Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Assembly Elections 2016 — A Brief Comment

  26 June 2016, by Badri Raina

  The trick of the times clearly is to bloat the least of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s successes into an India-shaking phenomenon. Thus, does it matter that in Assam the Congress had been in government for fifteen years and was by any reckoning due for rejection; never mind the fact that had that party borrowed an iota of the BJP’s cunning and struck what might have seemed alliances-waiting-to-be-made, it could well have got a fourth term in office? Or does it matter that even now the INC has (…)

• Common Civil Code

  26 June 2016, by P.B. Sawant

  There is a good deal of misunderstanding about the subject itself, which is aggravated by the language of Article 44 of the Constitution. Most people believe that we do not have common civil laws in this country. The reality is, all civil laws are common, except one law, namely, the personal law which varies with the religious groups. The personal law relates to marriage, divorce, succession and inheritance, main-tenance, custody of children and adoption. By tradition, the personal law is (…)

• Two Years of Hindutva Rule

  26 June 2016, by Mukul Dube

  According to a report in The Hindu newspaper of June 12, 2016, Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak said that he is “sad to see that Hindu organisations [are] being targeted in spite of a Hindu government being in power”. He forgot that the law has no religion and that the law is above the government in power. A man who kills another human being is a murderer, plain and simple, and he is liable to the same punishment regardless of his religion. Most important, the Constitution of India (…)

• Patel and Bose: The two had nothing in common

  26 June 2016

  by Praveen Davar
  No two leaders in the freedom struggle were closer to each other ideologically, and personally, than Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. Nehru and Bose had much in common when it came to their views about the social and economic reconstruction of India. Both believed in variants of socialism and were deeply committed to secularism and Hindu-Muslim unity. It was only in 1939, less than two years before Subhash escaped to Germany, that the duo fell out. No two leaders (…)

• Idea of India: A New Agenda for Reclaiming Secular Democracy

  26 June 2016, by Sitaram Yechury

  The following is the speech delivered by the CPI-M General Secretary at the EMS Smrithi, Thrissur, (Kerala) on June 13, 2016.
  I am, indeed, very happy to be back at the EMS Smrithi. I am honoured to inaugurate this 2016 discussions on the ‘Idea of India: A New Agenda for Reclaiming Secular Democracy’.
  ‘Idea of India’ — The Backdrop
  The emergence of Nation-States was integral to the long process of transition of human civilisation from the stage of feudalism to capitalism. This period (…)

• Eighteenth death anniversary of Nikhil Chakravartty

  26 June 2016, by Chanchal Sarkar, Inder Malhotra, Prabhash Joshi

  June 27 this year marks the eighteenth death anniversary of Mainstream‘s founder Nikhil Chakravartty, known to readers of this journal as N.C. On this occasion while remembering him we are reproducing tributes to N.C. by three stalwarts of Indian journalism—Inder Malhotra (who breathed his last only this month on June 11, 2016), Chanchal Sarkar and Prabhash Joshi (both of whom predeceased Inder Malhotra). Thereafter we are reproducing a few of N.C.’s writings.
  Memories of a (…)

• My Earliest Recollections / Day One in Calcutta / The Roots of the Emergency / We Need No Taliban Here

  26 June 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  My Earliest Recollections
  After N.C.’s demise on June 27, 1998 three pieces were recovered from his notes as evidence that he had started writing his autobiography.We are carrying the following piece (written on March 5, 1990) on his birth and childhood.
  What’s the earliest memory I have about myself? I have tried to look back to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be the earliest scene I can remember about my life.
  I don’t remember anything about my birth and (…)

• Working of Indian Electoral Democracy

  26 June 2016

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Aijaz Ashraf Wani and Mehrag Ud Din Bhat
  Why India Votes by Mukulika Banerjee; Routledge Publishers; 2014; pages: 326 (2nd edition); ISBN: 9781138019713; Price: Rs 595.
  Elections form the bedrock of any democracy in the world. Elections give power to the people and enable them to choose their leaders who make decisions on their behalf. Without elections democracy cannot be based on the wishes and aspirations of the people. Rather, it will turn into any other form of (…)

• Need of the Hour: Secular-Democratic Unity

  18 June 2016, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Much is being written these days about the functioning of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Capital and the way the Congress is being run across the nation.
  But that is no reason why the ruling party at the Centre should be left off the hook as is being done by sizeable sections of the media. The BJP, which won a surprise absolute majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014, has been acting in an authoritarian way for the last two years while trying to divide the country and its people on (…)

• Two Years of Modi Government

  18 June 2016, by Kuldip Nayar

  If I were to award marks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his two-year governance, I would give him four out of 10. I wouldn’t fail him because he did not officially pursue the Hindutva programme and yet allowed the RSS and Bajrang Dal, both extremist organisations, to have the run of the field.
  I know that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was allowed to use Akashvani to purvey his parochial and extremist views. In the same manner other government-owned institutions, such as the Nehru Library, (…)