Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Mahatma or Dharmatma

  8 October 2008, by K Swaminathan

  The following article, which appeared in Mainstream Annual 1988, was an abridged version of the author’s article in Employment News from where it was reproduced with due acknowledgement.
  Gandhiji was a good man and his greatness grew out of his goodness. His dream was that India too should become great (if it was destined to become great) through the steady, conscious pursuit of goodness, not through muscular, monetary, mental, military or any other power. It is true that no man in history (…)

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  Gandhiji—Missing Nobel Peace Laureate

  8 October 2008, by A K Dasgupta

  The question why Gandhiji was never chosen for the Nobel Prize came to the fore again when Geir Lundestad, the permanent Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, after the announcement of the 2006 award to Muhammad Yunus and the Gramin Bank of Bangladesh, observed, “Our record is far from perfect and not giving Mahatma Gandhi the Nobel Prize was the biggest omission”.1 A candid admission indeed! On an earlier occasion, a similar sentiment was expressed by Equil Aarvik, the Chairman of the (…)

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  How Gandhi’s Ideas can Help to Combat Globalisation related Threats

  8 October 2008, by Bharat Dogra

  An interesting and significant aspect of the freedom movement in India was that along with the struggle against colonial rule, vigorous efforts were made to find an alternative path of development. While several people in India were eager to ‘develop’ as much as the British and later some others wanted to industrialise as rapidly as the Soviets, there were others who kept alive the concept of small and cottage-scale development to be based in largely self-reliant rural communities.
  This (…)

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  Contesting Postmodern Notion of Truth through Gandhian Vision of Satya

  8 October 2008, by Upasana Pandey

  “Instead of pursuing the truth we should try to pave the way for construction of the truth.” F.W. Nietzsche1
  “Truth is not something which might be found or discovered, but something that must be created”. F.W. Nietzsche2
  “We have to live today by what we can get today, and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood”. William James3
  “It has no relevance for saying or judging what is truth or just”. Jean Francois Lyotard4
  With the postmodern turn, Truth became a dirty word, and (…)

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  Democracy and Self-Representation

  8 October 2008, by Vivek Kumar

  After intense political debate it has been decided that for the first time in the 218-year old US democracy a Black will be contesting for the prestigious presidential elections. Is it out of blue that the world’s “most developed democracy”, the US, is going to choose its first Black President or is this a new stage in the evolution of US democracy? If the latter is true, then US democracy is moving up and reaching a higher level. This means it has created an atmosphere in which the excluded (…)

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  Report on Encounter in Jamia Nagar

  8 October 2008

  The following is the report of a team (set up by Jan Hastakshep, Campaign against Fascist Designs and People’s Union for Democratic Rights) which undertook a fact-finding exercise into the alleged encounter at Batla House in the Capital’s Jamia Nagar on September 19, 2008. The following is the report of the fact-finding team which carried out the exercise on September 21, 2008. The members of team were Dr N.K Bhattacharya (Jan Hastakshep), Shahana Bhattacharya (PUDR), Ish Misra (Jan (…)

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  Interim Report of Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact-Finding Mission to Kandhamal (Orissa)

  8 October 2008

  The following is the Interim Report of the Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact-finding Mission to Kandhamal (Orissa). The team visited the area from September 15 to 18, 2008. This was released at a press conference in New Delhi on September 25, 2008.
  Orissa has been in the news in recent years because of the people’s movements against the mega projects in Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri, Lanjhigrah, Jagatsinghpur and Paradip which have contributed to large scale displacement of people. (…)

• Two Incidents

  1 October 2008, by SC

  Following the encounter at Batla House in the Capital’s Jamia Nagar on September 19 (that saw two terrorists being gunned down while an Inspector of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell was critically wounded and subsequently succumbed to his injuries, and another alleged terrorist was arrested) the Delhi Police has made tall claims of having ‘solved’ the case of the serial terror blasts in the Capital on 9/13. Responsible citizens have highlighted the fact that what the police has been saying (…)

• Crisis on Wall Street and India

  1 October 2008, by Girish Mishra

  Notwithstanding the soothing words of the Indian Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, the Indian economy is in for a great deal of trouble. Looking back at the Great Depression of 1929-33 when the Indian economy was not so much integrated with the world economy as it is now, India’s rural population suffered in an unprecedented manner. During those days very few people in the villages of Bihar and UP could tell you about America and its geographical location. Yet, the slump in agricultural (…)

• UPA Should Not be Myopic to World Events

  1 October 2008, by M K Bhadrakumar

  If diplomacy is a lot about timing, the “Malabar Exercises” have been most crudely timed. Our diplomats should have known that issues of war and peace are hanging by a thread.
  The times seem to have changed in South Block. There was a time not too long ago when the Ministry of External Affairs needed to give political clearance to interactions—all major and most minor ones—involving our armed forces with foreign countries. Maybe, with a Congress party stalwart with a Gandhian slant at the (…)