Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• New Year in Kashmir

  30 April 2017

  Some call it Naureh Others Nauroz New year has come Holding the hand of Spring
  Almond blossoms blush pink While white narcissus shyly smile Yellow daffodils dance in bright glee And purple hyacinths exude A heady perfume
  But not for long For it has already begun The dance of death Pinks, whites, yellows and purples Are readying to wear the henna of red Dark clouds are gathering It will now rain blood
  Lurking behind the new spring Is the ghost of last summer No Nauroz, no Naureh Only (…)

• Terrorism and Militancy: Are they quite the same?

  30 April 2017, by S G Vombatkere

  Maoists (or Naxals, according to some) ambushed a 100-strong CRPF road-opening patrol (ROP) on April 24 in Chintagufa Police Station limits of Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, killing 25 CRPF personnel and wounding six. The Maoists were reportedly around 200 in strength, and they ruthlessly continued engaging the pinned-down CRPF patrol for about one hour. The killing and wounding of CRPF personnel, causing irreparable loss not merely to their families but to the CRPF as well, is both (…)

• Another Futile Attempt

  30 April 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  It was the then Home Minister, Gulzarilal Nanda, who brought the question of Hindi to the fore. This time, it is Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju who has done so. Many people in Tamil Nadu then immolated themselves alive to register their protest. Thank God, it has not come to that stage yet. Nanda had advised the Central Government departments to write notes on the files in Hindi to express their opinion.
  The latest is that DMK leader M.K. Stalin has accused the (…)

• Development: An Elusive Conception

  30 April 2017

  by V. Mathew Kurian
  I. Introduction
  The post-Second World War era is considered the ‘age of development’. During this period, the very meaning of the term ‘development’ has undergone great transition. Experts have also enunciated various measurements of development. Multiple actors are there engaging in ‘development’ and these broadly include government and non-governmental organisations and the United Nations Organisation. Though development has many objectives, the central one seems (…)

• Morari Bapu’s Ram

  30 April 2017, by Sandeep Pandey

  The usual picture that one would see of Ram would be with Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman, of what is called the Ram Darbar. It was not a tradition to have an isolated picture or idol of Ram. Even the common greeting was ‘Jai Siyaram’, Sita’s name appeared together with Ram’s.
  Then came the Ram temple movement. A picture of Ram in aggressive posture, with arrow mounted on the bow, his hairs flying towards back, appeared during Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad converted (…)

• Protesting

  30 April 2017

  I’m a poor mortal dwelling in a city ghetto,
  working hard for a living all day long;
  what I earn suffices only for daily needs.
  Induced by a fellow dweller next door,
  I take part in rallies to augment income.
  The return is not bad: free transport,
  food packet and a fixed amount of money
  just for the sit-in till the end of the day.
  On rally days I’m taken to the big ground
  where I squat with others in an enclosure,
  listening to full-mouthed rosy promises,
  raising (…)

• Almost unnoticed, our democracy is getting abridged; is perpetual one-party rule the future of India?

  30 April 2017, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Fact No. 1: Donations by companies to political parties is the biggest contributor to corruption in India. All parties acknowledge this.
  Fact No. 2: Elimination of corruption has been a top priority with the BJP Government. After the currency demonetisation, government leaders even claimed that black money and corruption had been virtually stamped out.
  Fact No. 3: The Finance Bill rushed through Parliament two weeks ago made nonsense of the government’s stated positions. It (…)

• Response to Barun Das Gupta’s Article on Teesta River’s Water-sharing

  30 April 2017, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  Barun Das Gupta deserves our thanks and appreciation for his very thoughtful article, titled “Indo-Bangla Teesta River Treaty: A Human Problem” published in Mainstream dated April 14-20 2017. He has very rightly pointed out that the interests of the farmers and villagers of Bangladesh and India should get equal attention in resolving the dispute.
  He is also absolutely right in emphasising that the issue needs to be resolved within a wider framework of improving and (…)

• Coverage of Africa in Indian Press

  30 April 2017

  MEDIA
  by Shreejay Sinha
  This article was written quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is now being published as its relevance has been enhanced in the wake of the recent incidents involving Africans in Greater NOIDA.
  Introduction
  Africa is the cradle of humanity (the earliest Homo sapiens were found to have lived in Ethiopia), the repository of 30 per cent of the world’s remaining minerals, and keeper of the largest reserves of precious (…)

• Three Paths to Media Salvation or Perfidy

  30 April 2017

  by Amitava R. Sinha Roy
  Newspapers are at an inflection point today as readership habits are changing due to digital adoption being faster than expected. The future of the print media is at stake with big national dailies shutting editions, laying off staff, slashing costs and freezing expansions and investments. Smaller papers have been travelling on this path for quite some time.
  A slow but relentless fall in the number of readers, time spent in reading newspapers, advertisement rates (…)