Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Revisiting a Tebhaga Village

  14 May 2011, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The Tebhaga Movement of 1946-47 marked a turning point in the peasant movement of Bengal. It was the struggle of sharecroppers for two-thirds share of the produce. In other words, it was the struggle for reduction of land rent from 50 per cent of the produce to one-third. The movement attained its ‘greatest sweep’ in North Bengal. In the history of Communist Party-led peasant movements in Bengal, the name ‘Tebhaga’ was recalled time and again as a glorious reference point. Memorials were (…)

• Let’s Not Forget US’ Grand Design

  14 May 2011, by Bashir Mohammad

  The US efforts to bridle and tame the Arab revolutionary wave in the Middle East seems to be bearing fruit. After Washington’s failure to defend and rescue its staunchest ally in the region, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, who acted as the most effective US satellite in West Asia, it has manged to contain the open revolt in Bahrain and prevent potential uprisings springing from simmering discontent in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. By late February the Obama Administration was able to put in place (…)

• Clear Case of Racial Arrogance Leading to Genocide

  14 May 2011, by Rajindar Sachar

  STATEMENT
  Former President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties Rajindar Sachar has issued the following statement.
  It would seem that international law is non-existent. That alone can explain the barbaric bombing of civilian targets in Libya. I hold no brief for what many correctly describe Gaddafi as a tyrannical ruler. I have full sympathy for the opposition and admiration for their struggle to get rid of Gaddafi.
  But I protest strongly at the unilateral action of the NATO air (…)

• Daybreak in Russia

  14 May 2011

  by Rabindranath Tagore
  (This letter by Rabindranath Tagore to his grand-daughter, Nandini, was written in 1930 when the Poet was spending a few days in a country-house outside Moscow during his trip to the Soviet Union. Addressed to a girl of nine, it describes in his intimately picturesque style the daybreak on the Russian horizon. Pupumoni was the affectionate name by which the Poet used to call his grand-daughter, and Dadamoshai is the Bengali equivalent of grandfather. The English (…)

• Inheritor of Tagore and Gandhi

  14 May 2011

  The following piece appeared in Mainstream (June 20, 1964) highlighting the influence of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi on Jawaharlal Nehru’s thoughts and ideas.
  K.R.
  The phenomenon of India producing two such mighty men as Tagore and Gandhi in the course of a single generation has been a source of puzzlement to many. Jawaharlal Nehru had always been fascinated by these two towering personalities, both by their contrast and by what they had in common. For him it had been part of (…)

• At Long Last

  3 May 2011, by SC

  The UPA Government has finally allowed the CBI to arrest Suresh Kalmadi, chief of graft-tainted Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. In fact for quite sometime now, there has been an avalanche of allegations against Kalmadi and his associates entrusted with the task of organising the Games. So it is quite legitimate to wonder if this is a case of too little, too late. Yet, even if belatedly, the significance of this action by the government at the Centre should not be minimised. It must (…)

• Remembering Chernobyl after 25 Years

  3 May 2011

  On the twentyfifth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, we are carrying the following article by Mikhail Gorbachev. It is highly relevant at the present juncture.
  by Mikhail Gorbachev
  I first heard of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor breakdown on the morning of April 26, 1986, when the Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine Building, responsible for nuclear reactors, reported it to the Kremlin. Though the seriousness of the incident remained unclear during our emergency (…)

• Hazare’s Fast And Its Aftermath

  3 May 2011, by P R Dubhashi

  Anna Hazare broke his 97 hour-fast at Jantar Mandar, New Delhi on Saturday, April 9, 2011 after he was handed over a copy of the gazette notification constituting a ten-member committee consisting of five Ministers of the Union Government and five representatives of the civil society including Anna Hazare himself. The government, which was initially somewhat adamant in its attitude, was compelled to come to terms with all the demands of Anna Hazare, in view of the unprecedented support he (…)

• Anna’s One-Shot War On Corruption

  3 May 2011, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  There is no doubt that Anna Hazare had the highest interest of the country on his mind in undertaking his fast as a war on corruption. There is no doubt either that he brought an upsurge of emotion in the country against corruption and showed a way in which it can be fought courageously and effectively following the Gandhian model of satyagraha and JP’s model of the Bihar movement in 1974. He has once again laid the ghost, as JP did, that people’s movements against popularly elected (…)

• From Bric To Brics: Thinking Big?

  3 May 2011, by Ash Narain Roy

  The 21st century is witnessing new paradigms of power. The topology of power has undergone a sea-change. The tectonic changes in the international system are creating major shuffling in the global power structure. BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is not simply a new gathering place for the world’s emerging powers, but reflects a new global power structure.
  While for India, democracy or, what Michael Mandelbaum of the John Hopkins University calls, ‘democratic (…)