Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• ‘Thank you’ Speeches and Kasab: in the Structure of Perverse Capitalism

  20 June 2010, by Priya Naik

  What does one attribute individual action to?
  The question that underpinned the very foundation of liberal thinking is hitherto key anchorage for the mindset in the capitalist structural arrangement. As we sift through newspapers there appear threads connecting and narrating the tale for a theoretical reflection.
  Thank you, said Lebow when she won her Oscar this year for best director. The gratitude was not for the golden figure she clasped. It was a thank you to the her (…)

• Trinamul’s Massive Win at the Cost of Pranab, CPM

  20 June 2010, by Amitava Mukherjee

  Letter from Kolkata
  Of all the recent elections of West Bengal, perhaps the last one involving a large number of corporations and municipalities has turned out to be the most important. The importance lies in the fact that it has conclusively confirmed the death-knell of Left politics in the State. It has also swept away at a stroke whatever confusion remained in the minds of the Congress policy-makers as to who really is the undisputed leader of the anti-CPM political mainstream in West (…)

• Powerful Exposition of the Western Economic Model’s Instability and Inadequacy

  20 June 2010, by B P Mathur

  BOOK REVIEW
  Global Economic Crisis—A People’s Perspective: Fiasco of Neo-liberalism; Alternative Survey Group; Daanish Books, Delhi; 2009; pp. 257; price: Rs 450.
  Margaret Mead, a distinguished social scientist, had observed that “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” It is this spirit that has inspired a group of dedicated scholars to bring out uninterruptedly for the last fifteen years an Alternative Economic Survey, (…)

• Sonia in Jammu, Israelis pound Aid-carrying Ships in Besieged Gaza

  20 June 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Sonia Gandhi’s advisers should have suggested to her that if she had travelled as far as Jammu she should have travelled still further. Towards Shopian to meet the affected family of the two slain women—Neelofar and Aasiya Jan. After all, last week-end the entire Valley was observing the first death anniversary of these two young women, whose murder still remains wrapped in layers and is one of those blatant cases of a cover-up of sorts. And if anger over these murders couldn’t be contained, (…)

• Uneasy Sits the Global Balance

  20 June 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  Whoever said that unipolarity assures peace and eternity? The global economy went into a huddle for real estate failure allowing the millions to turn violent on social issues in Western capital. Daniel Harvey, the reputed economist, suggested a revolution in economic policies away from the current unproductive real estate investments. The current policies do not contribute to happiness of the millions. It is only adding to the feel good factor of the middle and upper classes from Beijing and (…)

• Prostitution in Colonial India

  20 June 2010, by Sudhanshu Bhandari

  Introduction
  The prostitute has over the ages never been explicitly defined, but commonly any woman, who for the sake of monetary consideration or any other gainful remuneration, sells her body is regarded as such. Throughout the history of human society, the much reviled whore has been deprecated as a sinner, immoral, a repository of diseases, a profaner of religion, whose companionship should be shunned by the civilised, moral, virtuous and married man. Her synonyms are varied: harlot, (…)

• Kyrgyzstan: Ethnic Genocide and Politics of Revenge

  20 June 2010, by Anuradha M. Chenoy

  There has been large scale ethnic killing of minority Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan’s Osh region, which is on the border of Uzbekistan and home to several minorities. Over a hundred people, mostly belonging to the Uzbek minority, have been killed; thousands, including women, children, foreign students, injured; thousands have had to flee their homes in the face of threats, revealing the barbarity of the attackers. This is a clear attempt at ethnic cleansing. This is not the first time that (…)

• India-Pakistan-Afghanistan: The Path Ahead

  20 June 2010, by Nirupama Rao

  It is a truth universally acknowledged that India, Pakistan and Afghanistan share bonds and linkages that transcend the immediacy of the present. Often, we are also treated to the refrain that India-Pakistan issues have impeded the collective progress of the region. There are those who maintain that for peace and stability in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan should resolve all their differences. The complexities in such equations are not resolvable through the application of simple formulae, (…)

• Prof B.B. Sarkar is no More

  20 June 2010

  Bibek Brata Sarkar died on May 16, 2010 in Delhi, aged 75. A teacher of Political Science, he had lectured at Ramjas College (1963-64), Dyal Singh College (Evening) (1963-64), Kirori Mal College (1964-83), and then in the Department of Political Science (1983-99)—all in the University of Delhi. He retired as a Professor in 1999.
  Known for his teaching of and abiding interest in Western Political Thought and Liberal Political Theory, his long-held belief was that it was possible to (…)

• Karzai’s Move in Afghan Parliamentary Poll

  20 June 2010, by Mansoor Ali

  From the beginning of this year President Hamid Karzai has been pursuing an active policy of preparing for the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan with the objective of bringing the Pathan majority to power. At the same time the Karzai policy aims at weakening the mujahideen influence in the country. For that purpose he is insisting on the approval of a law wherein the members of the Election Commission come under the control of the President’s office alone. The relevant Bill was (…)