Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Truth of ‘Capitalist Truth’

  2 September 2018

  by Binoy Viswam
  While presiding over the founding conference of the AITUC in 1920, the legendary freedom fighter, Lala Lajpat Rai, classified truth into two—one, the workers’ truth and the other, the capitalist truth. That classification remains valid even after 98 years. In the present day Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the apt person to be termed as the classical exponent of capitalist truth. From his Sangh Parivar school of fascist propaganda he has mastered the skill of depicting the (…)

• Parliamentarianism in India: Remembering A.B. Vajpayee and Somnath Chatterjee

  2 September 2018

  by Pratip Chatterjee
  Former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee passed away on August 13, 2018 and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee passed away on August 16, 2018. This article attempts to highlight the parliamentary ethics they demonstrated in their political and public careers, something exemplary in contemporary India.
  Introduction
  Indian parliamentary democracy has come a long way since independence with the effect that a post-colonial indigenous form of (…)

• August 15, 1947: When Indians were Celebrating Independence, RSS was Mourning

  2 September 2018, by Shamsul Islam

  August 15, 1947 was a historic day in the eventful history of India. India won independence after a long and heroic struggle against the British colonial masters. India’s independence was also a milestone in the ongoing anti-imperialist liberation struggles the world over.
  In India all those who dreamt of an independent India and survived to see it happen were jubilant and, despite the gloom due to communal violence, celebrated this amazing day with great passion. However, there was one (…)

• RSS’ ‘Celebration’ of Independence Day Rejects Basic Principles of Constitution

  2 September 2018, by Anil Rajimwale

  What strikes one’s notice is the editorial of the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, in its ‘Independence Day Special’ dated August 19, 2018. It states: “The ideals of democracy, secularism and socialism... were non-Bharatiya”(!) This at a time when the country (‘Bharat’) has just celebrated its 72nd Independence Day. The RSS not only denies secularism and socialism, but also democracy. It has not a single word to say on the great democratic structure built after independence, using which it has (…)

• In the Midst of Kerala’s Flood Fury

  2 September 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Shots of the flood fury raging in Kerala are enough to jolt if not leave a lasting impact on the very psyche. Of course, Kerala floods are a national calamity. These floods have destroyed lives and livelihoods of thousands and a great majority of the survivors will find it very difficult to contain the damage along the emotional and financial strains.
  Sit back, close your eyes, think how would you react if you see your home and all the belongings in it, getting washed away in (…)

• Indo-Bangla Relations and Sheikh Mujib’s Assassination

  2 September 2018, by Ashok Parthasarathi

  The father of the Bangladesh nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated with his entire family (except his two daughters who were not in the Bangladesh capital at that time) in Dacca on August 15, 1975. The following article is being published in that connection.
  When the “Bangladesh War” ended on December 16, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder President of the Awami League party of Pakistan, was in Pakistan where he was detained since the military crackdown in Dacca (…)

• In Memory Of Late Shujaat Bukhari

  2 September 2018

  BOOK REVIEW
  by K.S. Subramanian
  Kashmir Intifada: A Memoir by A.M. Watali; Gulshan Books, Srinagar; 2017; pp. 543; Price: Rs 1495.
  The author of this book, Ali Mohammad Watali, was the Deputy Inspector General of Police, J&K at the start of the popular unrest over official Indian policies in Kashmir. The discontent became manifest in 1988-89 with the departure of radical youths to Pakistan to take up arms against India and engage in pursuit of intifada or resistance. The book (…)

• 

  The Coming Struggle

  16 August 2018, by SC

  Editorial
  In four days’ time, on August 15, 2018, we will be celebrating our seventysecond Independence Day. And within less than a year the country will be holding its next general elections to elect the seventeenth Lok Sabha.
  Today itself has appeared in one of the leading national dailies of the Capital a detailed interview of our Prime Minister. While completely dismissing the Opposition’s campaign against him and his regime and ridiculing the mahagathbandhan the Opposition parties (…)

• Anguish, not Anger / Gandhi’s Lonely Furrow

  16 August 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Anguish, not Anger
  The countdown for a national crisis of fearsome dimension has begun. The build-up of a nationwide communal conflict could be discerned, as one finds that the feverish activity for the building of the Ram temple at Ayodhya is having its repercussions in distant Thiruva-nanthapuram where the Army has had to undertake flag march.
  The onset of the crisis was evident on July 18 when at the stroke of midnight, the marathon session of the National (…)

• India - Pakistan: Seventyone Years On, Frosty Relations Continue

  16 August 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  It was August 12, 1947, three days before India became free. My father, a practising doctor, summoned us, three brothers and asked what our programme was. I told him that I wanted to stay in Pakistan just as the Muslims would in India. My elder brother, who was studying medicine at Amritsar, intervened to say that Muslims would ask the Hindus to vacate the house in West Punjab just as the Muslims living in East Punjab would be asked to leave. I asked how that could be possible if the Hindus (…)