Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Belittling Importance of Gandhiji and his Inspiring Ideals and Principles

  7 November 2016

  COMMUNICATION
  Gandhi Jayanti, that is, the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, the idol of millions of Indians, under whose supreme leadership the country became free and independent, is celebrated on October 2 throughout our vast landmass. He stood for a united, secular and democratic India, equal respect for all religions, a composite national culture and the elimination of hatred and discrimination through his highly inspiring principle of ahimsa. But the RSS (…)

• Nikhil Chakravartty’s 103rd birth anniversary - November 3, 2016: Tributes and Writings

  7 November 2016

  November 3, 2016 marked Nikhil Chakravartty’s 103rd birth anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce three pieces on N.C. written by three personalities, former President K.R. Narayanan and eminent journalists N.S. Jagannathan and Hiranmay Karlekar, who knew him closely. These appeared first in The Book Review (August 1998) and then in Mainstream (September 12, 1998).
  For N.C. Democracy and Socialism were Inseparable
  k.r. narayanan
  It was in 1963 that I met Nikhil Chakravartty for the (…)

• Mohan Kumaramangalam — Cameos

  7 November 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  November 1 this year marked the birth centenary of Mohan Kumaramangalam. On this occasion we pay our homage to him by reproducing the following piece that N.C. wrote under the pseudonym ‘An Old Comrade’ after Mohan’s untimely death due to an aircrash near Palam airport on May 31, 1973. M.K. and N.C. were indeed close comrades since their days in England in the 1930s (and they had a gap of three years in age—N.C. was born on November 3, 1913 and M.K. on November 1, (…)

• After Indira Gandhi

  7 November 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Indira Gandhi’s 32nd death anniversary fell on October 31 this year. On this occasion we are reproducing the following ‘Editor’s Notebook’ that N.C. wrote after her death.
  Twenty years after her great father’s passing away, Indira Gandhi fell, he frail body riddled with the assasin’s bullets, in the winter morning of October 31, 1984.
  She died as she lived—taking danger as her constant companion. And she left behind a nation not only benumbed with searing sorrow but engulfed in (…)

• Relevance of Indira Gandhi in the Present Age

  7 November 2016

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  More than three decades have passed since Mrs Indira Gandhi, the last most pragmatic Prime Minister of the country, was assassinated. A candid review of her tenure may throw up several questions; but at the same time several achievements also crown that glorious period when she was at the helm of affairs. These glittering effects have withstood the onslaught of time, political parties and historians of the defeated countries and researchers of the powerful (…)

• Tribute to Sardar Patel

  7 November 2016

  by Satya Narayana Sahu
  For the first time in the history of our independent India the Union Government took a momentous decision to celebrate October 31, the birthday Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as the National Unity Day. He was one of the towering figures of our freedom struggle and along with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru he played an epoch-making role in fighting for our independence, unifying our country and, above all, setting an example of a leader who was acclaimed for probity, (…)

• Rosa Luxemburg: Future belongs to ‘Bolshevism’

  7 November 2016

  October Revolution: Ninetyninth Anniversary
  Seventh November this year will be observed as the ninetyninth anniversary of the historic October Revolution whose centenary will be marked next year. Although the socio-economic system in Russia has been overturned and the once mighty USSR dismantled, the worldwide significance of the Russian Revolution of 1917 has not waned in the least; on the contrary its importance has been heightened in the light of the latest international events that (…)

• Nivedita, the Writer-Journalist

  7 November 2016, by Samit Kar

  Sister Nivedita was a firebrand disciple of Vivekananda. She lived in India for 13 years (1898-1911). She could have the association of her Master for only three years and five months and worked wholeheartedly for the cause of freedom of India for the remaining nine years. But her initial stint in India is more well known than the latter. It is rather imperative to put the content of social discourse straight in the context of her 150th birth anniversary on October 28, 2016.
  Vivekananda (…)

• India - Russia Relations Revisited

  7 November 2016

  by Sheel Bhadra Kumar
  With the passage of the last two centuries, we have witnessed major paradigm shifts in the nature of international politics. Before World War I broke out, world politics was multipolar but dominated by the European powers which had basically divided the whole world among themselves. They used to quarrel among themselves for the spread of their colonies and influence. The game of international politics was played by those powers which competed among themselves for (…)

• India and Russia vis-a-vis China’s Claims in the South China Sea

  7 November 2016

  by Hasan Hamidullah
  India should be far more active in the use of international institutions while promoting its national interests, especially in its territorial disputes and the right of free navigation.
  Our support to the Philippines in their case against the well-known claims of China in the West Philippines Sea helps us to pursue our own interests in similar cases, like the Sir Creek dispute with Pakistan or measures to counter Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea. In such a (…)