Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• China’s Generation ’One-Child’

  16 October 2007, by Gunjan Singh

  The One-Child policy was introduced in China in the year 1979 by Deng Xiaoping with the ambition that it will help in strengthening the economic policies introduced by him. He believed that economic policies would help in making China a stronger nation. Enough has been written and debated over the positives and the negatives of this policy from almost all the perspectives that are available. But the primary focus of this paper is to look into the generation ‘one-child’ of China.
  The (…)

• Who Partitioned India?

  16 October 2007, by K V S Rama Sarma

  Book Review
  The Shades of Great Game: The Untold Story of India’s Partition by Narendra Singh Sarila; Harper Collins Publishers India, New Delhi; pp. 116; Rs 500.
  How did India’s partition come about? This question has bothered many an Indian and political leader. The matter is so complex, the characters involved were so important and the forces at work were so diverse and powerful that so far no one has been able to answer this controversial question convincingly. Narendra Singh (…)

• After Years of Fruitless Sanctions, Time for Effective Cooperation

  16 October 2007, by Julien Levesque

  On October 5, 2007, the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, pushed for UN sanctions against Myanmar, while Western representatives were circulating a draft statement for a UN resolution. This brings up the question of the available means to pressurise the Burmese junta towards democracy, as well as that of the efficiency of sanctions.
  A Long History of Sanctions
  In reaction to the recent bloody repression, the European Union and the United States have pushed towards UN sanctions (…)

• Myanmar’s Silent Revolution

  16 October 2007, by Sonu Trivedi

  The Burmese social and political structure, based on paternalistic authority, is inconsistent with democracy’s reliance on equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and assembly, and representative institutions. With its emphasis on hierarchy and status, the Burmese political culture is not conducive to democracy. For almost all of its history, Burma has been ruled by autocratic monarchs and military leaders. Burma’s only experience with democracy was a short period under the 1947 (…)

• Woefully Inadequate

  9 October 2007, by SC

  Last week in these columns was published an appeal from the Mizzima journal, a monthly publication of Burmese expatriates, in its September issue, that instead of cosying up to the Burmese Generals ruling Myanmar with employment of brute force and terror, “India should look to winning the hearts of the Burmese people”.
  Thereafter it was written:
  As the democratic protests in Rangoon and other Burmese cities and towns acquire an all-encompassing character and one is uncertain of the (…)

• An Alternate Approach to the Traditional Paradigm of Peace and Security

  9 October 2007, by M Hamid Ansari

  I deem it a privilege to be invited to inaugurate today’s seminar on “Politics and Security”, it being the third theme of the Indo-Bangladesh Dialogue. The dialogue itself has been in progress now for over a decade; more importantly, it has retained its autonomous character and has brought together persons of diverse political persuasions and intellectual backgrounds. It is a credible manifes-tation of civil society interaction between the two countries.
  I subscribe to the view that (…)

• Choice between Quadrilateral of Democracies and SCO

  9 October 2007, by Mansoor Ali

  Washington is not interested in New Delhi’s official admission to the nuclear power club because that would enhance the latter’s influence in international affairs. An important objective of the Americans in the region is to turn India into a major factor capable of counterbalancing a rapidly growing China. In order to reduce the SCO’s role and influence in the region and to promote realisation of the American concept of a “Greater Central Asia”, Tokyo and Washington are trying to drag New (…)

• Why We Oppose Indo-US Nuclear Deal

  9 October 2007, by Gurudas Das Gupta

  The Indian Constitution does not provide for parliamentary approval of an international treaty as of today. In a democratic set-up change of guard is inevitable, but the treaty remains in force binding the nation for decades. If a wrong is done, it cannot be undone for long and the nation has to pay the price, maybe, in perpetuity. That is why a democratic government, unlike an autocratic regime, must seek a broad consensus before committing the nation to a foreign country. It cannot be left (…)

• Indo-US Agreement on Civil Nuclear Energy

  9 October 2007, by Surendra Mohan

  Two years ago, this journal had cautioned our compatriots against falling into the American trap by getting allured of the dream of becoming a great power under her patronage. That was when Pranab Mukherjee, the then Defence Minister, had visited the USA on an exploratory visit, as he described it. However, he returned after affixing his signature to a ten-year long Strategic Defence Agreement. The UPA Government’s record during the past two years has been that the Prime Minister is the (…)

• Bhagat Singh as I knew Him

  9 October 2007, by Ajoy Ghosh

  Legendary freedom fighter and martyr Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary was observed on September 28 last week. We are reproducing the following articles (published earlier in Mainstream) in homage to the outstanding revolutionary hero’s abiding memory. He was and remains to this day a source of inspiration for our youth. The first piece carries excerpts from Ajoy Ghosh’s Bhagat Singh and His Comrades (published in Bombay, 1945); a close associate of Bhagat Singh, Ajoy Ghosh was implicated in (…)