Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Inevitability of Copyright Law?

  16 March 2008, by G Narasimha Raghavan

  BOOK REVIEW
  The Copy/South Dossier: Issues in the Economics, Politics and Ideology of Copyright in the Global South edited by Alan Story, Colin Darch and Debora Halbert; The Copy/South Research Group; Kent; 2006.
  Theological affiliations apart, Mark Twain’s statement—“only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law in the planet”—is too tempting to be refuted, especially for the global South. If not, how can one make sense of most nations’ copyright periods (…)

• Are you Women or Just Representing Husbands and Fathers?

  16 March 2008, by Taslima Nasreen

  The following piece, written by Taslima Nasreen in the nineties, brings out her views on women’s emancipation. Incidentally she is still at an undisclosed location in or near the Capital and not allowed to meet anyone, that is, in virtual imprisonment.
  The other day, a foreign gentleman and I were talking about Bangladesh. He was rather bemused by the fact that Bangladesh had a woman prime Minister. “The women of your country are so liberated that you even have a woman Prime Minister!” he (…)

• A Journalist with a Vision

  16 March 2008, by Surendra Mohan

  TRIBUTE
  Upendra Vajpayee, who passed away last month, was a life-long journalist. After his release from the jail in 1945, he completed his education and joined the profession. His father, Ambika Dutta Vajpayee, was a distinguished freedom fighter with strong Gandhian commitment and also an established journalist and a man of letters. But, the era in which the young Upendra joined the freedom movement had its own heroes in the leaders of the socialist movement, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr (…)

• What is Fundamentalism?

  16 March 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Fundamentalism has become a much-used term today—in politics and in the academia. And there are in vogue various types of the so-called fundamentalists—political, religious and cultural.
  But before cataloguing these various tribes of fundamentalists, it is important to clarify what precisely is meant by fundamentalism. The Oxford English Dictionary says the term, fundamental, pertains to “the basis or groundwork, going to the root of the matter”. But the word “fundamentalism” has a (…)

• Perils of Judicial Activism

  16 March 2008, by Ranbir Singh

  The rise of judicial activism has been rightly described by the Editor-in-Chief of India Today as one of the sixty revolutions in independent India’s sixty-year history. But it could also be viewed as one of the most controversial, if not dangerous, developments in the evolution of the Indian political system. So much so that even the Supreme Court is, as is reflected in the conflicting judgments of various Benches, divided on this issue. Therefore, it is essential to understand the problem (…)

• Tug of War between Judiciary and Parliament : A Burning Question

  16 March 2008, by Narain Dutt

  On August 15, 1947, after ruling the subcontinent for over 200 years, the British surrendered power and India became a free country. India adopted the path of parliamentary democracy. The British parliamentary system left a lasting impress on it; due to the colonial legacy the framers of the Indian Constitution borrowed this system primarily from England.1 The freedom of the judiciary was taken from the USA. The USA did impart considerable power to the judiciary and made the judiciary free (…)

• Death Penalty—State Hate

  16 March 2008, by Sangeeta Mall

  The only files the outgoing President, Dr Abdul Kalam, did not clear were the mercy petitions of 50 prisoners on death row, some of them there for as long as 10 years. Going by the rate at which justice is delivered to these convicts, these files will probably be passed on from the present incumbent to the next one, and so on. The situation of the men and women on death row is akin to the situation of the poor tribal who lives at the mercy of the feudal landlord, always fearing for his life. (…)

• Dera Controversy in Punjab:

  16 March 2008, by Kavaljit Singh

  “Choon kar az hamaan heelte dar guzashat, halaal ast burden ba shamshir dast (When all the modes of redressing a wrong have failed, raising the sword is pious and just),” Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti quoted Guru Gobind Singh, while making a major shift in his stance on the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda.1 The recall of the militant face of the Khalsa and the changed attitude of the Jathedar of Shri Akal Takht Sahib (the head cleric of the highest temporal seat of the Sikh (…)

• In Celebration of Womanhood on March 8

  10 March 2008, by SC

  In the midst of the national euphoria generated by the cricket triumphs recorded by the Indian seniors and U-19 cubs in Australia and Kuala Lumpur we are observing the International Women’s Day on March 8.
  On this occasion one needs to give more than a cursory and one-time attention to the most vital problem relating to womenfolk in general: the subject of ‘missing women’ due to the abhorrent practice of female foeticide (through the use of highly advanced techniques of sex determination (…)

• Is Socialism a Non-Viable Casualty and Capitalism the Only Alternative?

  10 March 2008, by V R Krishna Iyer

  IS THIS BIZARRE BULL OF MARXIST SUPER-PRAGMATIC DISCOVERY A TRAGEDY, TRAVESTY OR ‘HISTORIC BLUNDER’?
  Socialists of India unite! You have nothing to lose except a few crypto-capitalist super-pragmatic Marxists. You have a creative crimson destiny to gain and a billion-strong have-not humanity to win! Why then, do you, sage comrades of Marxian vintage, renege and hug a capitalist sorceries. With a cornucopia of Socialists, Communists, Marxists, rich in daring cadres and leaders committed to (…)