Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Remembering Gujarat Pogrom after Eight Years: Interview with Harsh Mander

  27 March 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Harsh Mander quit the Indian Administrative Service to work as an activist-writer. His latest book, Fear and Forgiveness—The Aftermath of Massacre, published by Penguin in 2009, focuses on the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and its aftermath. This interview was taken in the backdrop of the aftermath of the 2002
  pogrom and what realities stand out today in Gujarat after eight long years.
  How can the continuing climate of ‘dread‘ get diminished in the riot affected areas of (…)

• Reducing Democracy to a Farce

  27 March 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  Two thousand five hundred crores of rupees splurged on statues of self and elephants! Two hundred crores of rupees for a rally! And a garland worth five crores of rupees! Is this the simple and modest lifestyle of a Dalit Chief Minister (Mayawati), or the vulgar display of power and pelf by a modern-day queen, who could not afford to pay compensation to the victims of a stampede? But then, does she not have company in many of our politicians, who lead a life of opulence, at (…)

• Statehood demands Time to try the Assam Model

  27 March 2010, by Anil Nauriya

  That the case for the formation of a Telangana State is strong tends to be widely accepted. Many of the districts which make up Telangana have remained economically backward; undoubtedly their development requires special attention. While this is readily conceded, what worries many observers is the cascading effect that the creation of Telangana would have on similar demands for Statehood elsewhere. A new State can engender new social problems as well with the coming to the fore of “new (…)

• Lessons from the Telangana Movement

  27 March 2010, by Inukonda Thirumali

  The Telangana movement, that is going on for the last few months, is an expression of the people’s democratic yearnings. It is a silent but people’s revolution for a separate Telangana State. The people’s protests are taking place in the forms of dhoom-dhams (songs and dances), garjanas (hullabaloos), and padayatras (marches). Sometimes it is celebrating vijayayatras (victory marches) in anticipation of the Telangana state, and at times it is taking out shava yatras (processions carrying the (…)

• Kashmir: Retrieve the Magic

  27 March 2010, by Karuna Thakur

  The mood in Kashmir, after the Indira-Sheikh Accord of 1975, was upbeat. A surge of emotions over the leader’s homecoming had apparently overshadowed the bitterness of the fifties. The Valley had turned into a nerve-centre of activity and played host to an influx of visitors including leaders, writers, journalists and film-makers. Globetrotting yogis too descended on the scene to unwind, while some like the Mahesh Yogi group held training sessions on transcendental meditation for the (…)

• The Valley of Incongruities

  27 March 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Whatever may be the substance of the much-advertised point of difference between Peking and Washington over the question of détente, it may be safely assumed that Gerald Ford’s talks with Mao Tse-tung and his cohorts explored the further potentialities of Sino-American collusion, particularly in the countries of the Third World. Angola shows the enormity of this entente while the happenings in Bangladesh underscores this danger in our immediate neighbourhood. (…)

• On ‘Operation Green Hunt’, Maoist Violence, Government-Maoist Talks

  27 March 2010

  [bleu] The following are the statements of different organisations and individuals, representing the civil society, on ‘Operation Green Hunt’, Maoist violence and the proposed negotiations between the Union Government and CPI (Maoist). These are being presented here for the benefit of our readers.bleu]
  ‘Operation Green Hunt’—An Euphemism for Genocide of the Tribals
  Of significance is the number of killings that has happened ever since the commencement of the ‘Operation Green Hunt’, say, (…)

• Paradox of Gandhiji’s Champaran Struggle

  27 March 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  Girish Mishra’s “Gandhi’s Champaran Struggle” (Mainstream, February 13, 2010) was interesting. It focused on certain aspects which are not commonly known to many. At the same time, however, it has left out many information relevant in the context of his struggle in Champaran, which was the first Indian theatre of experiment of his unique satyagraha. Maybe in a small compass, the writer could not bring many important, though relevant, facts in its ambit.
  In his first (…)

• Exploring Afpak Policy: An Indian Perspective

  27 March 2010, by Kamalakanta Roul

  Introduction
  Terrorism is a categorical means of intimidation as manifested from economic volatility, political pendulum, poverty, unemployment, religious extremism, sectarianism, ethnic and cultural conflicts. It is deeply rooted in South Asia, especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has assumed a global character. In its global form terrorism has become a serious concern for the world community. After the unprecedented WTO attack on September 11, 2001, the Bush Administration started (…)

• Tagore 2011: Advance Posting

  27 March 2010, by Amiya Dev

  CAMEO
  It is a few years now that a bronze bust of Rabindranath Tagore has been installed at Stratford-upon-Avon with his poem on Shakespeare inscribed on the pedestal in the original Bengali with his own English translation. It was a gift from the Government of West Bengal. Visitors taking a stroll in the Shakespeare garden are not likely to miss it. But how many of them, barring Indians and Bangladeshis of course, will be aware of the greatness of the greatest Bengali poet? Will they be (…)