Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Naxalite Violence: Causes and Remedies

  4 July 2012, by A K Biswas

  Part-I
  Myth of National Growth
  The country is in an enigmatic crossroad. It is difficult for the common man to comprehend the direction India is heading. To him, the euph-oria surrounding India’s economic prosperity coupled with the high rate of growth hyped in a sonorous pitch is a paradox beyond his appre-ciation or intelligence. This does not mean or presuppose that the country has not travelled along the road to prosperity or growth. It has indeed made substantial progress, which is (…)

• Srinagar Today, Remembering Jaleel Andrabi

  4 July 2012, by Humra Quraishi

  I’m back from Srinagar. In fact, got back only this week-end and even now sitting somewhat lost in what the Valley had to offer. The one big positive for me was my interaction with the enthusiastic students of Convergent Journalism at the Central University of Kashmir. Also, to see and sense how life moves on…keeps moving on, overcoming those emotional upheavals that come along. And though the senseless-cum-brutal killings of the young in the summer of 2010 have left a definite impact on the (…)

• Where is the Vision?

  4 July 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  Whatever the Congress speaks, it sounds like an evangelist’s outpouring. The party was no different a few days ago at its meeting of some 100 delegates, comprising Working Committee members and State Presidents. The party again acted like a preacher who wanted to stir up feelings of revival. It cannot be done by merely attacking the opponents. There has to be answers to the questions on the ever-rising prices and the never-ending scams.
  The delegates and other supporters who return to (…)

• Manmohanomics Responsible for Declining Economic Clout of India

  4 July 2012, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  International Rating Agency Standard and Poors had downgraded the outlook on India from BBB+ to BBB- in April. Since then the dismal data for the last quarter of 2011-12 ending in March have come out. Now Standard and Poors has threatened that it may actually downgrade India because the consensus in favour of economic reforms is eroding.
  S&P has mentioned four reasons for this change: investment and economic growth have slowed, current account deficit has widened and political (…)

• Courting Concerns — The Delhi High Court Judgment on Child Marriage

  4 July 2012

  by SHAZIA NIGAR
  A Delhi High Court judgment pronouncing that a minor married Muslim girl be allowed to stay with her in-laws, as she wished, has once again been portrayed as the protracted war between archaic Mohammedan law and the modern, secular Indian Constitution. While this is how Mr. Bal Thackeray and the Hindutva brigade, in an attempt to gain mileage out of the issue, would like to argue the case, the point of it lies elsewhere. It is not a clash of civilisations, as they would (…)

• Misappropriating a Legacy: Swami and his Contemporary Enthusiasts

  4 July 2012

  by MANISH THAKUR and NABANIPA BHATTACHARJEE
  Observers of the political scene in Bihar would have hardly failed to notice a renewed interest in the life and works of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (1889-1950), the founder President of the All India Kisan Sabha, and arguably the most influential peasant leader of Bihar in the 1930s and 1940s. Over the last decade or so, his birth (February 22) and death (June 26) anniversaries have been celebrated with great pomp and show with full attendance (…)

• Nikhil Chakravartty

  4 July 2012

  On June 27 this year falls Nikhil Chakravartty’s fourteenth death anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce the ‘Political Notebook’ by S. Viswam in the first issue of Mainstream to appear on July 4, 1998 following N.C.’s demise, the then President K.R. Narayanan’s message on N.C.’s death, and two pieces by M.V. Rao and Biman Sen on N.C. (published in the issues of August 1, 1998 and June 26, 1999 respectively).
  Death snatched away from Indian journalism last week (June 27, 1998) one of (…)

• Message from the President

  4 July 2012

  The following is the message of K.R. Narayanan, the President of India, on the demise of Nikhil Chakravartty.
  Quietly and unobtrusively as he lived, Nikhil Chakravartty has slipped out of life. At once gentle and formidable, his was the most seasoned voice in Indian journalism. Over a period of five-and-a-half decades, Nikhil Chakravartty witnessed human affairs with the impatience of a rebel and at the same time with the dispassion of a historian. Committed socialist that he was, Nikhil (…)

• Troubadour of Our Times

  4 July 2012, by M. Venugopala Rao

  He was all grace when we (my wife and I) met him our last time. That was a few weeks before Nikhil’s final departure. My wife placed a bunch of flowers on the small table before him and was moving back, when Nikhil rose unsteadily to his feet, beckoned her closer and held her hands fondly for a moment, asked us to sit, sat himself, got us some tea and spoke haltingly. If his memory was slipping, he did not let it. With a shy smile, he quietly confirmed for himself and for us that he (…)

• Some Reminiscences

  4 July 2012

  by BIMAN SEN
  On June 27, 1998, our beloved Nikhilda left us forever. Months have passed by; still I have not been able to reconcile myself with the idea that he is no more in our midst. However, I can feel his presence, whenever I sit down to write about some complex problem and get stuck on some ideas or suitable vocabulary; I can see his sweet smiling face assuring me not be dishear-tened but to think. I always got the right answer. This feeling, I am sure, will last till the last day of (…)