Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Save ‘Socialism’ and ‘Revolution’ from Narrow-Minded Approach

  1 May 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  ‘Socialism’ and ‘revolution’ are two beautiful words which, however, have been distorted beyond recognition by narrow-minded persons and groups.
  Let’s first see what these words actually mean and then we’ll examine how these beautiful words have been distorted and by whom. We’ll also examine how these distortions can be checked.
  Socialism means a way of thinking which clearly goes beyond selfish concerns so that all our concerns for our own welfare are closely linked to the (…)

• A Learned History of the Socialist Movement

  1 May 2010, by Surendra Mohan

  REVIEW ARTICLE (1) Bharat mein Loktantrik Samajwadi Andolan—Bhag Ek: Congress Socialist Party (1934-47) by Girija Shankar; Vishwa Bharati Publications, 4378/4D Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi; 2004; pages 465+ix; Rs 750.
  (2) Bharat mein Loktantrik Samajwadi Andolan—Bhag Do: Socialist Party (1947-52) by Girija Shankar; Vishwa Bharati Publications, 4378/4D Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi; 2009; pages 395+xv+45 photographs; Rs 950.
  Some histories of various phases of the (…)

• Exploring the Amazing Popularity of Shaheed Bhagat Singh

  1 May 2010, by Harish K Puri

  (This article was sent to us before the seventyninth anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and his comrades on March 23, 1931 but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is now being published in view of the significance of its contents for the benefit of our readers. —Editor)
  Among a large number of martyrs—the freedom-fighters who laid down their lives in the struggle—the popularity of Shaheed Bhagat Singh appeared to be of an exceptional order; almost (…)

• Prabhash Joshi and the RTI Movement

  1 May 2010, by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh

  TRIBUTE
  On May 5 it will be six months since Prabhat Joshi left us. Remembering that towering figure in the field of journalism on this occasion, we are carrying the following tribute which brings out yet another facet of his personality. It was written quite sometime ago but could not be published earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  __3__
  Prabhash Joshi was one of the most important journalists and thinkers of our times. He was also one of the most controversial. He was a journalist (…)

• India’s Stake in Afghanistan

  1 May 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  In the last two years, there has been non-stop coverage in the media and in the diplomatic circles about Bosnia, but very little about the happenings in Afghanistan. From the angle of ethnic conflict, both represent a dimension which needs to be fully grasped while from the strategic point of view, Afghanistan’s historical importance is unmatched.
  For a century-and-a-half, Afghanistan has been the battleground of rival Great Powers, so much so that the moves and the counter-moves (…)

• Afghanistan: Karzai’s Strategy, Pak Moves and the West

  1 May 2010, by M K Bhadrakumar

  With just a few days left for the “jirga” or tribal council to be held in Kabul, the prospects do not look good. Pakistan is determined to torpedo the Afghanistan Government’s plan to work out a societal consensus for ending the war through the traditional means of a consultative assembly. The convening of the jirga, for May 2-4, was a pledge made by President Hamid Karzai in his inaugural address last November. The idea has been viewed favourably by the bulk of the Afghan society. On the (…)

• Two Views on India-China Relations

  1 May 2010, by Harish Chandola

  The language used to describe India-China bilateral relations by the media of the two countries is so very different that one sometimes wonders if they are talking of the same thing. The Indian media has been suggesting that whatever activities China was conducting around were dangerous and detrimental to India. For instance, the recent Chinese hint of wanting to open bases overseas has been interpreted in India as its desire to set them up in Pakistan, to encircle and threaten India. (…)

• Social Networking: Affecting Productivity in India

  1 May 2010, by Mithun Dey

  Facebook is becoming a problem for employers at offices in India, as employees have started spending so much time on the social networking site that it is beginning to affect productivity, a new survey has revealed. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) have found in their survey that office staffs on average spend an hour a day on sites like Facebook, resulting in a loss of productivity measuring 12.5 per cent.
  The study noted: “Close to 12.5 per cent of (…)

• Lenin

  26 April 2010, by Jawaharlal Nehru

  Remembering Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on his one hundred and fortieth birth anniversary on April 22, 2010, we are reproducing excerpts from the following article by Jawaharlal Nehru that appeared in The Hindu (April 5, 1928).
  ‘I know a pair of eyes which have been for ever numbed by the burning sorrow of the Terror,’ said Gorky of Lenin. This sorrow did not leave him to the end. It made him a fierce fanatic and gave him the strength of will to persevere and achieve. But sorrow for the (…)

• In the Interest of Transparency

  24 April 2010, by SC

  What was anticipated for quite sometime eventually happened with Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor tendering his resignation from the Union Council of Ministers on April 18 and the PM accepting it. Earlier on the same day Sunanda Pushkar, the business-woman friend of Tharoor based in Dubai, surrendered her Rs 70-crore ‘sweat equity’ in Rendezvous Sports World, the IPL franchisee for Kochi; this she did to save her friend and absolve Tharoor of the charge that he had (…)