Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Russian Revolution was not a Coup d’etat

  19 March 2017, by Barun Das Gupta

  The Annual Number of Mainstream (December 24, 2016) carried a piece titled ‘On Rosa Luxemburg and Russian Revolution’by Paresh Chattopadhyay (hereafter referred to as PC), a member of the Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Quebec, Montreal (Canada). Incidentally, PC, as far as this writer knows, has never claimed to be a Marxist but a Marxologist, that is, one who specializes in the theory of Marxism, rather than one who believes in it and accepts it.
  Students of post-Revolution (…)

• China-India Strategic Dialogue: Is there a Future?

  19 March 2017

  by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
  Every time China and India hold any dialogue, the outcome is often marginal compared to the expectations. After all, the two countries have been involved in a series of protracted dialogues for more than 30 years without any visible solution to the outstanding border dispute and some other issues between them. The just concluded revamped strategic dialogue between China and India at Beijing should not be, therefore, judged from a pessimistic prism but from the (…)

• In Memory of Comrade Srilatha Swaminathan

  19 March 2017

  by Kumudini Pati
  Unique Persona
  Srilatha Swaminathan was not only a comrade, with whom I worked for almost ten long years in the women’s movement led by the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA); she was a dear friend with whom I could discuss literature, art, folk music, food, cultures and even Yoga, Ayurveda and Vipassana. She came from an illustrious family of Madras, and had joined the ML movement through her interaction with the working class, for whom she was doing (…)

• BJP’s Feverish Attempts to Win UP Polls

  12 March 2017, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The marathon State Assembly elections are over. The seventh and final phase of polling in UP came to an end today—the percentage of polling being 60; whereas the second and final phase of polling in Manipur recorded an 80.6 per cent turnout.
  Although these elections saw five States—Goa, Manipur, Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand—going to polls, the UP elections are the most vital since this State with 403 Assembly seats has always presented a daunting picture and the political (…)

• PIPFPD expresses Solidarity with Gurmehar Kaur

  12 March 2017

  The following is the press statement issued by the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy on March 1, 2017.
  Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) expresses its solidarity with 20-year-old Gurmehar Kaur and condemns the ABVP and other forces that have targeted the brave girl. She is the daughter of a Kargil martyr while the ABVP’s parent organisation, the RSS, did not even participate in the freedom struggle.
  Gurmehar Kaur is being targeted for (…)

• Does Only One Person in India Have the Right to ‘Mann ki Baat’?

  12 March 2017

  by Om Thanvi
  In response to the rape threats issued on a public forum against Gurmehar Kaur, the government and its Ministers ought to have clearly come out in support of the young student. They did exactly the opposite.
  Finally, they managed to silence Gurmehar Kaur. Amidst rape threats, Kaur announced she was pulling out (https://thewire.in/112596/as-students-protest-against-abvp-gurmehar-kaur-withdraws-from-campaign-after-threats/) of the ‘Save DU Campaign’ which was initiated in (…)

• Tribute to Rabi Ray

  12 March 2017

  by S.N. Sahu
  Rabi Ray is no more. He breathed his last on March 6, 2017 at Cuttack due to age-related ailments. He was more than an admirable and outstanding figure of India’s public life. He was the only public figure of Odisha who could be called a statesman and had the dignity, grace and stature of a pan-Indian leader deriving his strength from his value-based life. With liberal outlook and vision he commanded appreciation from all quarters cutting across political and party (…)

• Panchayats, Women and Sustainable Development Goals

  12 March 2017

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Bidyut Mohanty
  The following article is being published against the backdrop of the International Women’s Day on March 8.
  Abstract
  The current century saw new concerns of the people of the world, such as gross inequality cutting across caste, class, ethnicity, and gender, conspicuous consumption and production, agricultural crisis, degradation of natural resources leading to greenhouse effects and extinction of other species at large, and various forms of conflicts (…)

• In Memory of Baljit Malik

  12 March 2017, by Bharat Dogra

  TRIBUTE
  Baljit Malik, who passed away in Delhi on February 18, will be remembered with mixed feelings by a large number of friends. He will be remembered for his involvement with and contribution to many different kinds of worthy causes. He will be remembered also as a writer who wrote well and with sensitivity and feeling. However, he used his undoubted talents as a writer very rarely. He rightly described himself as an off-and-on writer, more off than on!
  This in a way was typical of (…)

• Budget in the Era of Growing Protectionism

  12 March 2017, by Kobad Ghandy

  This is another article dissecting the Union Budget, written by the noted Marxist-Maoist thinker, Kobad Ghandy, and sent to Mainstream for publication from the Cherlapalli Central Jail, Cherlapalli, Medchal district, Hyderabad, where he is currently lodged. We have just received it and are publishing it immediately for the benefit of our readers. —Editor
  By presenting the Budget one month in advance the government is conveniently spared the consideration of the GDP figures for the third (…)