Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Secular Outlook

  31 May 2007, by Rafiq Zakaria

  Jawaharlal Nehru while in power, it must be conceded, could not implement many of his ideas which he so passionately advocated when fighting against the British during our freedom struggle. He himself admitted:
  Some years earlier I would not have been so hesitant. There was a definiteness about my thinking and objectives then, which has faded away since and events of the past few years in India, China, Europe and all over the world have been confusing, upsetting and distressing, and the (…)

• Nehru’s Dream of Socialism

  31 May 2007, by Mahasweta Devi

  Jawaharlal Nehru was, in the truest sense, the builder of modern India. He saw the naked poverty and hunger of the Indian people and registered his protest through his lectures in meetings throughout the country, and through his writings against the British Government. He was a true national leader.
  “Nationalism of the modern type,” as Jawaharlal pointed out, “was yet to come. India had still to go through much sorrow and travail before she learnt the lesson which would give her real (…)

• The Ethos of Jawaharlal

  31 May 2007, by Mulk Raj Anand

  Destination Man was the ideal of advance for our people, which Jawaharlal Nehru put forward in one of his earliest speeches in Parliament after our freedom.
  Growing from within the two worlds of Asia and the West, aware of the heritage of ruin of feudal wars, imperial hegemonies and two big bloodbaths of the world, he wanted, specially the freed peoples of the ex-colonies, to emerge into a world without war, in a hundred years of peace—by which he meant peace forever.
  And (…)

• Cultures and Vultures : Wake-up Call from Vadodara

  31 May 2007, by Madanjeet Singh

  Secular artists, writers, painters, dramatists, and film directors have increasingly become the main targets of both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists (who are nicknamed ‘fundoos’ by the writer Githa Hariharan). Arrest warrants were issued against Richard Gere, who has been doing sterling work in the HIV-AIDS campaign in India, and Shilpa Shetty for a public kiss, because a Magistrate in Jaipur decided that the kiss was “sexually erotic”. It is estimated that 27 million such cases are (…)

• Validity of Nehru

  31 May 2007, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  This week free India mourns afresh the passing of its chief architect. The events of last the three years, and particularly the new situation thrown up by the Fourth General Election, have only helped to underline the continuing validity of Jawaharlal Nehru’s ideas and general direction of approach to the task of building a socialist India.
  In what amounts to a fitting anniversary-eve tribute, even those who, yielding to pressures from big business and foreign influences, had chosen (…)

• Behind Mayawati’s Spectacular Success

  19 May 2007, by SC

  The UP Assembly elections have indeed produced amazing results that have surprised most observers barring of course the real victor, Mayawati. However, it needs to be pointed out that one Dalit political leader of a Left party had forecast such a resounding, comprehensive and phenomenal victory for Mayawati’s BSP based on his interactions with officials capable of feeling the pulse of the people at large unlike the mediapersons and pollsters whose predictions and ‘surveys’ (of not only a (…)

• Diversion of Crops and Small Farmers

  19 May 2007, by Chaturanan Mishra

  There is much talk in the government circles about the diversion of crops to increase the income of farmers. The traditional growing of rice and wheat does not give high prices. If instead vegetables and fruits are grown these will fetch higher prices and these have a foreign market. It is said that in our country also people are increasingly taking more vegetables and fruits instead of grains. This statement is supported by the report of the National Sample Survey, according to which, the (…)

• Our Democratic Pretensions

  19 May 2007, by Suhas Palshikar

  The vandalism at MS University and the abject complicity of the university authorities in the episode are a sad sign of the failure to expand democracy to our civil and social lives. But before the MS University controversy arose, a small news item appeared in sections of the media and then died down without much attention from the media and intellectuals alike.
  This concerned the infamous controversy over a reference to Shivaji Maharaj in James Lane’s book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic (…)

• Cricket and India’s Soft-power Miscarriages

  19 May 2007, by Bhartendu Kumar Singh

  The early exit of our ‘Team India’ from the World Cup show in Caribbean Islands has jolted the billion-strong nation. No one had expected that cricket, which is as the most popular street game in India and has engendered household names like Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dhoni, would be a source of embarrassment for a rising country in global politics. That the defeat has come from our small backyard neighbours makes the embarrassment all the more enduring.
  However, realists in the sports world (…)

• Appeal To The Indian Left From A Progressive Pakistani: Evolve Alternative Paradigm of Economic Growth

  19 May 2007, by M.B. Naqvi

  The following is what the author wanted to present at a meeting in Karachi when the leaders of the two Indian CPs—the CPI and CPM—visited Pakistan in the recent past. —Editor
  I intend to ask a few questions to you. But first the perspective in which I am talking.
  The international order as it has developed since the 1990s has been profoundly disturbing. I am sure you will share my overall assessment of a unipolar world in which one nation possesses far too much military strength and (…)