Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• From Past Elections and Past Mistakes Political Parties Learn Nothing

  14 April 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Confusion is a weapon in politics. When you are confused about what to do, do something to make others even more confused. Say things that are at once sensational and contradictory until your opponents start scurrying around to find the meaning of what you are saying. That is battle half won.
  The Congress is an old hand at this game. But this time it deserves our sympathy. It is tasked with the responsibility to sell a product that many markets have already rejected. But (…)

• The Politics of Power and Control

  14 April 2013, by S G Vombatkere

  Control of the nuclear fission process is the use of science and technology for political power. Electric power generated from controlled fission can be for social benefit and is thus a source of political power. Controlling the delivery of explosive power from nuclear fission is an even greater source of political power. Fortunately its use has so far been limited to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but serious threats remain. Control of nuclear fission was first developed in order to manufacture (…)

• Pakistan’s Travails

  14 April 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  It is boisterous, even maverick. Pakistan thy name is uncertainty. Yet, it is strange that whenever it is faced with pressing problems before elections, the country has always surprisingly found solutions to them. This time it has chosen an interim Prime Minister in the former justice Hazar Khan Khoso, who will be conducting free and fair elections.
  There were pulls from several parties and it seemed impossible at one time that some name would emerge as a unanimous choice for the interim (…)

• The Ideological Battle in Bangladesh

  14 April 2013, by Barun Das Gupta

  Pakistan as a country was born with the seeds of its eventual dismemberment lying embedded in the very process of its birth and subsequent evolution. The third paragraph of the momentous Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League, adopted at Lahore on March 23, 1940, said:
  “Resolved that it is the considered view of this Session of the All India Muslim League that no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to the Muslims unless it is designed on the following (…)

• Honouring Ambedkar

  14 April 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  April 14 this year marks the 122nd birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. On this occasion we are reproducing the following piece by N.C. and a few relevant articles to offer our sincere homage to the abiding memory of that towering personality.
  The award of the Bharat Ratna posthumously on B.R. Ambedkar raises mixed feelings. No doubt Ambedkar was one of the stalwarts of modern India; the high-water mark of his career was that he contributed most (…)

• Is Ambedkar a Modern-day Messiah?

  14 April 2013

  by R. Akhileshwari
  As Dalit assertion is taking shape and Dalit power is being manifested, the relationship between Dalits and their icon, B.R. Ambedkar, is being discussed publicly for the first time. And for the first time ever, he is being acknowledged by the mainstream society in India as the second greatest Indian, which is really amazing considering the fact that this section of society had mostly a negative assessment of Ambedkar, as someone who was responsible for tearing up the (…)

• Memoirs of Chandal Jeevan: An Underdog’s Story

  14 April 2013, by A K Biswas

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  Itibritte Chandal Jeevan, Vol. I by Manoranjan Byapari; Priya Sipla Prakashan, Kolkata; Rs 250.
  Part-I
  Uncommon Memoirs
  He is no pedigree, nor has any pillar of support. He does not rest on the laurels of ancestral tradition of letters. Nonetheless he is a unique phenomenon with no parallel in Bengali literature, if not in Indian literature. His arrival at the centre of the glittering world of creative Bengali literature and adulation in train has left his readers and (…)

• Russia: Has Putin Won the Battle Against Oligarchs?

  14 April 2013

  by R.G. Gidadhubli
  The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has complex relations with the Russian oligarchs, the ‘New Class of Billionaires’. Being an experienced wrestler, he has displayed his total control over those who have confronted and challenged him. For instance, Boris Berezovsky, who committed suicide in March 2013 in England, was once acclaimed as the ‘Godfather of the Kremlin’ and ‘King Maker’ in Russia during Boris Yeltsin’s era since he could pull down regional governments at (…)

• Gandhi’s Model of Civilisation and its Present Relevance

  14 April 2013

  by Raj Narayana Das
  Great men are either born great, or achieve greatness. And sometimes it is thrust upon some of them. Where does Gandhi stand in this Shakespearean classification? Certainly Gandhi achieved greatness. But I do not want to lift Gandhi to the level of a deity, nor do I want to use such an expression as Gandhism. That would amount to doing grave injustice to him. Because Gandhi denied that he had established a sect. To quote him, “I have no desire to establish a sect. I am (…)

• Hugo Chavez — A Tumultuous Life comes to a Painful End

  14 April 2013, by Sheel Bhadra Kumar

  TRIBUTE
  Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, President of Venezuela, battling with prolonged cancer, died on March 5, 2013 at the age of 58. He was an epic figure who symbolised the radical transfor-mation of Latin America. He was a defining personality in the western hemisphere’s politics for 14 years. The deep emotional outpouring that followed the death of the Venezuelan President speaks volumes about his popularity and public support. In an era of crony-capitalism, Chavez was someone we will (…)