Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Remembering December 6, 1992

  9 December 2011

  [Both the following appeared in Mainstream (December 19, 1992).]
  Cry, My India
  LAMENT OF AN INDIAN ABROAD
  The hammers and axes wielded by the mob in Ayodhya not only broke the bricks in a centuries-old structure but dealt painful blows to Hinduism and Mother India.
  Those of us Indians who live abroad can no more walk with our heads high—as Indians or Hindus—and can no more speak to our neighbours of the virtues of our nation and our religion.
  The land of the Vedas with their (…)

• One-upmanship amid Partisan Politics

  27 November 2011, by SC

  The way in which the winter session of Parliament has started it appears that this session too would meet the fate of earlier sessions. Last year the winter session was washed out as a consequence of the Opposition’s incessant protests; the last monsoon session was also marred by disruptions caused on the Lokpal issue. The first three days of this winter session have witnessed continuous disruption of the proceedings of both Houses on account of complete divergence of opinion between the (…)

• Afghanistan: US Strategy in Conflict with Indian Interests

  27 November 2011, by Bashir Mohammad

  Indian interests in Afghanistan and the region as a whole do not find importance in the US strategy in this part of the world. As a matter of fact the strategy not only ignores but also does not conform to those interests. For all its pronouncements to the contrary, the essential objective of the Obama Administration in Washington is to strike a deal with the ISI and its strategic assets, the Taliban and Haqqani network.
  The New Silk Route concept disclosed by the US Secretary of State in (…)

• Saluting Offbeat Journalist J. Sri Raman

  27 November 2011, by S.K. Pande

  TRIBUTE
  I would like to believe in something, Something beyond the death that undid you. I would like to describe the intensity With which, already overwhelmed, We longed in those days to be able To walk together once again Free beneath the sun.
  —Primo Levi, Collected Poems
  At the roof-top, open air auditorium of the Delhi Union of Journalists, on November 19, 2011, while a gentle breeze blew, an inner circle of friends—writers, publishers, reporters, press workers, peace activists, (…)

• Let a Thousand Ramayanas Bloom

  27 November 2011, by Bharati Jaganathan

  The arbitrary deletion of A.K. Ramanujan’s ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’ from the syllabus of a concurrent course taught by the History Department by the Academic Council of the University of Delhi has understandably sparked off a major debate. The prehistory of this step is to be traced to early 2008 when ABVP activists attacked and vandalised the office of the History Department in the presence of (invited) media- persons. An independent panel (…)

• Ramanujan’s Three Hundred Ramayanas: Transmission, Interpretation And Dialogue In Indian Traditions

  27 November 2011

  by R. MAHALAKSHMI
  A.K. Ramanujan, while referring to the diversity and apparently contradictory element of unity in the Indian traditions, refers to an Irish joke about whether to classify trousers as singular or plural: singular from the top, plural from the bottom.1 A Concurrent Discipline Course in the University of Delhi for Second Year Honours students not doing History was introduced in 2005 on ‘Culture in India—Ancient’, and had sought to very sensitively juggle the singular/ plural (…)

• On M.A. Jinnah

  27 November 2011, by Ajeet Jawed

  COMMUNICATION
  This in response to Mr Rawal’s letter to the editor (Mainstream, October 29, 2011) regarding my article ‘Pakistan Failed Jinnah’ in Mainstream (September 10, 2011). In this context I would like to draw his attention to the following facts:
  1. It is a proven fact that before changing track in 1940 Jinnah was secular and nationalist. He had joined a secular organisation, Bombay Presidency Association, in 1900, the Indian National Congress in 1904, was the President of the (…)

• Assault on the Founder of Pakistan: The Untold Conspiracy

  27 November 2011

  by NASIM YOUSAF
  (The following article has been sent by the Administrator, http://www.allamamashriqi.com for publication in Mainstream.)
  “… you have no evidence at all that this man [Jinnah’s assailant] is a member of that movement [Khaksar Tehrik]…you have no evidence that he [the culprit] is a member of the movement, still less that he holds any particular position in it.”
  —Justice Blagden Bombay High Court, 1943
  On July 26, 1943, at approximately 1:30 pm, Rafiq Sabir Mazangavi (…)

• Foreign Policy Perspectives and the American Scene

  27 November 2011, by P N Haksar

  November 27 this year marks the thirteenth death anniversary of P.N. Haksar, the eminent administrator and distinguished diplomat as well as one of the country’s foremost thinkers. He was the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and a Member, UN International Civil Service Commission. On this occasion we offer our sincere homage to the abiding memory of that towering personality, a recognised authority on foreign policy, by reproducing the (…)

• Quit Asia!

  27 November 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The mere fact that President Johnson ordered the halting of bombing of most of North Vietnam and simultaneously announced his decision not to seek re-election to the office wherefrom he has wrought unprecedented havoc, is no doubt seen the world over as a victory not only for the valiant people of Vietnam but for peace-loving peoples in all countries including Johnson’s own.
  But the so-called de-escalation ordered by the US President is not such as to convince the (…)