Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• How Communal Division of J&K State was Averted

  18 February 2010, by Balraj Puri

  Encouraged by the announcement of the formation of a separate Telangana State and provoked by the report of the Justice Sagheer Ahma headed Fifth Working Group on Centre-State Relations in J&K, appointed by the Prime Minister, the movement for separation of Ladakh from Kashmir region has gained fresh momentum and the issue of a separate Jammu State is again being debated.
  A former member of the Jammu State Morcha recalls how the movement for a separate Jammu State was sabotaged (…)

• Building a Strong Opposition in India

  18 February 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  Building a strong Opposition in India, after the main Opposition, the BJP, has started to fall apart for lack of an ideology or strategy and the ruling party seems wedded to globalisation of the economy, has become imperative to underpin a strong democracy. The BJP has run out of steam after its emotive Hindutva programme itself has run out of steam and development has become the core issue for the electorate. With the tight ethos of discipline in the Congress party and a lack of culture of (…)

• Syndicate of Terrorism and ‘Af-Pak-Ind’

  18 February 2010, by Ninan Koshy

  During his visit to New Delhi in the third week of January, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that the Al-Qaeda had formed a “syndicate” of terrorist groups with Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said that the Al-Qaeda was using proxy terrorist organisations to orch-estrate attacks in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of a broader strategy to destabilise the region. Gates added that the Al-Qaeda was aiming also to provoke a war between (…)

• Wooing our Neighbour?

  18 February 2010, by Priyanka Singh

  The visit by US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, was immensely significant for the India-US strategic partnership, perceived to be shaky under the Obama Administration. Gates’ primary agenda was to clear hurdles in defence ties and bolster negotiations on pending military pacts such as Logistics Support Agreement and similar other agreements. Afghanistan and Pakistan figured prominently in his talks with the Indian establishment. Gates referred the Afghan situation as crucial for regional (…)

• Hind Swaraj: Hundred Years After — How Relevant is it Today?

  18 February 2010, by Jolly M. Kaul

  Introduction
  Hind Swaraj, in a sense Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi’s Manifesto, was written between November 13 and November 22 on board the ship Kildoman Castle on his return trip from England to South Africa in 1909. It is considered Gandhiji’s seminal work, the theoretical basis of his life’s mission. He has said in his own foreword to the English translation:
  ‘These views are mine because I hope to act according to them. They are almost a part of my being… But yet they are not (…)

• Politicising Historiography: True Story of Partition

  18 February 2010, by Subhakanta Behera

  Even after sixty years of partition and independence of India, the historical writings about partition, both professional and amateurish historiography, prove that we are still obsessed with this watershed event of the Indian subcontinent. This is hardly surprising because of its colossal aftermath that still has resonance in individual as well as national life. But notwithstanding its passing under the rubric of history, partition is still discoursed and debated in terms of culpability, (…)

• On ‘Pokhran-II Debate’ in Mainstream

  18 February 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  The manner in which your publication Mainstream of December 5, 2009 has reproduced my article that had appeared in the fortnightly news magazine Frontline of the Hindu Group of Publications, dated September 25, 2009, is upsetting and deeply annoying to say the least. This was clearly with the purpose of publishing alongside the rejoinder to the article by K. Santhanam, Ashok Parthasarathi and P.K. Iyengar. You would agree that it makes proper sense for the authors KS, AP and (…)

• Neo-liberalism, Neo-conservatism and the Inequalities in Education

  18 February 2010, by Michael W. Apple

  The following is a summary of the lecture delivered by Michael W. Apple (Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA) at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, on October 21, 2009. Notes and references have been inserted by the compiler (Vikas Gupta, Assistant Professor of History at Delhi University) with the view to help the reader to pursue further inquiry. The compiler has stated that (…)

• Season of Goof-ups

  18 February 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Call this a season of goof-ups. Yes, one after another. If those goof-ups from R.K. Pachauri manned TERI and IPCC don’t seem to end, there is this one from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Welfare. With that full-blown advertise-ment carrying, besides others, a former Pakistani Air Force chief’s picture. Presumably one of those blunders which could see a couple of heads rolling. But what’s bothering me is: how do these full-page government advertise-ments help in curbing crimes? This (…)

• Opium Trade and Corruption: Manifestations of Afghanistan’s Multidimensional Crisis

  18 February 2010, by Bashir Mohammad

  All efforts to build a sustainable economic infrastructure and functional democracy in Afghanistan are currently under threat from widespread corruption and the sway of illegal drugs in the country. Unless drug-related corruption—which happens to be one of the most intractable problems in the state—is tackled in right earnest in a concerted manner at the levels of both the provincial and district governments, it cannot be rooted out; and the failure to do so would spell disaster as the very (…)