Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Indian Communists and the International Left on Global Canvas

  26 December 2016

  by Arun Srivastava
  While the fascist ultra-nationalist forces have been striving hard to occupy the centre- stage of the global polity and evolve their own variant ideology, it is heartening to note that the Communists and Left forces especially in the capitalist countries have also started asserting their existence and voice.
  Probably the lone exception to this emerging trend has been the communist movement in India. The believers of Marxism and communism have refrained from asserting (…)

• Secret History of Gujarat Happenings by Stingers and Whistle-blowers

  26 December 2016, by John Dayal

  BOOK REVIEW
  Gujarat Files—Anatomy of a Cover Up by Rana Ayyub, With an Introduction by Justice B.N. Srikrishna; Self-published; 2016; pages: 204; Price: Rs 295.
  Gujarat—Behind the Curtain by R.B. Sreekumar, Indian Police Service [Retired]; Manas Publications, New Delhi; Rs 595.
  Language evolves. Specially when defining violence. “Genocide” as a term came out of the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution to eliminate Jews from the Germanic Fatherland. “Persecution” is when small (…)

• Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission: Emerging Challenges

  26 December 2016

  by Mahi Pal
  Since independence, in spite of implementing various programmes for rural development and improving the quality of life of the people, issues of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, sanitation and hygiene, lack of skill development, problem of connectivity have been persisting as obstacles in the development trajectory of the country.
  As far as rural development is concerned, the Government of India has been implementing a fleet of programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National (…)

• Pitcher and Stone

  26 December 2016

  by Amiya Dev
  ‘Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher’ is a proverb we come across in DonQuixote, its source being Sancho Panza, that mine of popular wisdom. He justifies it to his master by simply saying that a blind man may see into it. Indeed a blind man may see into the intolerance that is in the air now—the stone hitting the pitcher. The pitcher-stone image has surely many meanings; but one such meaning is that of the minority-majority (…)

• On Rosa Luxemburg and Russian Revolution

  26 December 2016

  by Paresh Chattopadhyay
  We read with considerable interest the short piece ‘Rosa Luxemburg: Future belongs to Bolshevism’. (Mainstream, vol. LIV, No. 46) We may be permitted to make a couple of comments on this piece. (In the following we use the shortened form RL for Rosa Luxemburg.)
  RL’s longstanding critique of the Bolshevik leadership is well known. However, her rather positive estimate of the Bolshevik leadership, as it appears in this short piece (in fact it is part of a longer (…)

• Jayalalithaa Is No More

  11 December 2016, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As we go to press, Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa Jayaram, 68, is no more. She passed away at Chennai’s Appolo Hospitals on Monday night (December 5). She was admitted there on September 22 with fever and dehydration, and breathed her last at 11.30 pm on December 5 after numerous complications in her condition followed by cardiac arrest on Sunday evening (December 4).
  Jayalalithaa was a remarkable personality. A brilliant student, an accomplished film star, she entered politics (…)

• How Fidel Shaped Cuba and Influenced Latin America

  11 December 2016

  TRIBUTE
  by Nina Dey-Gupta
  Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 and passed away on November 25, 2016 after a prolonged illness of diverticulitis.
  Gandhi and Castro were both political leaders. While Gandhi’s political experience and experiments in politics began in South Africa based on non-violence, Castro’s was a purely home-spun one shaped by events closer home in Cuba, having led a popular uprising against General Batista, the dictator, who had seized power in a military coup in (…)

• What to Expect from the New Pakistani Army Chief

  11 December 2016, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The appointment of the new Army Chief in Pakistan invariably becomes an edifying spectacle for Indian observers. The ‘new normal’—namely, that a superannuating General calmly and with head held high walks into the sunset—underscores that Pakistan is getting accustomed to orderly transitions.
  Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s choice of General Raheel Sharif as the Army Chief three years ago proved to be judicious. His choice of General Qama Javed Bajwa as the new Army Chief also appears to be (…)

• Open Letter to PM Narendra Modi

  11 December 2016

  Yatin Oza, a former BJP MLA from Gujarat, who was a close confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the latter was the Chief Minister of the State, has in an open letter to him, dated November 9, 2016, blasted his demonetisation drive, calling it an act of befooling the people of the nation.
  He also accused that all the district cooperative banks in Gujarat, controlled by people close to the BJP, exchanged Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes against smaller denomination since 9 pm on (…)

• Hegemony of Ultra-Nationalism as a New World Order

  11 December 2016

  by Arun Srivastava
  The word ‘nationalism’ was the unwritten sanction for Hitler to kill six million Jews as the Germans cheerfully watched. In recent times the global fraternity is witnessing nationalism once again raising its head but this time in a more ugly and ferocious manner in the form of ultra-nationalism. What is significant is that the Right reactionary forces, articulating the interest of capitalism, have been fostering this resurgence. Whether it is the USA, India, or any other (…)