Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• A Truly Wonderful Person

  30 June 2018, by Ashok Parthasarathi

  Nikhilda (Respected Nikhil), as he was widely known and referred to, much as his close compatriot G. Parthasarathi was better known as G.P., was a wonderful many-sided personality like his colleagues and compatriots—of whom G.P. and his “brother” P.N. Haksar were the key figures. Nikhil (who was about the same age) was a product of the radical 1930s when Left-wing political, economic and social views were the norm. To Nikhilda, the anti-Fascist movement worldwide was integrally connected to (…)

• Meal at Dalit’s Home

  30 June 2018

  The entire village was agog:
  an important person coming to dine
  at the house of a poor Dalit.
  There was big commotion rising
  from slow pitch to high crescendo.
  A spurt of activity followed:
  the lane in front of the house cleaned,
  watered; garbage removed;
  a portable generator installed
  to provide power uninterrupted.
  Furniture, carpet, electric fans
  were all arranged to make
  the dining space comfortable
  for the honoured guest
  to savour food along with the (…)

• Nikhilda must be Happy he is Not Alive to Hear the Death Rattle of Journalism

  30 June 2018, by John Dayal

  One day in a distant summer, I followed Sumit Chakravartty up the steps of the platform at Nigambodh Ghat where, a day before, the nation’s senior journalists, politicians and activists had cremated Nikhil Chakravartty, editor in chief of Mainstream, and mentor to a generation of younger scribes. There were no mantras and no religious rites, but the son had saluted his father recalling words we had often heard, This above all, Be Truthful to Yourself. Our fingers now groped in the quenched (…)

• What A Strong - willed, Honest Man!

  30 June 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  I had first met Nikhil Chakravartty in the Spring of 1987. That was the time I was working as a Features Editor with a magazine and was assigned to do a feature on him. Of course, I had heard him at the various meets but had never had the privilege of conversing with him, although each time I would hear him speak at those forums I would be more than tempted to go up to him and tell him how I admired his forthrightness and the bravado with which he’d speak. There was that strong sense of (…)

• Football is for All — Except India

  30 June 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Of the many realities refreshed by the ongoing football frenzy, two are revelatory for India. First: Kicking a ball around is an instinctive urge of all humans which explains both the universality and the irresistibility of football. India fell off the grid because of the willingness with which it surrendered its soul to the concocted colonial game of cricket. Second which follows from the first: In a world festival where even countries like Saudi Arabia and Tunisia are stars, (…)

• Ideological Transformation

  30 June 2018, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  BOOK REVIEW
  My Journey from Marxism-Leninism to Nehruvian Socialism: Some Memoirs and Reflections on Inclusive Growth by Dr C.H. Hanumantha Rao; Academic Foundation, New Delhi; Price: Rs 1295/-.
  A supple mind does not stick to a rigid formulation on any socio-economic issue. Ground realities change. Hence, except for a frozen mind, theories reflecting the real situation also have to undergo change. Mathematical rigidity would make these theories non-applicable. John Marshall wrote his (…)

• God Votes in India, Abstains in Britain (Part II)

  30 June 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  The following is the second and concluding part of a two-part article. The first part appeared in Mainstream
  (June 23, 2018)
  Britain has undergone rapid secularisation in the last 50 years. It is no playground for religious bigots. Northern Ireland is an exception. There some people are always ready to die for their religion. In the rest of the country, the clergy’s influence has waned over the years.
  In the neighbouring Ireland, the Catholic church’s hold on popular (…)

• Standing Firm in Defence of Indo-Pak Amity

  30 June 2018, by Syeda Hameed

  It was 22 years ago on August 14, 1996 when I accompanied Nikhil Chakravartty in a delegation of Citizens for Democracy led by Kuldip Nayar to the Indo-Pakistan border post to light candles to commemorate the Pakistan-India People-to People Mission. It was also the 50th year of independence. Some elders among us recalled August 15, 1947, the day of freedom. With palpable sadness they remembered the killings unleashed on both sides. In the article Nikhil wrote when he returned, he spoke of (…)

• Remembering Nikhil Chakravartty

  30 June 2018, by Barun Das Gupta

  When a great personage, far above the average run of men with their narrow compass of mind, passes away, it creates a temporary or transient sense of void. It is only with the passage of time that the immmensity of the void starts sinking in our consciousness. The absence of Nikhil Chakravartty, or N.C., as he was known and called in his wide circle of friends, is one such. The more time takes us away from the day of his demise, the more acutely we miss him, the more acutely do we feel his (…)

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  No to Jingoism and Strong-arm Tactics in J & K

  24 June 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As we go to press, the political scenario in J&K has undergone a radical change thanks to the acrobatics of the ruling party at the Centre, the BJP, which was sharing power in the country’s northernmost State with the PDP since March 1, 2015, that is, for almost three years and four months. What really happened? As The Times of India eloquently explained,
  Wary of the rising unease in its support base in Jammu and other parts of the country, the BJP sought to refurbish its (…)