Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Russian Leader’s Question-Answer Session: Putin Emerging Longest Serving President of Russia — Challenges Persist

  18 June 2018

  by R.G. Gidadhubli
  Vladimir Putin was elected as the President of Russia with overwhelming majority for the fourth time for a six-year term ending in 2024. Exactly one month after he was sworn in following a landslide election, to express his solidarity with the people a question-answer session was held on June 7, 2018 when about two million questions were fielded from across the country; these were submitted and the leader asked about an array of domestic and foreign-policy issues. While (…)

• Bhindranwale Still Lives

  18 June 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  Indian history is replete with tragedies which, when retold, suggest that the happenings could have been avoided. ‘Operation Bluestar’ is one of them. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a militant, holed himself up at the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh seat, and created a state within a state. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used the Army to silence his guns and sent tanks into the Harmandir Saheb. Whatever one may say, Bhindranwale continues to enjoy respect in the hearts of Sikhs.
  I had a taste of (…)

• Mewat Region, Raj Kishore, Ankit Saxena’s Family

  18 June 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  This morning as I was going through the day’s newspapers what caught attention was this shocking incident coming from Haryana’s Mewat region, where a young woman was buried neck deep, in a five feet deep pit, by a village witch doctor to ‘cure her of spirits’!
  The woman died after screaming and shrieking for two hours, pleading to be rescued from that pit but nobody was allowed to help her; the witch doctor telling the onlookers that her patient was screaming because she was (…)

• India, Nepal and the Janakpur Momentum

  18 June 2018

  by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
  Everyday, buses full of pilgrims and tourists get stranded near Bhitta Mor, the noisy and chaotic gateway to Janakpur on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar. Bhitta Mor is a dingy place with muddy roads (under water during mon-soons) where buses, bullock carts and rickshaws compete for the same space with same speed. Since most of the incoming visitors do not know what bad roads are all about, their palpable frustration is often apparent. However, such things could (…)

• We Must All Resist BJP’s Two-Nation Theory

  18 June 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Ayodhya has become the epicentre of a cyclone that threatens to spell disaster for the political fabric of this country. For the fourth year now, it has virtually taken over the centre-stage of national politics.
  What has been achieved so far is that actual confrontation is averted almost at the very last moment by a desperate move to buy time, so that a little more space may be available to tackle the dipute over the question of the proposed Ram Mandir, requiring (…)

• Intra-Tribal Disparities in Asset-acquisition in Kerala’s Wayanad District

  18 June 2018

  by Raimol Pappachan and P. Stanly Joseph
  The tribal populations are the aboriginal inhabitants of our country and are found in all parts of India. They have been living a simple life based on the natural environment and have adopted a cultural pattern congenial to their life and the social environment.1 The tribal commu-nities have a very simple technology which fits well with their ecological surroundings and conservative outlook. They practice different types of occupations to sustain (…)

• Considering Cess on Liquor to Get Funds for Cow-Protection!

  18 June 2018, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMENTARY
  Recent news reports have drawn attention to the most absurd proposal being seriously considered by the Rajasthan Government that a cess will be imposed on liquor sales and this cess will be used for cow-protection work. This amounts to encouraging social promotion of liquor and getting rid of the social stigma normally attached to social promotion of liquor by adding an entirely unrelated social objective to it.
  It is well known that 33 lakh people die in a year due to alcohol (…)

• Difference between Religious Propagation and Conversion

  18 June 2018

  by Kunal Ghosh
  The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of practicing one’s faith and propagating it, provided it is done without coercion or inducement. The Archbishop of Delhi (of the Catholic Church), Reverend Anil Couto, has spoken about the threat to the democratic principles and the “secular fabric” enshrined in our Constitution and distributed a circular to all the churches in his diocese in May 2018. The message is that the Christians should be careful in exercising their (…)

• Why do Soldiers Still Keep Dying at India-Pakistan Border?

  18 June 2018, by Sandeep Pandey

  In 1947 India was divided by the foreign rulers by playing a game of divide and rule to which the religious fundamentalists fell prey. India and Pakistan since then have a chequered history and uneasy relationship sometimes climaxing in wars and violent conflagrations.
  While the governments prefer to maintain an adversarial relationship, which now sustains certain vested interests on both sides, the common people and business interests on two sides want peace. They do not want conflicts in (…)

• West Asia Mess. Where is India?

  18 June 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Donald Trump’s impetuousness often gets boosted by his ego. This makes him a dangerous player in conflict situations. West Asia, already on edge with clashing ideologies, has been brought closer to war by his eccentric pull-out from the Iran nuclear deal and all-out backing to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) policies of provocation at home and in the region. Add to this Trump’s support to Israel’s military adventurism, and we have a tinder box ready to catch fire (…)