Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Minor Nandigrams of Uttarakhand

  27 April 2008, by Harish Chandola

  The Uttarakhand government is acquiring land all over the State for building, expanding and renewing 98 hydropower projects. With this large-scale activity it seeks to make the State a major powerhouse. Most of these will be, what is called, run-of-the-river projects, generating power from the flow of rivers, without building dams on them. The tiny state will not need all this energy. It will be to promote market economy.
  Waters of almost 90 rivers, big and small, including the Alaknanda, (…)

• A Shelter in the Tempest of History

  27 April 2008, by Terry Eagleton

  Far from being dead, socialism is as relevant as it’s ever been—its task being to resist the fascism, mayhem and savagery resulting from the inevitable crises of the inherently unstable and self-destructive system of global capitalism.
  The soothsayer seeks to predict the future in order to control it. He peers into the entrails of a social system so as to decipher the omens, which will assure its rulers that their profits are safe and the system will endure. These days, he is generally an (…)

• Critique of Neo-classical Economics

  27 April 2008, by P R Dubhashi

  Like all academic disciplines, economics has also been continuously engaged in the examination of its definition, nature, scope and significance. This article seeks to give an overview of this from Classical Economics to modern times.
  Classical Economics
  THE foundations of Economics, more appropriately known as political economy in those days, were laid by the “classical economists” in the wake of rise of industrial capitalism in Great Britain (1760-1820). Adam Smith’s “Enquiry into the (…)

• Metaphor of the Centaur

  27 April 2008, by Rakesh Gupta

  BOOK REVIEW
  The Raj Syndrome by Suhas Chakravarty; Rupa & Co, New Delhi; 2007; pages: 401; price: Rs 395.
  As one proceeded to read the book, a metaphor materialised to understand the layers of reality behind the flourish of literary cuisine this work is on British imperial sensibility and Indian detachments. The metaphor is that of the Centaur. It is not because of the grand monumental floor-to-ceiling sight of it at the ground floor of the British Museum or even the Machiavellian (…)

• Cultural Heterogeneity and Exclusion in India

  27 April 2008, by Vivek Kumar

  For some politicians it is difficult to understand India’s diversity and appreciate it too. The lesson taught in our school days that there exists ‘unity in diversity’ in Indian society is taught even today in our schools and colleges. Although the slogan emerged at a particular point in time yet it is as relevant as it used to be in the past. However, very few know the basis of this ‘unity of diversity’ contained in this slogan, which was coined by British historian Vincent Smith and later (…)

• Should the Meaning of India Change?

  27 April 2008, by T J S George

  Arun Jaitley, named Senapati of the BJP’s akshauhinis, has visited his troops. S.M. Krishna, appointed charioteer of the Congress armies, has inspected his field formations. The conches have finally sounded announcing the order of battle.
  Kurukshetra is all set. So who is planning what chakravyuhas? We can safely leave the Congress and JD(S) alone for the moment. They plan nothing new. One will be busy with self-destructive faction fights, the other with the nanotechnology of separating (…)

• Politics of Protest in the Global Context

  27 April 2008, by Dev N Pathak

  Instances of assent and dissent to the relay of the Olympic torch, along with the protests in the European streets and one in India, reminds us once again that protest is one of the effective arsenals ‘we the people’ have at our disposal to articulate the tacit as well as repressed. In the wider gamut of discourse, organised as well as otherwise, protest acquires dubious distinctions. It is not so simple as some Members of Parliament walking out in protest, or in an organised manner bringing (…)

• Politics and Economics of Sugar

  27 April 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The government had an awkward time facing an angry Parliament on the sugar price scandal. Although the adjournment motion could be defeated by the government in the Lok Sabha by the sheer force of its brute majority, it was clear to the members of the Treasury Benches that in the wider arena of general public all over the country has come the perception that not only mismanagement but sufficient black money deals might be involved in it to graduate the scandal into the category of a scam. (…)

• Lest We Forget

  27 April 2008

  Several noted personalities have left us in the last few months. We offer our sincere homage to their abiding memory.
  P.N. JALALI, born in 1926 in Srinagar, was a self-effacing freedom fighter attracted to the national movement drawing inspiration from the legendary Bhagat Singh’s heroic exploits. As with many other freedom fighters in the Kashmir Valley, he was soon to join the communist struggle for independence as an integral part of the national movement; but what distinguished him (…)

• Rising Commodity Prices overrides Collapse of the Share Market

  27 April 2008, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  We should not get too worried due to the collapse of the share markets. The immediate reason is the huge losses incurred by the American bank, Bear Sterns. This bank had aggressively given massive loans to persons with weak credit ratings known as ‘sub-prime’ borrowers. These loans went into default and the bank incurred huge losses. The bank stopped getting new business while old clients rushed to withdraw their monies. This forced the bank to sell its assets like shares at low prevailing (…)