2010

COMMUNICATION
Girish Mishra’s “Gandhi’s Champaran Struggle” (Mainstream, February 13, 2010) was interesting. It focused on certain aspects which are not commonly known to many. At the same time, however, it has left out many information relevant in the context of his struggle in Champaran, which was the first Indian theatre of experiment of his unique satyagraha. Maybe in a small compass, the writer could not bring many important, though relevant, facts in its ambit.
In his first (…)

Introduction
Terrorism is a categorical means of intimidation as manifested from economic volatility, political pendulum, poverty, unemployment, religious extremism, sectarianism, ethnic and cultural conflicts. It is deeply rooted in South Asia, especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has assumed a global character. In its global form terrorism has become a serious concern for the world community. After the unprecedented WTO attack on September 11, 2001, the Bush Administration started (…)

CAMEO
It is a few years now that a bronze bust of Rabindranath Tagore has been installed at Stratford-upon-Avon with his poem on Shakespeare inscribed on the pedestal in the original Bengali with his own English translation. It was a gift from the Government of West Bengal. Visitors taking a stroll in the Shakespeare garden are not likely to miss it. But how many of them, barring Indians and Bangladeshis of course, will be aware of the greatness of the greatest Bengali poet? Will they be (…)

India has emerged victorious in the recent recession, which started in the US and engulfed the whole world in a short span of time. India could be able to secure a respectable rate of growth of 6.7 per cent during 2008-09, which is the second highest in world after China. This was mainly because of the domestic-led demand of the Indian economy and stimulus measures initiated by the government at the fiscal and monetary policy levels. However, the exports of India suffered a great deal as a (…)

Law courts in Britain, their Jonathan Brother America and some Eastern countries, believing White is right, are being overwhelmed by the weight of pending cases and the people despair over the despicable delay in the administration of justice. In accordance with the increase in population, they enhanced the number of prodigal courts, but when the number of courts was increasing in arithmetical progression, the number of pending cases increased in geometric progression. Now Western judges are (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Exile and Belonging: Refugees and State Policy in South Asia by Pia Oberoi; Oxford University Press, New Delhi; 2006.
Exile and Belonging: Refugees and State Policy in South Asia deals with the state response to refugees in South Asia. It focuses on the responses of the four major South Asian states. The author, Pia Oberoi, examines the changing relationship between South Asian states and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She picks up six major (…)

Biological warfare is known to be one of the most destructive yet secretive forms of warfare. In fact its strength derives to a large extent from the fact that it can unleash so much damage without the identity of a specific attack, not to mention the attacker, becoming clear at all. Biological warfare (also called germ-warfare) can be used to spread disease among human beings or destroy crops on a large scale. Protection against such an attack is extremely difficult, specially in the case (…)

[bleu]Seventynine years ago on March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru, were executed by the British Raj at Lahore Central Jail. On this occasion we reproduce excerpts from an AIR broadcast on Bhagat Singh to mark the fiftieth anniversary of their martyrdom by the eminent historian and retired Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Bimal Prasad. The text of the broadcast was carried in Mainstream (March 28, 1981).bleu]
As Bhagat Singh, flanked by (…)

Parliament went into recess on March 16. But before that the government decided to back off in the Lok Sabha on introducing the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010. The Bill’s introduction has been deferred due to the spirited opposition from the BJP and the Left and both were prepared to call a division on the legislation. But the government’s decision to this effect was also prompted by the low attendance of the MPs belonging to the ruling UPA in the Lower House—an embarrassment (…)

Now that the Women’s Reservation Bill has been passed in the Rajya Sabha, we are reproducing the following write-up based on the speech the author, the wife of former President K.R. Narayanan, delivered at the inauguration of a National Workshop on “Training Women in Panchayats—Looking Back and Forward” (New Delhi] October 31, 1996). It was the success of women’s one-third representation in the Panchayats that influenced politicians (like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, for example) to comprehend the (…)