Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Subjective Obsessions diminish Quality of Historical Analysis

  11 October 2009, by K.P. Fabian

  BOOK REVIEW
  Jinnah: India-Partition Independence by Jaswant Singh; Rupa and Company, New Delhi; pages 669; Rs 695.
  As I completed the enjoyable navigation through the ponderous, pompous, and pontificatory prose of Jaswant Singh, I was reminded of three other famous writers:
  Oscar Wilde: The only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
  Benedetto Croce: All historiography is contemporary historiography.
  Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to (…)

• Reply: Private versus Public Purpose

  11 October 2009, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  I am grateful to Ms Vasudha Dhagamwar for raising a debate about the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2009 [‘On Opposition to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill’ by Vasudha Dhagamwar, Mainstream (September 19, 2009)—a rejoinder to my ‘Why We Must Oppose the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill of 2009’, Mainstream (August 14, 2009)]. It is only through the clash of ideas that new ideas are born.
  To take her “small matter” first, I received a copy of the Bill from the Ministry of (…)

• Crisis from the Balkans to Caucasus: Munich Speech to Reset Button

  11 October 2009, by Younes Bhat

  This article was written before the latest declaration of US President Barack Obama reversing the missile defence system that has been welcomed by Russian PM Vladimir Putin.
  The declaration of independence by the Kosovo Assembly in the Muslim majority region of Serbia, on February 17, 2008, has posed serious challenges before the world community. This declaration received conflicting reactions from the international community and is strongly opposed by Serbia which continues to claim (…)

• Gandhi should have Led a Nationwide Movement to Save Bhagat Singh

  11 October 2009, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  In the important debate in Mainstream on Gandhiji’s efforts to save the life of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru (the latest contribution to which has appeared in the September 12, 2009 issue), various points of view have been well articulated. Some participants in the debate have said that Gandhiji made as much effort as he could under the circumstances, while some have said that he failed to make adequate effort.
  However, my view is that the issue of saving the (…)

• At Pittsburgh and New York

  5 October 2009, by SC

  The G-20 summit at Pittsburgh has no doubt succeeded in taking on the role and mantle of the G-8 as per its declaration but what has it achieved in concrete terms? By announcing that there will be no premature withdrawal of the stimulus package it, of course, underscored the importance that the summiteers attached to the short-term recovery from the global financial and economic disaster; but in the absence of a decisive move towards financial sector reforms any breakthrough eluded the (…)

• Need for a New Economic System

  5 October 2009, by P.B. Sawant

  Amidst the whirlwind of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, the main casualty is man. Not that he was ever at the centre-stage after the industrial revolution with capitalism in the saddle. But he had still the power to resist its inhuman onslaught through unionisation. Globalisation, which is the present incarnation of the capitalism and its end product, imperialism, has snuffed out even that little opposition with the national government obeying the dictates of the (…)

• President Obama’s Landmark Initiative towards World Peace and Security

  5 October 2009, by Muchkund Dubey

  In human history, the discovery of an offensive weapon has each time been followed by the quest for a defensive weapon against it. Moreover, offensive weapons can also serve the purpose of defence and the same weapon can and has been used for both offensive and defensive purposes. All this is true of nuclear weapons also. Attempts to build defences against missiles commenced as early as in the 1960s. The first step in this direction was the launching of anti-satellite weapons of one kind or (…)

• Gandhi’s Words in Present Context

  5 October 2009

  (On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s one hundred and fortieth birth anniversary on October 2 this year, we reproduce his following unforgettable words that are of abiding relevance in the current scenario.) The purity of my striving will be put to the test only now. Today, I find myself all alone. Even the Sardar and Jawaharlal think that my reading of the political situation is wrong and peace is sure to return if partition is agreed upon. They did not like my telling the Viceroy that even (…)

• Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today

  5 October 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of diffe-rent denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which will spread over a whole year.
  The Congress party is holding a meeting of its highest organ, the Working Committee, the very same week at Belgaum, at the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra—this again to mark the (…)

• Deep Transpersonal Ecology: Gandhian Connection

  5 October 2009, by C M Bhandari

  As history unfolds a trend is clearly visible that beyond a critical point simple patchwork solutions to some of our basic problems do not work. The only course then is either to accept the fate accompli or seek a holistic purposeful approach. The wisdom to see things in correct proportion and perspective has often been shown by few men and women of vision. The need to re-examine issues of sensitive nature in the right perspective, and use, as and when necessary, the elements of available (…)