Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Future of Dissent in the Anthropocene

  31 March 2019

  by Upendra Baxi
  The following is the text of the Second Rabi Ray Memorial Lecture. Professor Upendra Baxi was to have delivered the lecture but due to his indisposition which prevented him from attending the memorial meeting in New Delhi, it was read out by Professor Manoranjan Mohanty at the meeting on March 6, 2019.
  May I begin by warmly thanking Professor (Dr) Manoranjan Mohanty, the Rabi Ray Memorial Committee and Lohia Academy for their kind invitation to deliver this address (…)

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  Poll Campaign, Parrikar, Christchurch Carnage

  23 March 2019, by SC

  With the campaign for the 17th Lok Sabha polls in full swing, the parties in the electoral fray, primarily the BJP and Congress, are trading charges against each other with gusto.
  In the midst of this campaign former Defence Minister and present Goa CM Manohar Parrikar breathed his last on March 16 having lost his year- long battle with pancreatic cancer. He played a major role in building the BJP in the State having been nurtured by the RSS since his youth. And as The Times of India (…)

• Bhagat Singh as I knew Him | Ajoy Ghosh

  23 March 2019

  On the occasion of the eightyeighth anniversary of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom on March 23 this year, we are reproducing the following article (published last year in Mainstream) in homage to the legendary revolutionary’s abiding memory. He was executed along with Sukhdev and Rajguru in Lahore on March 23, 1931. He was and remains to this day a source of inspiration for our youth. This article carries excerpts from what Ajoy Ghosh had written in his book, Bhagat Singh and His Comrades (…)

• Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh: Concept and Vision of Freedom

  23 March 2019

  by Mansavi Patyar
  India achieved complete emancipation from British rule after a lot of hassle. This struggle for independence was flagged by numerous freedom fighters who not only sacrificed their personal happiness but their precious lives too. They dedicated themselves without even giving a single thought to their personal well-being. Such great leaders not only ensured our freedom but also inspired the youth of the present time. The names of some of such famous leaders are Subhas (…)

• Dissecting the Silence: Mahatma Gandhi and Congress on Bhagat Singh’s Martyrdom

  23 March 2019

  by Saurav Kumar Rai
  There are several ‘myths’ pertaining to modern Indian history and India’s struggle for independence. While some of these myths were created by the colonial state itself to weaken the ongoing independence movement, some of them were constructed out of vested political interests in post-independence India. One such powerful myth is regarding Mahatma Gandhi’s alleged silence on the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. It should be noted that Bhagat Singh and two of (…)

• Elections 2019: India at Crossroads

  23 March 2019

  by Ram Puniyani
  Elections in a democracy can rightly be called a festival of the masses. They determine the course of the country in times to come. That is generally the case and Indian democracy has been steering this path, deepening the democratic process so far. It is not that there are no problems. Many issues related to money power, muscle power, EVM machines’ reliability have marred the objectivity of the process. A newer dimension to the hindrance in the march towards a substantive (…)

• Stocktaking after the Ordeal

  23 March 2019, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following is another piece written by N.C. during the 1965 Indo-Pak War. This constituted the author’s New Delhi Skyline written soon after the ceasefire on September 23, 1965.
  An ordeal by fire is not necessarily the best moment to expect a chastened mood in a nation. The upheaval through which New Delhi has just passed could hardly be expected to restore immediately the balance needed for a sternly objective appraisal of the six stormy weeks that preceded the (…)

• Rethinking India - Pakistan Relations

  23 March 2019, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The heretical political thinker of our time, Michel Foucault, explored the correlation of modern politics and war in his writings. The editors of a recent book on Foucault argued that in re-making politics, the modern age also re-made war. In interpreting Foucault’s writings on war, they observed: “The implication is that war is not simply an attribute of the state but related to historical processes of modern identity formation and the modern constitution of political subjectivity as well.” (…)

• Peace Conference in Pakistan calls for De-escalation and Nuclear CBMs

  23 March 2019

  The following is a press release issued on March 9, 2019 by Imtiaz Alam, Secretary-General, South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), about a peace conference held in Lahore.
  Peace activists from across civil society at a peace conference in Lahore, convened by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) and Progressive Writers Association, called for strategic restraint, obser-vance of ceasefire across the (…)

• Growth or Well-being In a 21st Century New Order

  23 March 2019, by Kobad Ghandy

  (This is another article that the well-known Marxist Maoist thinker, Kobad Ghandy, sent to us from the Hazaribagh Central Jail in Jharkhand where he is currently lodged. He completed this article on March 1, 2019 and thereafter sent it to us. We are publishing as soon as we received it for the benefit of our readers.)
  It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system; for, if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow (…)