Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Union Home Minister

  9 February 2008

  Hon’ble Home Minister,
  We, the undersigned, are highly concerned about the health and well being of Ms Taslima Nasreen who is for the last three months being kept in a virtual detention in a secret place in Delhi. We are equally concerned about the implications of the treatment being meted out to her, for the values of freedom, human rights and human dignity enshrined in the Indian Constitution and for the international image and prestige of India as a democratic state founded on the (…)

• Taslima Is No Mean Prisoner

  9 February 2008, by V R Krishna Iyer

  Venerable Prime Minister,
  I was pained to read about Madam Taslima Nasrin suffering de facto solitary confinement and remaining in incommunicado in the proud Indian Republic which promises to every citizen free speech, freedom of association, free movement and, above all, the right to life with dignity and security. You are the statesman Prime Minister under this great Constitution.
  Taslima is no mean prisoner but a fine person with independent judgment of a high order, even if her (…)

• In Gandhian Mould

  26 January 2008, by SC

  Fiftyeight years have passed since our first Republic Day when we gave ourselves a Constitution and turned the country into a Republic that ensured the consolidation of the independence we had won two-and-a-half years prior to January 26, 1950 as a consequence of the manifold strenuous struggles undertaken and extraordinary hardships endured by our freedom fighters led by that exceptional personality, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, in their bid to shake off the foreign yoke. It is thus time for (…)

• The Economic South : Economic Wars or Economic Peace?

  26 January 2008, by Devaki Jain

  Before leaving for China on January 13th this year, 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “Our bilateral relations are now poised to enter a vibrant and dynamic phase, based on a common recognition that the growth and development of both India and China will make positive and long-term contributions to regional and global peace, security and stability.” Later the Joint statement issued by the two leaders, eloquently titled “A Shared Vision for the 21st Century”, states that “the two (…)

• Letter to PM on his Trip to China

  26 January 2008, by V R Krishna Iyer

  Venerable Prime Minister,
  I have never regarded you as a mere politician, but ever considered you as a sheer statesman, but with basic differences. Your recent visit to China, if the media reports are correct, demonstrates your national vision which is liberal enough to treat close friendship with our great neighbour, China, an integral part of foreign policy and international alliance. India, China and Russia, if they stand together as a fraternal trinity, will be a force for global (…)

• Measuring the Colossus

  26 January 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The Republic of India is now thirtyeight years old. It has weathered many a storm and has come to be recognised as a functioning democracy. The tremendous interest of the voter to exercise his right to vote is taken as proof of the enduring quality of our democracy. From this phenomenon, our Prime Minister seems to have drawn the conclusion that an unlettered electorate has a wider vision, a broader outlook. According to him, literacy “does more to narrow the vision than it does to widen (…)

• More to Gandhi and Gandhism

  26 January 2008, by Abu Abraham

  On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom (January 30, 1948) we reproduce the following pieces that appeared in Mainstream exactly 20 years ago on January 26, 1988 when both Abu and N.C. were in our midst.
  I have just noticed something about the way we Indians have reacted to Gandhiji in the last forty years since his death. I think it’s just like the way we have taken the Fairfax Commission report, or may be like the judgement of the five-member Bench of the (…)

• Reflections on January 30

  26 January 2008, by Arvind Bhandari

  “Scarcely will future generations believe that such a man in flesh and blood walked upon the Earth.” Thus spoke Albert Einstein, whose name will always be remembered as one of the greatest scientists in human history, about Mahatma Gandhi. Ironically, and most unfortunately, Einstein’s path-breaking discovery of the theory of Relativity (Energy=Speed of Light x time) also led to the greatest crime in human history—the manufacture of the Atom Bomb.
  Mahatmaji—he was born in Gujarat and his (…)

• Should Bihar be Developed on a Gandhian Model?

  26 January 2008, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  Bihar has been through too much glory and too much ignominy not to be a sociologist’s or a political thinker’s puzzle. It proves a simple point that glory or prosperity is never permanent and can be lost by negligence or complacency. Does it also prove the opposite that a glory lost can be regained? It is difficult but not unachieveable.
  History does not offer too much hope. If we look at Greece and Rome, both at the pinnacle of the European civilisation (best described as Greco Roman) (…)

• Why the Nuclear Energy Path is Suicidal

  26 January 2008, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  Dr Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister, was at his compromising worst when he clubbed nuclear energy with the solar as the necessary energy path. At the Indian Science Congress’ inaugural session on January 3 this year, he declared that the nuclear, the solar and clean coal technologies, would have important contributions to make to the country’s energy security. This is a stock phrase, riven by inner contradictions, taught by the US power elite. It is fraught with confusion and a potential (…)