Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Credit Cards Under Discredit

  9 April 2009, by Era Sezhiyan

  A credit card named after the small plastic card issued enables its holder to buy goods and services based on the holders’ promise to pay for those goods and services. In this system, the issuer of the cards, whether a Bank or Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), grants a line of credit to the user from which the user borrows money for payment to the vendor and thus it becomes cash advance to the user. Normally, the purchases made by the card holder are to be paid in full each month. The (…)

• Development as Swaraj: A Vision for a Just Society

  9 April 2009, by Rehman Sobhan

  The original call for Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi a century ago sought freedom for India from colonial domination by the British. This call for Swaraj was intended for a geographical space known as India but for the millions of ordinary people who lived under condition of unfreedom in India. Some 40 years later South Asia attained Swaraj through the emergence of three independent nation-states of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Today, a century later South Asia is home to seven independent (…)

• On the Centenary of Hind Swaraj

  9 April 2009, by A K Biswas

  COMMUNICATION
  Debabrata Bandyopadhyay has brought to bear his characteristic clarity and depth in analysing Gandhiji’s Hind Swaraj (Mainstream, March 7, 2009), which touches millions’ heart even after a century. Gandhiji’s views on mass education, however, were, in contrast, marked unfortunately by narrow vision, if not by sheer orthodoxy. With due respect for his gigantic stature and epic struggles for freedom, we are constrained to place the record straight. To drive the point home, let (…)

• Contours of Crack-up

  9 April 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Tension is mounting day by day as the parties are gearing up for the election campaign. Even before any clear picture of the alignment of parties could emerge, there are ominous signs of violence threatening to break out as the campaign gets going.
  On the very same day that Charan Singh had to face repeated disruption of his meetings in Madhya Pradesh, Indira Gandhi had to encounter violent attacks in North Bihar. Both have charged their immediate opponents for the attacks: Charan (…)

• Indo-EU Free Trade Agreement: Should India Open Up Banking Sector?

  9 April 2009, by Kavaljit Singh

  Since 2007, India and the European Union (EU) are negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA). The negotiations not only cover trade in goods but also services, rules pertaining to intellectual property rights, cross-border investments, competition policy, government procurement and regulatory issues.
  The EU as a bloc is India’s largest trading partner. The EU accounts for around one-fifth of India’s total trade (23 per cent in 2007) whereas India contributes around 1.8 per cent of the (…)

• Remembering Rammanohar Lohia: The Che of Non-Violence

  9 April 2009, by Niranjan Ramakrishnan

  The June 9, 1964 issue of Student Voice (published in Atlanta, GA), the newspaper of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee), carried the following news report:
  JACKSON, MISS.—A member of India’s Parliament was twice refused service at a Morrison’s cafeteria here, and was escorted away by police, the second time in a patrol wagon. On both occasions May 27-28, Dr Rammanohar Lohia was accompanied by White persons and was dressed in native garb. Lohia was here visiting integrated (…)

• Rally behind Mallika Sarabhai in her Fight against Communal Fascism

  9 April 2009

  The following are statements from individuals and organisations endorsing the candidature for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat of noted danseuse and cultural personality Mallika Sarabhai against BJP leader L.K. Advani.
  We support the candidature of Ms Mallika Sarabhai, distinguished danseuse of international renown, for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Ms Sarabhai hails from the area, and enjoys considerable reputation among the artistic and cultural fraternity (…)

• Impact of US Stand on World Economic Crisis

  9 April 2009, by Benjamin Todd

  It is by now clear that the US authorities are not going to support or promote any solutions to the global economic crisis that diminish their role in the world financial system. International financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF are still being used by Washington to punish or encourage specific countries. The US does not want the supervision and control of the global economy to slip from its grasp.
  The highly egocentric attitude of the US in the context of the current (…)

• Pitfalls of Toeing the US Line

  2 April 2009, by SC

  The policy of rapprochement with Washington, as has been steadfastly pursued by PM Manmohan Singh, has alienated large sections of the people from the principal ruling party, the Indian National Congress. Though the Congress spokesmen publicly defend this policy, the party itself is not going all out to highlight it in the election campaign.
  The fact is that the economic reforms, implemented by the US favourites, Manmohan and P. Chidambaram in particular, have accentrated negative (…)

• Sri Lanka: Human Rights under Attack

  2 April 2009, by Apratim Mukarji

  As Sri Lanka’s long-drawn civil war is drawing to a close, human rights abuses by both the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are reaching unprecedented proportions.
  In a telling commentary on the status of Sri Lanka’s human rights situation, the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions in December 2007 downgraded the accreditation of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Sri Lanka after it was established (…)