Mainstream Weekly

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• The Substance and the Symbol

  22 July 2010, by Surendra Mohan

  If the most salient feature Indian politics were to be named, it would be its preference of the symbol over the substance. The decision to create a unified command in the Centre, increase in police force at the State levels and the creation of paratroops to fight against the Maoists begs the question as to what is the substantive cause of the rise of the Maoist threat. The frustrating of the people in the more devastated areas where mining operations have displaced the tribal people and the (…)

• Quarrelling with Indian Perceptions

  22 July 2010, by Arup Maharatna

  There are always some people born with an innate proclivity for forging an uncommon, or indeed often just the opposite, stance on nearly all debates, discussions, and conversations in life —mundane or otherwise. Barring such select characters with pathological passion for dissenting, nobody would dare to deny that the British colonial rule has been largely (and perhaps indeed directly to a substantial extent) responsible for India’s protracted socio-economic retrogression relative to many (…)

• Constricting Democratic Space through Terror

  22 July 2010, by Gladson Dungdung

  In the midst of the hide-and-seek between the sun and the cloud, the environment at the Jaipal Singh Stadium in Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, was very tense on June 25, 2010. The reason was that the “Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Nagrik Manch” (Citizens Forum against Operation Green Hunt) had called a rally and mass meeting against the cold blooded murder, rape and torture of innocent villagers by the security forces in the ongoing so-called anti-Naxal operation codified as (…)

• Most Dangerous Region? Look West

  22 July 2010, by T J S George

  We think that the Indian subcontinent is the world’s most unstable region, given the dominance of religion, the Pakistan Army’s jealousy-tinged hatred of India and the rise of hatemongers like Narendra Modi. But take a trip westward and we’ll see that no part of the world is more dangerously unstable than the Arab region with Israel plonked in the centre of it thanks to the success of British machinations in 1948.
  It will remain so despite Israel’s current talk of “easing” the blockade of (…)

• Niyamgiri, Orissa and the Movie ‘Avatar’: Real And Reel—Uncanny Resemblances

  22 July 2010, by S G Vombatkere

  Prologue
  Stories are based upon past events, or personal or recorded human experience, embellished by imaginative thinking. They sometimes carry a clear “message” but quite often these days, the message is subtly hidden. In contemporary story-telling that is increasingly audio-visual, hi-tech special effects often draw audience and critics’ attention and help to cleverly conceal the message. One such is a recent Hollywood film written, directed and produced by James Cameron, titled (…)

• Wave of Crime and Labour Strikes in China

  22 July 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  It is time and again that scribes write of the international crime syndicate as during the Cold War people wrote of the international terror network. Now they talk about regional centres. The bursting of the Russian spy ring in the US involving Ms Chapman accompanied by Clinton visiting Georgia, Abkhazia and Kiev is catching headlines. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) is being blamed for criminal activities in the Middle East involving bank robberies, corruption and illicit business for these (…)

• Azad’s Murder Condemned

  22 July 2010

  We, as concerned citizens, feel extremely disturbed by the recent events of violence in the region of Chhattisgarh and other parts of eastern India. We condemn the spiral of violence and counter-violence between the State security forces and the Maoists. Though the violence has been continuing unabated, yet following the Peace and Justice March by a group of concerned citizens from Raipur to Dantewada, a peace process had been initiated. Letters were being exchanged between the Home (…)

• Honour and Disgrace: Meditation for the Politics of Protest

  22 July 2010, by Dev N Pathak

  We protest, for we feel there is an amiss affecting us. But to sustain a protest, so that it does not end up as a Rang De Basanti-style cosmetic candle-light protest at the India Gate or SMS protest by the slaves of convenience in the metro-cities, we need to engage with the notion of social honour and disgrace. The politics of protest presupposes an alternative notion of social honour, to combat those who believe that protest in itself is anti-honour and hence disgracing. Also, an (…)

• Khap Panchayats: Reinforcing Caste Hierarchies

  22 July 2010, by Suranjita Ray

  The recent killings/threats to kill in the name of honour and social ostracism have once again brought caste-based discriminations, hierarchies, conflicts and cleavages in society to the fore. To challenge the undermining of caste authority and principle of ascribed status, the caste councils/Khap Panchayats in particular regions of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in north India have become active and assertive during the recent past.
  The assertion of Khap (…)

• Khap Panchayats: Need to Review their Role in Society

  22 July 2010, by R.S. Dahiya

  The issue of same-gotra marriages is regularly in the news these days. Hardly a day passes without a news item about the developments surrounding this issue. Statements from the Gotra Khap Panchayats and Sarv Khap Panchayat spearheading the movement for a change in the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, as also the reactions of the political parties and individual politicians of the State of Haryana have been almost a daily occurrence in the recent past. Sometime back the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, (…)