Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Dealing with the Maoist Challenge

  27 June 2010, by P R Dubhashi

  The Dantewada massacre of 75 jawans of the CRPF ambushed by the Maoists followed in the next week by the blowing up of a bus carrying civilians in which some jawans of the CRPF were also travelling taking a heavy toll of 50 lives has forced agonising reappraisal of the strategy adopted so far by the Union Home Ministry in dealing with the Maoist challenge. A senior member of the Congress and the former Chief Minister of MP, Digvijay Singh, openly criticised the Home Minister for his wrong- (…)

• Whither Reservations?

  27 June 2010, by Sheetal Sharma

  As the final phase of the intake of OBCs quota in educational institutions—such as central universities, IIMs, IITs, AIIMS, institutions funded or managed under the aegis of the Central Government—is going to be accomplished in the coming session, there is a sense of satisfaction that another step has been taken for the upliftment of the socially backward sections of society. Hitherto, the backward castes and communities have been denied any attempt to rise socially; thus it is our (…)

• Social Profiling: Indian Style

  27 June 2010, by Subhash Gatade

  “The Muslim is not wanted in the armed forces because he is always suspect—whether we want to admit it or not, most Indians consider Muslims a fifth column for Pakistan.” [Vengeance! India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi (New Delhi, Norton, 1985), pp. 1995-96] —George Fernandes
  Amnesty International defines racial profiling as the targeting of individuals and groups by law enforcement officials, even partially, on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, except (…)

• For N.C. Democracy and Socialism were Inseparable

  27 June 2010, by K R Narayanan

  On Nikhil Chakravartty’s twelfth death anniversary on June 27, 2010, we remember the founder of this journal by reproducing four tributes to him after his death by noted personalities (the former President of India and three veteran journalists) who knew him closely. None of them is, however, currently with us. The piece by K.R. Narayanan appeared in The Book Review (August 1998) and was reproduced later in Mainstream (September 12, 1998). The piece by Chanchal Sarkar was published in the (…)

• Nikhilda

  27 June 2010, by Chanchal Sarkar

  When I first came to work in Delhi the most respected journalistic figure here was Sir Usha Nath Sen, one of the founders of the Associated Press of India which eventually became the PTI (Press Trust of India). Sir U.N. once told me of his guru K.C. Roy, the real founder of the API, that in any matter concerning the Government of India, in Delhi or Simla, K.C. Roy could figure out exactly with whom the matter rested and who would take the decision.
  Delhi has grown exponentially since K.C. (…)

• A Saint Editor

  27 June 2010, 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 (…)

• The Ajatashatru

  27 June 2010, by M.V. DESAI

  It was the strangest of happenings that I should come to know of Nikhil Chakravartty in the late 1950s on account of his wife Renu Chakravartty. While she, living most of the last few years in Calcutta and therefore getting more and more remote in acquaintance became a distant figure, he grew over the last forty years as a journalist, philosopher, historian, critic, most uncritical of friends and friendliest of critics. Renu Chakravartty was discovered in person in August 1958 when she took (…)

• EMERGENCY (1975-77) Mainstream’s Rewarding Struggle

  27 June 2010

  To mark the passage of thirtyfive years since the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi on June 25-26, 1975, we reproduce some extracts from the story of “Mainstream’s Journey Through Emergency” which was published in the June 25, 1977 issue of this journal. —Editor
  The story of Mainstream during the nineteen months of Emergency is both exciting and rewarding. It has many lessons to impart. The confrontation with a despotic authority could not possibly be direct and formal: by its very (…)

• The Roots of the Emergency

  27 June 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  As years pass by, one after the other, the past recedes more and more into distant memory. There are certain events in the life of a nation as of individuals, to which distance does not lend enchantment to the view. Rather the ugly visage falls into the pattern of historical evolution and lives on as such. One such event in our lifetime, and in our very land was the Emergency which was promulgated on June 25-26, twenty years ago.
  Twenty years is but a short space in the vast canvas that (…)

• Open Letter to the Chief Justice of India, Chairpersons of NCW and NHRC

  27 June 2010

  The following open letter to the Chief Justice of India and the Chairpersons of the National Commission for Women (NCW) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by women’s groups was sent to us for publication in Mainstream in the last week of May but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. —Editor
  Respected Chief Justice of India,
  Chairperson of National Commission for Women,
  Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission,
  Subject: Appeal for justice in the case of (…)