Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• 

  Cameos

  4 November 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS On November 3 this year falls Nikhil Chakravartty’s 95th birth anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce here one of his earliest writings, published under the pseudonym ‘Vanguard’ in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette (September 13, 1941) at the height of World War II. We also carry tributes to his abiding memory by V.R. Krishna Iyer, Muchkund Dubey and Madhu Dandavate following N.C.’s demise; these were published in this journal in July 1998. —Editor
  __3__ It was a wet (…)

• 

  Salutations to a Dear Comrade

  4 November 2008, by V R Krishna Iyer

  TRIBUTE
  What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! Dear Nikhil is dead. Is he? It is blaspheme to say he is dead. He dwells in the hearts of millions within Bharat and all over the globe. ‘Death, be not proud…for those whom thou think’st thou does overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet can’st thou kill them.’
  I am in uncontrollable grief because I cannot accept Nikhil is no more. He has been everywhere, (…)

• 

  Why I Was Drawn To Him

  4 November 2008, by Muchkund Dubey

  I am among numerous others who felt being very close to Nikhilda. He had that remarkable quality, to quote Rabindranath Tagore, “of bringing those who are distant closer to him and making others his brother”. _nwjds djsN vkiu cU/kq] ijds djsN HkkbZ._ I was drawn towards him because of the unbounded personal affection I received from him and because he embodied the qualities I have cherished most in my life. What drew me towards him was his simplicity; his refusal to be impressed by the (…)

• 

  Nikhilda’s Eternal Silence

  4 November 2008, by Madhu Dandavate

  Nikhil Chakravartty, affectionately called by his friends and colleagues as Nikhilda, died on June 27, 1998. He was a veteran journalist, a historian, a scholar, an intellectual with integrity and conviction, a Leftist shorn of dogmatism and, above all, a warm human being with a spirit of understanding and tolerance that helped him evolve a consensus on several controversial issues.
  Nikhilda believed that nothing in the world was the last word in history, which was ever evolving and (…)

• 

  Choking the Workers’ Voice

  4 November 2008, by Gurudas Das Gupta

  Of late, particularly after the countrywide general strike on August 20, a virulent campaign has been launched against the trade unions. They have been accused of obstructing industrialisation, of going on strikes that will scare away investors, cause foreign direct investment to peter out, force foreign institutional investors to disinvest. The campaign, obviously designed to malign the trade unions, has further accused militant unions of holding the country to ransom, destroying job (…)

• 

  The Multipolar Truth of Kandhamal Conflict

  4 November 2008, by K.B.

  The physical terrain of Kandhamal is breathtakingly beautiful. Green hills, clouds, mist and frequent rains add to this beauty. The name Kandhamal means the garland of hills where the Kandhas live. Kandhas, or Khonds, are the original inhabitants of this region. They are dark, muscular, simple. They survive on agriculture and animal husbandry. Nature or prakruti is their religion. They believe the divine does not reside in a temple, mosque, church or any other houses of worship built by man. (…)

• Voyage to the Moon

  27 October 2008, by SC

  October 22 was indeed a memorable day in the annals of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) founded by that outstanding personality, Vikram Sarabhai, who, along with Homi Bhabha, the father of India’s nuclear programme, imparted a new dimension to the country’s space and nuclear research. That morning at 6.22 am India’s moon mission Chandrayan-1 was successfully put into its initial orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) notwithstanding inclement weather at the (…)

• Tatas‘ and Governments’

  27 October 2008, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  In the Singur controversy, the “Save the Land” movement, the Trinamul Congress, and the intellectuals opposing the Tata Motors’ Nano-car project highlighted only two aspects. One was that the project, by virtue of its being sited on arable lands, constituted a threat to food security. The other was that it had a potential for too few jobs (around 350)—that, too, mostly of non-locals—against displacement of locals, several times that number, from their only means of livelihood. That the land (…)

• Terror, Batla House and the Indian Police

  27 October 2008, by K S Subramanian

  Reports on the anti-terror action by the ‘Special Cell’ of the Delhi Police in the Batla House area of Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, on September 19 are shocking indeed. The ‘Special Cell’ had come into adverse public notice on several occasions in the past. The serious human rights violations by the Cell in connection with the Parliament attack case in December 2001 are well known. The corrupt and high-handed head of the Cell, Rajbir Singh, was done to death not very long ago by one of his own (…)

• Collapse of the Financial Institution of American Capitalism

  27 October 2008, by P R Dubhashi

  The first two weeks of September saw the collapse of American giant financial institutions which fell, one after another, like nine pins. Actually earlier in March itself, the fall of Bear Sterns, the third or fourth large bank, itself was an indication of the shape of things to come. The bank was taken over by the American Government but then itself it was feared that the salvage of the bank was not enough and the rot would not stop. Rumours started floating that yet another bank would (…)