Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Chanakya and Machiavelli Rolled into One

  11 May 2013, by Badri Raina

  This piece was written quite sometime ago. It is being published now as it still retains its relevance.
  Epigraph
  I have no spur
  To prick the sides of my intent, but only
  Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
  And falls on th’other —
  (Macbeth, I,vii)
  “Intent” you will see is the horse that Macbeth wishes to ride to the glory of the Scottish throne. And the only spur he has to race that horse is his “ambition”. Wretchedly, he recognises this to be a “vaulting” ambition, and as (…)

• Pakistan: Reporter’s Jottings

  11 May 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  A week’s trip to Pakistan to attend a workshop on South Asian problems—part of the emerging people-to-people movement—may not have been adequate to get a comprehensive view of Pakistan’s problems and prospects, but it did provide an insight into many facets of life in Pakistan today which is valuable for a reporter’s notebook.
  Kashmir is the talking point in almost every circle one meets, much more than what the present writer noted during his last visit there to (…)

• India’s (non-)Response in Ladakh

  11 May 2013, by Barun Das Gupta

  Regulars of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China intruded ten kms deep into Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector in eastern Ladakh on April 14/15. (Actually there is some confusion about it. There are reports that the Chinese entered 19 kms south of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and then retreated to their present position, 10 kms inside.) Our government came to know of this intrusion, it is reported, from aerial pictures. For ten or fifteen or twenty, whatever kms it is, (…)

• Have Indian Troops Abandoned Indian Territory?

  11 May 2013, by S G Vombatkere

  The incursion by Chinese troops into the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector of Ladakh on April 15, 2013 by erecting and occupying tents was responded to on the ground by Indian troops erecting tents nearby to prevent further Chinese advance.
  The incursion is said to be in the Burtse (mis-spelt as “Burthe” and “Burste” by some journalists) sub-sector. Most people do not know where DBO is on the map because they have no access to maps that have DBO marked on it, much less Burtse. A not-to-scale (…)

• Afghanistan: India on the Right Course

  11 May 2013, by Apratim Mukarji

  On an early September 2002 morning, as breakfast was being served in the cavernously high-ceilinged dining hall of Hotel Inter-continental in the devastated capital city of Kabul, a Pakistani turned to the Afghan bearer, “Where did you live during the mujahideen war?” “In Pakistan, sir,” the man replied. His questioner turned triumphantly towards his companion, a Westerner, and remarked, “Ha! Did you hear him? This is the story you will hear all over Afghanistan. Pakistan opened its doors to (…)

• When Will They Ever Learn? Bringing American War Crimes in Vietnam to Light

  11 May 2013, by Eddie J Girdner

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse; Metropolitan Books, New York; 2013; pages 370; $ 30.00, hardcover.
  The Vietnam War is a case of state terrorism on a massive scale. This is made devastatingly clear from the evidence based upon official documents in the US National Archives and other records explored here. The book is thoroughly documented, backed up with some 86 pages of footnotes. While more than 30,000 books have been published on (…)

• Moscow Reserved on Rare Japanese Visitor

  11 May 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  For a rare visit by a Japanese Prime Minister to Russia after a glaring gap of a decade, Shinzo Abe himself set three benchmarks as he set out from Tokyo on April 28. He said he sought to establish a relationship of personal trust with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Abe compared himself with Putin as a leader with a “clear-cut objective” to make his country strong and prosperous.
  Secondly, he hoped to outline the “possibilities for the full development” of Japan-Russia relations in the (…)

• Ecuador: Rafael Correa’s Victory and Unchallenged Triumph of Latin American Left

  11 May 2013, by Ginu Zacharia Oommen

  “Citizens will be in charge, not the ‘Capital’,” said President Rafael Correa after being elected the President of Ecuador for the third consecutive time with an impressive margin. Rafael Correa defeated his closet rival, Guillermo Lasso, a millionaire, hawkish, neoliberal and the Executive President of Banko de Guayaquil, with a margin of nearly 40 per cent votes. Alongside the presidential election the PAIS bloc, the formidable alliance of Socialist, progressive, Communist parties, won 95 (…)

• Marx’s Discovery of the Most Revolutionary Class

  11 May 2013, by Anil Rajimwale

  ON MARX’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
  On May 5 this year was observed the one hundred and ninetyfifth birth anniversary of Karl Marx. On this occasion, while remembering the immortal revolutionary, we are publishing the following article.
  Marx was giant of a scientist who put socialism on a scientific basis by criticising utopian socialism. In his scientific approach, he can be put along with Newton, Darwin, Einstein and most other natural and social scientists. In fact he discovered more than (…)

• Communal Harmony and Freedom Movement in Mewat

  11 May 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  The one hundred and fiftysixth anniversary of the Great Indian Revolt of 1857 has been observed this month. It began in Meerut on May 6, 1857 though the spark of the Revolt was lit by Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore earlier that year. In that context we are publishing the following piece.
  The Mewat region, spread over parts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, is known to be a communally sensitive area. Its impor-tance increases due to its proximity to Delhi—a significant part of the (…)