Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Nehru for Today

  19 November 2013

  On the occasion of Jawaharlal Nehru’s 124th birth anniversary on November 14 we are once again remembering our first PM who played such a crucial role in shaping post-independence India. We are reproducing his following words that are quite relevant in the present context.

• Rajiv’s Heirloom

  19 November 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  One need not have to be an idol-worshipper to remember what Jawaharlal Nehru stood for, particularly today when one discerns clear neglect of the edifice that he along with his fellow fighters in the freedom struggle had built and left behind. It is of course not fashionable nowadays to be reminded about the legacy left behind by him, and yet as one looks around, there is much in that legacy that can help the nation to chart its course to a future of hope and (…)

• Jawaharlal Nehru — Builder of Modern Science and Promoter of Scientific Temper

  19 November 2013, by Soma S. Marla

  Jawaharlal Nehru’s farsighted vision and admirable leadership is responsible for develo-ping modern science in our country. He played a major role in establishing a modern scientific and technological infrastructure and strove to promote scientific temper. Nearly 50 years after his death it is time to review the state of Indian science and scientific temper in the present society.
  The launch of the Mars Orbiter spacecraft, scheduled on November 5 from the Satish Dhavan Space Centre SHAR, (…)

• Revisiting Jawaharlal Nehru’s Idea of History

  19 November 2013

  by Sukhdev Singh Sohal
  India’s high growth story revolves around the economic liberalisation policies of the 1990s. The economic reforms thrive on the foundations of the Indian economy laid down by the Nehruvian model which aimed to achieve a higher rate of growth, rapid industrialisation, modernisation of agriculture, resource mobilisation, self- reliance, reduction in economic inequalities, mitigation of unemployment and reduction in regional inequalities.1 India of today is facing new (…)

• Serial Rape within Marriage: Why India’s Feminists Skirt the Issues

  19 November 2013

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Shruti
  The first anniversary of the “Nirbhaya” tragedy will soon be upon us. Doubtless there will be much self-congratulatory backward glancing to cherry-pick the “achievements” of the past year. There is a “stronger” law now against sexual predators. Rapists, whose victims die, may now go to the gallows. Acid attack victims could hope for better justice. And so on. But the toast to these arguable gains would need to be calibrated with a small reality check —hanging a (…)

• Sri Lankan War Crimes: Need for an International Inquiry

  19 November 2013, by Ambrose Pinto

  David Cameron, the Prime Minister of England, is not the first one to call for an international inquiry into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka. Perhaps, he will be the first one among the heads of state to visit the war-ravaged north of Sri Lanka where he will meet people directly impacted by the civil war that ended in 2009 after the genocide of roughly a lakh-and-a-half of people. Sri Lanka has refused to answer the many questions on those war crimes. They have boldly stated that what (…)

• ‘Freedom and People’s Emancipation’: It’s a Political and an Ethical Project

  19 November 2013

  COMMUNICATION
  Here is a response to Kobad Ghandy’s “Questions of Freedom and People’s Emancipation” (a six-part essay that appeared in this weekly, the first part on August 18, 2012, the sixth on January 26, 2013) from Bernard D’Mello, Deputy Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, Kobad Ghandy’s reply to this response in the form of a letter will be carried in the following issue of Mainstream.
  Dear Kobad,
  Thanks for giving us this six-part essay on “Questions of Freedom and (…)

• India-Russia bhai bhai was working well. Is our US-leaning PM risking it?

  19 November 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Manmohan Singh, considered ineffective and unassertive, was noticeably effective and assertive on one issue: India moving closer to the United States. He succeeded so well that today India is seen as a strategic partner of the US in the Asia-Pacific theatre. This gives useful leverage to the US. What does it give to India? Certainly no leverage vis-à-vis Pakistan; the US has just re-started its massive economic aid to the country and continues to lend an attentive ear to (…)

• India’s Open Secrets—Effects on Sovereignty and Democracy

  19 November 2013, by S G Vombatkere

  Junior Strategic Partner
  American spying challenges comprise three categories, namely, friends, enemies and problems. The top two challenges are Brazil and Egypt. That India is No. 3 challenge to U.S intelligence [Ref. 1] is strange, considering that India’s PM, Dr Manmohan Singh, is known to be submissive to US policies and pressures.
  Perhaps this submissiveness began with the July 2005 India-USA strategic framework signed in Washington, between US President George W. Bush and Dr (…)

• Power is Only a Corollary

  19 November 2013

  by Bishwajit Sen
  This, in my view, is the most revealing self-criticism in recent times to have come from a Communist Party (CPI) which is a part of the Left Front that ruled West Bengal just two years back. The self-criticism comes on the heels of the debacle of the Left Front in the recently held Panchayat elections. It was published in the Ananda Bazar Patrika on 13.09.2013.
  It narrates a strange story, that is, the story of the Left’s servility to the rural bourgeoisie which (…)