Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• A Romantic Intellectual

  12 December 2011, by D.K. Giri

  TRIBUTE
  He was not a name to conjure with nor did he make the grade, as it is commonly perceived, in this part of the world. He was neither a Minister nor a public figure, so that one could credit him with all that is popularly known to be the virtues of good, intelligent or successful. But Pradip Bose was one of the greatest souls and most brilliant minds that one ever knew. Having known him very closely for over three decades one could confidently say that he was an embodiment of (…)

• Major Work on Violent Conflict

  12 December 2011, by Rakesh Gupta

  BOOK REVIEW
  Ethnic Mobilisation and Violence in Northeast India. by Pahi Saikia; Routledge, London, New York, New Delhi; pages 231; Price: Rs 695.
  This book can be read in multiple ways. It is a work of an Indian trained for her doctorate in a foreign university (McGill) where questions are asked and answered in a thesis and new ground is prepared to provide an epistemo-logical turn to the existing literature. Pahi has consciously attempted to do this. The blurb promises to fill (…)

• Media Self-discipline? — No Comments

  12 December 2011

  by ATULKRISHNA BISWAS
  “Some of the press who speak loudly about the freedom of the press are themselves the enemies of freedom. Countless people dare not say a thing because they know it will be picked up and made a song of by the press. That limits freedom.” —Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (1887-1972)
  Votaries of democracy and advocates of freedom of expression would stand by press freedom, even though unrestrained in tone and tenor, and without a sycophantic note. A (…)

• Sure, We are a Happening Country, but What Shouldn’t Happen is Happening

  12 December 2011, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  “What is happening in this country?”—asked Pranab Mukherjee in the aftermath of the Sharad Pawar slapping incident.
  Every taxpayer and voter in this country has been asking the same question, though not in the sense in which Mukherjee meant. What indeed is happening under the auspices of the eminent leaders of the government and the Opposition? What the citizen knows is:
  • That dumb things are happening in the country. Like introducing the FDI retail decision at the most (…)

• Union Government Exposes Itself

  9 December 2011, by SC

  Parliament’s winter session, which began on November 22, has failed to transact any business till date. At present the deadlock in both the Houses is due to the Union Government’s obdurate stand on opening the retail sector to foreign direct investment (FDI)—51 per cent in multi-brand, 100 per cent in single brand. This has not only faced stiff resistance from the entire Opposition but also from UPA allies like the Trinamul and DMK as well as from within the Congress itself, and the ruling (…)

• We Are All Occupiers

  9 December 2011, by Arundhati Roy

  People the World Over Salute the Occupy Movement for Standing Up to Injustice and Fighting for Equality at the Heart of Empire
  Tuesday morning (November 15), the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back. The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We’re not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the United States, but for everybody.
  What you have achieved since (…)

• Even the Mahavishnu of Market Economy Cannot Equate Slumdogs with Tycoons

  9 December 2011, by T J S George

  Trust deficit is an expressive phrase. But it is applied only to India-Pakistan relations. It is just as relevant in describing people-government relations in India. The trust deficit on this front was highlighted by two recent statements. The first was by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said in Cannes that food prices shot up in India because of prosperity.
  Less than half the population of India is prosperous. The other half-and-more is at varying levels of misery. A few hundred (…)

• The Story of Sister Valsa John (1958-2011)

  9 December 2011

  TRIBUTE
  “The following story was narrated by one of Sister Valsa John’s long-term associates to a Jesuit priest. It was written by the latter and then edited by me. This is the inspiring story of Sr. Valsa John, an ordained nun, who worked among the Santal tribals of Jharkhand for over fifteen years—first as a school teacher and then as a human rights activist—until her brutal murder on November 15, 2011. It provides an insider’s view of the people’s resistance movement led by Sr. Valsa (…)

• The American Crisis

  9 December 2011, by Apratim Mukarji

  Earlier this year the Rasmussen opinion poll found, somewhat to its surprise, that as much as eleven per cent of Americans polled were saying that they would respond positively if the United States went communist.
  All over the country, throughout the length and bredth of which this author travelled for three months during August-October, scores of discussions, debates, writings, and of course public demonstrations (manifested most drama-tically in the “Occupy Wall Street” ones) were (…)

• Krishna Menon: Not Millstone but Milestone

  9 December 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  [The following is N.C.’s ‘New Delhi Skyline’, written precisely fortyfive years ago on November 29, 1966 and published in Mainstream (December 3, 1966). It is being reproduced now as it helps to understand the situation prevailing within the ruling Congress fortyfive years ago.]
  At one time Krishna Menon was an enigma to many in Indian politics. Today Krishna Menon has become the touchstone of political awareness for different groups at the power-centre of the (…)