Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Aruna Asaf Ali

  18 July 2009, by Jawaharlal Nehru

  It is easy to criticise any set of views in this complicated world that we live in. And Aruna Asaf Ali often says and writes something that is liable to criticism. But that criticism, however justified, would be poor stuff, for it would deal with some superficial aspect of a living, vibrant and challenging personality, who has shaken up many a sleeping person and become in many ways a symbol of these changing times.
  Symbols are often disturbing and challenges are disconcerting. And (…)

• Looking back on August 1942

  18 July 2009

  How do you reflect on those unforgettable days of August 1942 after fifty years?
  Aruna Asaf Ali: Gandhiji’s ‘Do or Die’ message and his statement that every person is his own leader thrilled the masses and some of us. A few of us decided that going to jail was no way of serving the national cause. So we thought we’ll stay out of jail and lead the masses in the ‘Do or Die’ battle.
  That’s how we then felt. We did not kill people for the sake of killing but we decided that we would (…)

• An Agenda for National Renewal

  18 July 2009, by Aruna Asaf Ali

  The following paper by the late Aruna Asaf Ali was received from her in November 1991. The paper was prepared in response to a request from the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI) for a publication to be edited by Professor Upendra Baxi (former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University), Dr (Mrs) Alice Jacob (Research Professor, Indian Law Institute) and Tarlok Singh. This paper was published in IASSI Quarterly, Vol. 14, nos. 3 and 4, January-June 1996. It was reproduced from (…)

• A Tribute to Aruna Asaf Ali

  18 July 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Generations spanning over centuries have been told that the French Revolution devoured its own children. In a sense, this could be said also of the Russian Revolution in which many of its heroes had themselves to face the firing squad.
  There is however the other side, the heroic aspect of every revolution as it throws up leaders, and these in turn try to carry forward the revolution itself. Aruna Asaf Ali was one of these beautiful children reared by the Indian people’s revolution (…)

• I Salute You

  18 July 2009, by Som Benegal

  One more link with the past has gone,
  One more patriot gone to rest forever,
  United with history in the journal of her life.
  O, Aruna Asaf Ali, I salute you
  For your tireless wanderings
  Through the maze of revolution,
  But never faltering even though
  Your comrades locked you out at journey’s end.
  July 31, 1996 Som Benegal
  (Mainstream, August 10, 1996)

• Feminism or Reservation?

  18 July 2009, by Malini Bhattacharjee

  A die-hard feminist at heart, I find the recent controversy revolving around the Women’s Reservation Bill disturbing. At a time and age when it has been established over and again that women are equal, if not better than men in terms of their capability, intellect and maturity, why is there a need for reservation suddenly? A staunch adherent of meritocracy, I have never been convinced by anybody to see the logic behind reservation of any kind, especially in present-day India. In a society (…)

• Landmark Judgment on Gay Rights: Litmus Test for Tolerance

  18 July 2009, by Praful Bidwai

  The Delhi High Court judgment in the Naz Foundation case is a landmark verdict which decriminalises homosexuality and strikes a blow in favour of personal freedom on the solid foundations of inclusiveness and respect for diversity. It deserves to be welcomed by all those who value constitutional morality and the principles of personal privacy and human dignity. It “reads down” Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code—which treats “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” as a punishable (…)

• Need for a New Poverty Line

  18 July 2009, by Kamal Nayan Kabra

  A food security law, steps to strengthen the NREGA, and so on, form parts of the pro-poor agenda of the UPA Government. For implementing these initiatives a fresh exercise to identify the below poverty-line (BPL) people has become necessary. It is obvious that the real outcomes and even the political pay-off of any such programme would depend on the extent to which the really needy acquire effective, assured, hassle and transactions cost-free access to a meaningful quantity of really needed (…)

• What Binayak Sen Stands For

  18 July 2009, by Sandeep Pandey

  Binayak Sen has been released on bail from Raipur jail after an unprecedented national and international campaign for two long years. But the man is worried about civil liberties of thousands of others like him who still continue to languish in jail and who are not fortunate enough to have a vocal middle class activist base and media vouch for them. Some like filmmaker Ajay T.G. and journalist Sai Reddy were fortunate enough to be released due to lack of any evidence against them but others (…)

• Agrarian Struggles: Yesterday and Today

  18 July 2009, by Bhowani Sen

  On July 10, 1972 passed away in distant Moscow one of the most creative Marxist-Leninists this country has produced—Bhowani Sen (whose birth centenary was observed this year on January 26).
  As was noted during his birth centenary in Mainstream (January 24, 2009),
  “. . .apart from the fact that he was one of the most erudite scholars of Marxism in general and Marxist philosophy in particular, Bhowani Sen had a highly enriched analytical frame of mind and a broad national vision which is (…)