Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Dr Suraj Bhan

  24 October 2010, by Ranbir Singh

  TRIBUTE
  The death of Prof Suraj Bhan, who passed away at the age of 79 years at Rohtak on July 14, 2010, has left a void which cannot be easily filled. He was an embodiment of courage, conviction and consistency. Dr Suraj Bhan could squarely fit into the category of academician-as- an-activist designed by the doyen of social sciences in India, Prof Rajni Kothari.
  Prof Bhan, who had a Ph.D degree in Ancient History from M.S. University, Baroda, distin-guished himself as a teacher in (…)

• Acclaimed People’s Theatre and Music Director, Communist and Friend

  24 October 2010, by Shamsul Islam

  TRIBUTE Acclaimed people’s theatre and music director Amitava Dasgupta, known to his friends as Amit-da, breathed his last on October 9, 2010 (he was born on July 1, 1947). He did not recover well from a heart surgery in July and continued working until his very last days. His was a four-decade career of an outstanding and distinguished pro-people cultural activist whose passion to use music and theatre against injustice never diminished.
  The German theatre director, Fritz (…)

• Our Shame overshadows Our Glory?

  19 October 2010, by SC

  Despite all the mismanagement, inadequacy of preparations and allegations of mega-size corruption that at one stage threatened the very holding of the XIX Commonwealth Games in the Capital, the Games have on the whole gone off well till now and as we approach the end of the sporting event indications are that the Delhi CWG would go down as quite successful not just for India (which has been able to win a record number of gold medals thus exceeding its gold-tally at the Manchester Games in (…)

• Faking an Encounter: Killing the Peace Process

  19 October 2010

  Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H.C. Pandey

• High Court Verdict on the Babri Mosque: Implications for the Rule of Law

  19 October 2010, by Arshi Khan

  In his commentary on the Greek Political Thought, C.L. Wayper says: if the king is virtuous, law becomes unnecessary; if the king is not virtuous, law becomes useless. In today’s terms, it can be referred to as the endorsement of the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism which are the backbones of democratic governance particularly in a plural society like India. The Rule of Law was considered inevitable for the unity and integrity of the country by thwarting the menace of ‘preferred interests’ (…)

• BJP’s Dangerous Politics

  19 October 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  One of my eaerliest reporting experiences was the great Calcutta killing of 1946. Fierce communal passions were unleashed and thousands were done to death on both sides in the course of a couple of days. But behind that gory carnage was the fight for the city of Calcutta: who should get it? Pakistan or India? Religious beliefs are made use of to rouse mass anger among innocent people, but those who whip up such passions do so only for political gains.
  In our (…)

• Retrograde Verdict Rewards Hindutva Zealots

  19 October 2010, by Anand Teltumbde

  The much awaited Ayodhya verdict pronounced by three judges of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on September 30, 2010 stunned the entire progressive establish-ment of the country. All the three independent versions of the judges converged in relying on the faith and belief of the Hindus forsaking the established principles of law, and vindicated the stand of the Hindutva movement which brought about the destruction of the Babri Masjid. As a compromise solution, again sans any (…)

• Ayodhya: Judiciary — the Latest Victim

  19 October 2010, by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

  On October 30, 2010, what the nation was waiting for was a verdict from the three learned judges of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court. What we heard at the end of the day was a compromise formula dished out by two of the three judges. They ordered division of the disputed part of the land between the Hindus and Muslims. The third judge, however, was bold enough to gift the whole land to the Hindus. The way the judges played it safe by bowing before faith, of course of the majority (…)

• Vindicating Faith, Undermining Law : New Socialist Initiative On the Ayodhya Judgement

  19 October 2010

  While welcoming the restraint shown by the people from different communities in recent times and their desire to turn a new page of life, the New Socialist Initiative (NSI) is of the strong opinion of the need to judge whether this peace has come with honour or been achieved under coercion. The NSI, a collective aimed at regeneration of revolutionary socialist politics, feels deeply concerned about the recent develop-ments on the legal front around Ayodhya which has the possibility of (…)

• A Failure of Leadership

  19 October 2010, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Is there a curse upon India? Why do monstrous problems attack us all at once, and why does each one of them get more petrifying by the day instead of getting resolved as in most other countries?
  The Commonwealth Corruption Games, the explosion of popular anger in Kashmir, the unrelenting terror spectre, the Maoist campaign, China’s unfriendly posturings and, in a bizarre instance of timing, a Court verdict on a sensitive religious issue that has been hanging fire for (…)