Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Beware of Beijing

  18 May 2013, by Sushil Vakil

  This article was written before Beijing ended its stand-off with New Delhi on the Sino-Indian border and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid visited Beijing.
  Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that the world was laughing at us because we have made a mockery of our democratic system where the Opposition stalls functioning of Parliament instead of debating contentious issues. The statement sounds illogical as there are other issues that would cheer up other countries to laugh at (…)

• How Long Will Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Exile Continue?

  18 May 2013, by Shamsul Islam

  India’s First War of Independence (described by the British colonial masters as ‘Mutiny’) began on May 10, 1857 at the Meerut Cantonment. The rebel sepoys of the East India Company marched to Delhi, the seat of the Mughal King, accompanied by thousands of villagers who had joined the rebellion on the way to Delhi. On May 11, this mass of rebels, of which more than 75 per cent were Hindus and Sikhs, had an audience with the 82-year-old King Zafar and prevailed upon him to lead the liberation (…)

• Dalit-Muslim Relations in Pre-Partition Bengal: Paradigm Shift in Dalit Discourse

  18 May 2013

  by K.S. Chalam
  Indian historiography is undergoing several challenges today. One of the issues that the contemporary historian encounters is about the selection of social categories to narrate changes that have taken place in the recent past. It is only by studying the contemporary history and relating it with the past that we can save/sustain the discipline of history in India. This has been the penchant of one of our most distinguished historians, Prof Sekhar Bandyopadhyay. He is now (…)

• How to Reform Parliamentary Democracy in India?

  18 May 2013

  by B.K. Kaushik
  Keeping in view the pluralist nature of the Indian polity, the makers of the Indian Constitution decided to adopt the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy instead of the American pattern of the presidential system. They were of the considered opinion that the former was more suitable for India than the latter as it could provide a share in the power structure to the various social, cultural, linguistic and regional groups at the national and State levels. Besides, (…)

• Civil Society Initiatives: The Case of BPAC in Karnataka

  18 May 2013

  by M. Manisha
  In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Karnataka, there was an interesting initiative by eminent citizens of Bangalore called the Bangalore Political Action Committee or BPAC.
  The BPAC team has some of the most eminent personalities from the world of business, sports and entertainment, including Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, T.A. Mohandas Pai, Prakash Bidappa, Ashwini Nachappa, Charu Sharma to name only a few. It also has the support of other distinguished persons such as (…)

• Caring For Children — Preventing Child Rape

  18 May 2013, by Sagari Chhabra

  Everyday the headlines scream at us, with alarming frequency, of yet another rape. Every 32 minutes somewhere in India, a woman is getting raped. There is certainly a breakdown of the social fabric; large sections of the people are feeling a sense of anomie. Then there is rampant unemployment fuelled with pornography and an increased objectification of women. What is even more horrific is the rising incidence of child-rape. According to the National Crimes Record Bureau, there has been a 336 (…)

• Brahmins + Muslims = Jitin Prasada’s UP Social Network

  18 May 2013, by Amna Mirza

  The serene and palatial Raza Library in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, that has a priceless collection of historical works in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi and other languages, including manuscripts of earliest translation of the Quran was buzzing with activity recently. This sudden flutter in this usually quiet yet invaluable repository was created by the visit of the MoS, HRD, Jitin Prasada.
  While some may term it as any other ministerial duty providing lot of photo ops to both the party’s and official (…)

• On CPI’s Draft Party Programme

  18 May 2013

  COMMUNICATION
  The Draft of the Party Programme of the Communist Party of India sets the task of completing the Democratic Revolution (Introductory Note) or New Democratic Revolution (12.4) and this is repeatedly mentioned in the Draft. Obviously it means that the Revolution is already underway and the CPI has to fulfil the task of taking it forward for its completion. But who started it and how it got going is nowhere clear in the Draft. It has been, however, asserted that ‘it will not be (…)

• Poineering Work on Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia

  18 May 2013, by Vijay Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia: ed by Sunil Khilnani, Vikram Raghavan and Arun K. Thiruvengadam; Oxford Univrsity Press, New Delhi; 2013; Pages 401.
  The book under review is long overdue. The comparison of evolution of constitutionalism in the South Asian countries has not been done in a systematic and structural manner till date. The book in your hand seeks to fill the void. The book is rightly dedicated to the two of the tallest jurists of the region: Neelan (…)

• Justice J.S. Verma: A Mind Without Fear

  18 May 2013

  TRIBUTE
  by Chaman Lal
  The death of Justice J.S. Verma, the former Chief Justice of India and erstwhile Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on April 22, 2013 marks the end of an important era in the operationalisation of human rights in India.
  Despite belonging to the Madhya Pradesh cadre of the Indian Police Service, I had known and admired Justice J.S. Verma from a distance until October 1999, when he joined the National Human Rights Commission as its Chairperson. I (…)