Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• At Pittsburgh and New York

  5 October 2009, by SC

  The G-20 summit at Pittsburgh has no doubt succeeded in taking on the role and mantle of the G-8 as per its declaration but what has it achieved in concrete terms? By announcing that there will be no premature withdrawal of the stimulus package it, of course, underscored the importance that the summiteers attached to the short-term recovery from the global financial and economic disaster; but in the absence of a decisive move towards financial sector reforms any breakthrough eluded the (…)

• Need for a New Economic System

  5 October 2009, by P.B. Sawant

  Amidst the whirlwind of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, the main casualty is man. Not that he was ever at the centre-stage after the industrial revolution with capitalism in the saddle. But he had still the power to resist its inhuman onslaught through unionisation. Globalisation, which is the present incarnation of the capitalism and its end product, imperialism, has snuffed out even that little opposition with the national government obeying the dictates of the (…)

• President Obama’s Landmark Initiative towards World Peace and Security

  5 October 2009, by Muchkund Dubey

  In human history, the discovery of an offensive weapon has each time been followed by the quest for a defensive weapon against it. Moreover, offensive weapons can also serve the purpose of defence and the same weapon can and has been used for both offensive and defensive purposes. All this is true of nuclear weapons also. Attempts to build defences against missiles commenced as early as in the 1960s. The first step in this direction was the launching of anti-satellite weapons of one kind or (…)

• Gandhi’s Words in Present Context

  5 October 2009

  (On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s one hundred and fortieth birth anniversary on October 2 this year, we reproduce his following unforgettable words that are of abiding relevance in the current scenario.) The purity of my striving will be put to the test only now. Today, I find myself all alone. Even the Sardar and Jawaharlal think that my reading of the political situation is wrong and peace is sure to return if partition is agreed upon. They did not like my telling the Viceroy that even (…)

• Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today

  5 October 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of diffe-rent denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which will spread over a whole year.
  The Congress party is holding a meeting of its highest organ, the Working Committee, the very same week at Belgaum, at the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra—this again to mark the (…)

• Deep Transpersonal Ecology: Gandhian Connection

  5 October 2009, by C M Bhandari

  As history unfolds a trend is clearly visible that beyond a critical point simple patchwork solutions to some of our basic problems do not work. The only course then is either to accept the fate accompli or seek a holistic purposeful approach. The wisdom to see things in correct proportion and perspective has often been shown by few men and women of vision. The need to re-examine issues of sensitive nature in the right perspective, and use, as and when necessary, the elements of available (…)

• Remembering Somnath Lahiri on His Birth Centenary

  5 October 2009, by SC

  Last month on September 1, the birth centenary of legendary Communist leader Somnath Lahiri passed almost unnoticed. The CPI, to which he belonged, did not deem it necessary to even hold a public meeting to pay homage to his abiding memory; yet he was one of the stalwarts of the party and the communist movement and ranked among those who had laid the foundations of both.
  Along with Dr Ronen Sen and Abdul Halim he built the party’s Calcutta Committee which had once won the recognotion (…)

• Chinese Intellectuals: State versus New Left

  5 October 2009, by Ravindra Sharma

  The following is based on interviews with Chinese intellectuals These interviews are part of a project entitled “Chinese Politics and Ideology since Tiananmen”, sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The author visited China in April 2007, and interviewed 25 leading intellectuals of Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and the Hong Kong University of China. As per the agreement, the names of Chinese intellectuals have not been mentioned. However, those of the proponents of the New (…)

• Maturity of Democracy in Japan or Acid Test for Hatoyama?

  5 October 2009, by Rajaram Panda

  In what was a political earthquake, Japan’s Opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), registered a stunning victory in the general elections held on August 30, 2009. The DPJ victory raised a significant shift in policy after more than half-a-century of almost unbroken conservative rule. In fact, much before the final counting of votes was over, it was being projected that the DPJ, a broadly progressive party whose ranks include Socialists as well as former Liberal Democratic (…)

• Latest Moves by Islamabad and Beijing

  26 September 2009, by SC

  Recent developments in Pakistan relating to Hafiz Saeed, the founder-leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa-cum-Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been cautiously welcomed by India.
  On September 16, the police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered two cases against him in Faisalabad for glorifying jihad and soliciting funds for it. The cases were unconnected to the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008. But what is significant is that for the first time cases were filed against him by the Punjab Government (…)