Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Hind Swaraj: Hundred Years After — How Relevant is it Today?

  18 February 2010, by Jolly M. Kaul

  Introduction
  Hind Swaraj, in a sense Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi’s Manifesto, was written between November 13 and November 22 on board the ship Kildoman Castle on his return trip from England to South Africa in 1909. It is considered Gandhiji’s seminal work, the theoretical basis of his life’s mission. He has said in his own foreword to the English translation:
  ‘These views are mine because I hope to act according to them. They are almost a part of my being… But yet they are not (…)

• Politicising Historiography: True Story of Partition

  18 February 2010, by Subhakanta Behera

  Even after sixty years of partition and independence of India, the historical writings about partition, both professional and amateurish historiography, prove that we are still obsessed with this watershed event of the Indian subcontinent. This is hardly surprising because of its colossal aftermath that still has resonance in individual as well as national life. But notwithstanding its passing under the rubric of history, partition is still discoursed and debated in terms of culpability, (…)

• On ‘Pokhran-II Debate’ in Mainstream

  18 February 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  The manner in which your publication Mainstream of December 5, 2009 has reproduced my article that had appeared in the fortnightly news magazine Frontline of the Hindu Group of Publications, dated September 25, 2009, is upsetting and deeply annoying to say the least. This was clearly with the purpose of publishing alongside the rejoinder to the article by K. Santhanam, Ashok Parthasarathi and P.K. Iyengar. You would agree that it makes proper sense for the authors KS, AP and (…)

• Neo-liberalism, Neo-conservatism and the Inequalities in Education

  18 February 2010, by Michael W. Apple

  The following is a summary of the lecture delivered by Michael W. Apple (Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA) at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, on October 21, 2009. Notes and references have been inserted by the compiler (Vikas Gupta, Assistant Professor of History at Delhi University) with the view to help the reader to pursue further inquiry. The compiler has stated that (…)

• Season of Goof-ups

  18 February 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Call this a season of goof-ups. Yes, one after another. If those goof-ups from R.K. Pachauri manned TERI and IPCC don’t seem to end, there is this one from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Welfare. With that full-blown advertise-ment carrying, besides others, a former Pakistani Air Force chief’s picture. Presumably one of those blunders which could see a couple of heads rolling. But what’s bothering me is: how do these full-page government advertise-ments help in curbing crimes? This (…)

• Opium Trade and Corruption: Manifestations of Afghanistan’s Multidimensional Crisis

  18 February 2010, by Bashir Mohammad

  All efforts to build a sustainable economic infrastructure and functional democracy in Afghanistan are currently under threat from widespread corruption and the sway of illegal drugs in the country. Unless drug-related corruption—which happens to be one of the most intractable problems in the state—is tackled in right earnest in a concerted manner at the levels of both the provincial and district governments, it cannot be rooted out; and the failure to do so would spell disaster as the very (…)

• Letter to the President

  18 February 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The following is the text of the letter that the Editor of Mainstream sent to the President of India twenty years ago on January 27, 1990 detailing the reasons for his inability to accept the Padma Bhushan award conferred on him on the Republic Day that year. We are reproducing the letter in the wake of the latest raging controversy over the Padma award being conferred on an NRI businessman.
  Nikhil Chakravartty,
  Editor Mainstream
  35 Kaka Nagar
  New Delhi -11000
  January 27, 1990
  To (…)

• Warning Note from the Past

  8 February 2010, by SC

  Sixty years ago in a message to the nation on the occasion of India becoming a Republic, our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was aptly described as the architect of modern India, conveyed the following warning note:
  We are fortunate to witness the emergence of the Republic of India and our successors may well envy us this day; but fortune is a hostage which has to be zealously guarded by our own good work and which has a tendency to slip away if we slacken in our efforts or if (…)

• Happy New Year? For Whom?

  8 February 2010, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  There’s a brand new addition to our National Register of Shame. The law has been amended to allow free air travel, business class, to “any number of companions and relatives” of Ministers. MPs were already enjoying this obscene privilege, but not Ministers. The latest amendment is “to remove this discrepancy”.
  Of course, there was a more decent way to end that discrepancy—by scrapping the undeserved charity given to MPs. But such thoughts do not occur to netas and babus (…)

• Netaji on Our Freedom Struggle and India after Independence

  8 February 2010

  On the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 113th birth annivarsary on January 23 this year we offer our homage to the memory of that indomitable freedom figher by reproducing excerpts from his speeches and writings.
  This is Subhas Chandra Bose speaking to you over the Azad Hind Radio.
  For about a year I have waited in silence and patience for the march of events and now that the hour has struck, I come forward to speak.
  The fall of Singapore means the collapse of the (…)