

  Everyday the headlines scream at us, with alarming frequency, of yet another rape. Every 32 minutes somewhere in India, a woman is getting raped. There is certainly a breakdown of the social fabric; large sections of the people are feeling a sense of anomie. Then there is rampant unemployment fuelled with pornography and an increased objectification of women. What is even more horrific is the rising incidence of child-rape. According to the National Crimes Record Bureau, there has been a 336 (…)

• Brahmins + Muslims = Jitin Prasada’s UP Social Network

  18 May 2013, by Amna Mirza

  The serene and palatial Raza Library in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, that has a priceless collection of historical works in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi and other languages, including manuscripts of earliest translation of the Quran was buzzing with activity recently. This sudden flutter in this usually quiet yet invaluable repository was created by the visit of the MoS, HRD, Jitin Prasada.
  While some may term it as any other ministerial duty providing lot of photo ops to both the party’s and official (…)