Mainstream Weekly

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• Washington’s Pakistan Meltdown

  7 November 2012, by Dilip Hiro

  Dilip Hiro, a South Asia expert, is the author of 33 books, the most recent being Apocalyptic Realm: Jihadists in South Asia (Yale University Press, New Haven and London). He contributes regularly for TomDispatch. The following article is being reproduced, with the author’s permission, from TomDispatch.com with due acknowledgement.
  The United States and Pakistan are by now a classic example of a dysfunctional nuclear family (with an emphasis on “nuclear”). While the two governments and (…)

• The Coming Famine In India

  7 November 2012

  Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally renowned medical practitioner and social activist (a leading figure in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties), was incarcerated in Chhattisgarh and held in detention in Raipur having been branded as a Maoist for his activities in defence of poor tribals in the State. He is now out on bail. The following is the text of the Arvind Narayan Das Memorial Lecture he delivered in New Delhi on October 6, 2012.
  by BINAYAK SEN
  Before we embark on our (…)

• An Appeal for Legal Help

  7 November 2012

  Dr Sunilam (ex-MLA) has been a consistent fighter for the cause of farmers for the last several years. He and two of his colleagues, Shesh Rao Suryavanshi and Prahalad Aggarwal, of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sessions Court of Multai, District Betul, Madhya Pradesh, on October 19, 2012 in the 14 year-old Multai Firing Case. There was an indiscriminate firing by the police on farmers gathered at Multai headquarters on January 12, 1998 under the (…)

• Lessons from 1962: Is 50 Years Not Enough?

  7 November 2012, by S G Vombatkere

  Institutions and nations rarely if ever learn from successes, but it is possible and necessary to learn from institutional or national failure. This is particularly true of military operations. Today, 50 years since India and China went to war, there is vigorous public debate regarding India’s humiliating defeat. It is vital that the “how” and “why” of the failure are brought to light so that India, as a mature democracy, can learn from them. The “who” issue is unimpor-tant since all the (…)

• On the Soviet Stand on India - China Border Conflict

  7 November 2012, by Arun Mohanty

  Contrary to the widespread view that the former Soviet Union maintained neutrality all through the Indo-China border conflict, this paper argues that the Soviet position on the issue evolved from a position of neutrality to a brief tilt towards China and then switched to open support to India.
  The India-China border clash took place at a time when ideological differences between the former Soviet Union and China were approaching the nadir. While scholars mostly agree that territorial (…)

• Open Letter to Pravda

  7 November 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The following open letter to Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party’s daily organ, was written fifty years ago by N.C. as an ‘Indian Marxist’ of 20 years’ membership of the Communist Party. It appeared in Mainstream (November 3, 1962). (It was on that day that he turned 49.) This was a reply to a Pravda editorial, published on October 25, 1962, recommending the Chinese terms for peace talks for India’s acceptance. It is being reproduced after fifty years to once again (…)

• Syria: Waiting for Someone named Obama

  7 November 2012, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Even as German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was on a visit to China, diverted himself to Istanbul in a mission on October 13 aimed at tamping down Turkish-Syrian tensions, Der Spiegel calmly reported that the information about the “non-civilian cargo”, which led to the interception of a Syrian aircraft by the Turkish Air Force the previous Wednesday (October 10) night, was actually passed on to Ankara by US intelligence.
  Furthermore, Der Spiegel disclosed authorita-tively, (…)

• Conscience of a Progressive Polity

  7 November 2012, by Surendra Mohan

  November 3 this year marks N.C.’s ninetyninth birth anniversary. He was born on November 3, 1913. On this occasion we are reproducing a few pieces written after his demise (on June 27, 1998) by some of those who knew him closely.
  Nikhil Chakravartty launched the weekly Mainstream when the country did not have serious political journals apart from publications of political parties, like the AICC Economic Review, New Age, Janata and Mankind. When the weekly started, it was accompanied by the (…)

• Nikhil

  7 November 2012, by Mohit Sen

  It was the mid-forties that I first came across Nikhil. Bundle, my eldest brother, belonged to the outer fringe of the Indian Communist students group formed in England in the late 1930s. Indrajit Gupta, Mohan Kumaramangalam, Parvati Krishnan, N.K. Krishnan, Bhupesh Gupta, Renu Chakravartty, Jyoti Basu, Arun Bose, Rajani Patel, Nikhil Chakravartty were among the members of this group. They all worked with and in the Communist Party of India on their return to our country. At first it was an (…)

• A Saint Editor

  7 November 2012, by Prabhash Joshi

  Nikhilda had turned eightyfour. Some people live for hundred years and stay perfectly agile, alert and healthy. Though he had an ageing physique, Nikhilda was not a person who would live by obeying the regulations of keeping fit. Four years ago, he took a taxi and went out in the hills. Alone. He was to meet me at the institutes in Mussoorie/Nainital. He reached there on time, attended the workshops, but again went out in the hills. I returned to Delhi and then left for Calcutta where I went (…)