Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• India-Bangladesh: Balance-sheet of the Hasina Visit

  8 February 2010, by Mahendra Ved

  India and Bangladesh will hark back to the past when they jointly celebrate next year the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. The Nobel Laureate’s poems are national anthems of both. This decision beautifully underscored the recent New Delhi visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
  President Pratibha Patil hugged Hasina and the spontaneousness of their smiles came out in the pictures published the next day. There was holding of hands with Sonia Gandhi, who met the entire (…)

• Regional Disparities, Inclusive Growth and Displacement in Orissa

  8 February 2010, by Sikta Pati, Sudhakar Panda

  There is enough evidence that Orissa suffers from regional disparities. A Regional Imbalances Enquiry Commission was set up by the State under the chairmanship of Justice S. K. Mohanty to look into Orissa’s regional development imbalances and suggest measures to address the problem. It is reported that the Mohanty Commission made a comprehensive and a district-wise detailed analysis of the problem on the basis of certain well-tested indicators of development and came out with their findings. (…)

• Bringing Great Wall and Taj Mahal Closer

  8 February 2010, by Ravindra Sharma

  TRIBUTE
  Famous Indologist Ji Xianlin and noted China scholar Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea’s departure from the scene in 2009 may be recorded in the “creative history” of India and China as a grievous loss. While Prof Ji passed away on July 11, 2009, Prof Mira died on December 13, 2009, leaving a deep void in China-India relations. Prof Ji was 98 and Prof Mira 80; yet both were “active and alert”. Scholars of Indian Studies in China and Chinese Studies in India know that “passion conquers” the (…)

• Gripping Narrative of a Meaningful Life

  8 February 2010, by Amna Mirza

  BOOK REVIEW
  Life and Times of Shanta Toofani: Story of a Survivor—narrated by Shanta Toofani and synthesised by Dimple (Amreen) Oberoi Vahali, Diamond Oberoi Vahali; Daanish Books, New Delhi; price Rs 195; pages 285.
  The book encapsulates the narratives of life of an unknown person yet someone whose experiences and activities we all would like to hear and learn from: Shanta Toofani. Written in the form of an open-eyed account by the authors, the direct voice of Shanta Toofani in various (…)

• Sino-Russian Ties: Beijing’s Attempts to Rewrite History

  8 February 2010, by Mansoor Ali

  For long the Chinese Government has been relying on plain nationalistic sentiments bordering on chauvinism while pursuing its foreign policy goals.
  Lately there have been some indications of China’s distinct attempts to rewrite the history of its relations with the Soviet Union (whose successor-state today is the Russian Federation).
  First, notwithstanding the fact that all Chinese arms and armaments are of Russian origin, Beijing is presently trying to conceal this basic (…)

• Return to the Basics

  26 December 2009, by SC

  With this issue Mainstream enters the fortyeighth year of its modest existence.
  When this weekly made its appearance in 1962, the editorial in the first issue cogently spelt out its basic objectives in the following words:
  Faith in the people of India is our shield and armour; determination to resist all attempts to withhold the fruits of freedom from them our only weapon. It shall be our endeavour to try relentlessly to demolish the wall of misunderstanding, mutual suspicion and (…)

• On Thermonuclear Weapon Capability and its Implications for Credible Minimum Deterrence

  26 December 2009

  Soon after the Pokhran-II tests on May 11 1998, the scientists of the two organisations concerned, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), had jointly evaluated the success of the two tests—the fission device (A-bomb) and the fusion device (H-bomb). While the former device performed perfectly including creating a crater of the expected size, the fusion device failed on many counts—very low yield, no crater etc. International monitoring centres (…)

• Bangladesh: Promise of Change

  26 December 2009, by Kamal Hossain

  Citizens of Bangladesh have persevered in their effort to establish a working democracy. The movement to restore democracy had resulted in 1990 in an agreed commitment amongst all political forces to restore parliamentary democracy and to strengthen democratic institutions—the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and a media committed fearlessly to truth and to give voice to the people. These aspirations for a transparent, responsive and accountable mode of governance were powerfully (…)

• Evolve Alternative Paradigm of Economic Growth

  26 December 2009, by M.B. Naqvi

  On November 7, 2009, veteran Pakistani journalist-cum-writer Mohammad Baqir Naqvi passed away in a Karachi hospital. Naqvi sahb was a prominent peace activist and crusader against nuclearisation of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. At the time of his death at the age of 81 he was busy writing a book on the Pakistan’s nuclear programme and foreign policy; the work, however, remains unfinished.
  Born in Amroha in 1928 he, like countless Muslims, migrated to Pakistan after partition in 1947. He (…)

• Needed: India’s Positive Role for Universal Nuclear Disarmament

  26 December 2009, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  Recently the DRDO’s former senior scientist, Dr K. Santhanam, raised a controversy that the Pokhran-II test for thermonuclear device was unsuccessful and that fresh nuclear tests were necessary to face the threat from China. Two former Chairmen of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr P.K. Iyenger and Dr Homi Sethna, supported his contention. Whether Pokhran-II was successful or not is a question of science and technology. But whether fresh nuclear tests are necessary to meet the defence needs is (…)