2010

Much before the adverse impacts of climate change started manifesting themselves, it had become evident in the interests of equality, justice and sustainability that certain significant changes need to be made in agricultural policy. With the increasing manifestation of adverse impacts of climate change and warnings of worse to come, the urgency of these changes has become much more pronounced.
If we look not just at agricultural but the overall change in policy, it is very clear (…)

The following article has been sent by the author for publication in this journal for the benefit of its readers. He is a follow-up to his earlier article, “Regional Disparities, Smaller States and Statehood for Telangana”, published in Mainstream (March 7, 2009).
The newly created smaller States, namely, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, have achieved much higher growth rates in their GSDP than the targets set for the Tenth Five Year Plan, whereas the growth rates achieved by their (…)

Two epoch-making events took place in 1917. The first was the Bolshevik Revolution in November that ended the Czarist rule over Russia and heralded the dawn of socialism in the world. The second event that did not immediately appear very important to people outside its locale proved to be the beginning of the end of foreign rule over India and sounded the death-knell of British imperialism. It took place in Champaran, a district of Bihar, about which not much was then known in other parts of (…)

Encouraged by the announcement of the formation of a separate Telangana State and provoked by the report of the Justice Sagheer Ahma headed Fifth Working Group on Centre-State Relations in J&K, appointed by the Prime Minister, the movement for separation of Ladakh from Kashmir region has gained fresh momentum and the issue of a separate Jammu State is again being debated.
A former member of the Jammu State Morcha recalls how the movement for a separate Jammu State was sabotaged (…)

Building a strong Opposition in India, after the main Opposition, the BJP, has started to fall apart for lack of an ideology or strategy and the ruling party seems wedded to globalisation of the economy, has become imperative to underpin a strong democracy. The BJP has run out of steam after its emotive Hindutva programme itself has run out of steam and development has become the core issue for the electorate. With the tight ethos of discipline in the Congress party and a lack of culture of (…)

During his visit to New Delhi in the third week of January, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that the Al-Qaeda had formed a “syndicate” of terrorist groups with Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said that the Al-Qaeda was using proxy terrorist organisations to orch-estrate attacks in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of a broader strategy to destabilise the region. Gates added that the Al-Qaeda was aiming also to provoke a war between (…)

The visit by US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, was immensely significant for the India-US strategic partnership, perceived to be shaky under the Obama Administration. Gates’ primary agenda was to clear hurdles in defence ties and bolster negotiations on pending military pacts such as Logistics Support Agreement and similar other agreements. Afghanistan and Pakistan figured prominently in his talks with the Indian establishment. Gates referred the Afghan situation as crucial for regional (…)

Introduction
Hind Swaraj, in a sense Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi’s Manifesto, was written between November 13 and November 22 on board the ship Kildoman Castle on his return trip from England to South Africa in 1909. It is considered Gandhiji’s seminal work, the theoretical basis of his life’s mission. He has said in his own foreword to the English translation:
‘These views are mine because I hope to act according to them. They are almost a part of my being… But yet they are not (…)

Even after sixty years of partition and independence of India, the historical writings about partition, both professional and amateurish historiography, prove that we are still obsessed with this watershed event of the Indian subcontinent. This is hardly surprising because of its colossal aftermath that still has resonance in individual as well as national life. But notwithstanding its passing under the rubric of history, partition is still discoursed and debated in terms of culpability, (…)

COMMUNICATION
The manner in which your publication Mainstream of December 5, 2009 has reproduced my article that had appeared in the fortnightly news magazine Frontline of the Hindu Group of Publications, dated September 25, 2009, is upsetting and deeply annoying to say the least. This was clearly with the purpose of publishing alongside the rejoinder to the article by K. Santhanam, Ashok Parthasarathi and P.K. Iyengar. You would agree that it makes proper sense for the authors KS, AP and (…)