2012

In his acclaimed survey of history, Eric Hobsbawn marked the third quarter of the 20th century as a golden age in the West. His argu-ment was that industrial progress occurred in the postwar years alongside egalitarianism and rising living standards for all. Before long, however, income inequalities began widening in what some experts called the great U-turn. As the rich-poor gap grew, the golden age dimmed and democracy itself weakened.
Hobsbawn’s theories have triggered debates. The (…)

I remember reading in a high-brow British magazine some years ago that a golden rule of literary criticism is that when you review a book you should forget its author and when you write about the author you should forget the book. I don’t know how valid this rule is or even whether it can be universally applicable. However, it has a marginal relevance to my assignment of writing about Mainstream’s celebration of its first 50 years. One cannot write about Mainstream’s golden jubilee without (…)

It is an occasion both of rejoicing and introspection for a person like me who has been associated without interruption with the Mainstream since its birth and during all the years of ups and downs. In fact, it was Nikhil Babu who taught me the skills and intricacies of journalistic writing. His associates, C.N. Chitta Ranjan, D.R. Goyal and Saral Patra, always encouraged me to continue my association.
To refresh the memory, the Mainstream came into being when India was facing a grim (…)

Mainstream appeared at a critical moment of independent India’s history. Its first issue was dated September 1, 1962. The eighth issue (dated October 20) hit the newsstands a day before, on the 19th. And on the 20th, began the Chinese aggression in Arunachal Pradesh (then NEFA). At the time, the biggest Left formation in India was the undivided CPI. The Chinese aggression put the party in a moral quandary: was it an ‘aggression’ or a ‘border war’? If it was an aggression then who was the (…)

by O.P. Sabherwal
The rise of Mainstream synchronised with a period of building Indian nationhood, when both the economy and its political propulsion treaded an unchartered path posing baffling questions.
Those were the later decades of the twentieth century. The Mainstream was an unorthodox offshoot of the Left plank of Indian journalism, its creator and builder, Shri Nikhil Chakravartty, a charismatic personage and communicator with exceptional abilities. Rightly has he been described (…)

Fifty years is a long period for any forum
to survive and move from strength to strength. Mainstream can look with great pride to its role in the five decades of its existence, particularly because it started publication without big money support and could sustain only with the help of a small group of conscious individuals. The group kept getting larger and larger with each passing month and year, without any worthwhile revenue coming by way of advertisements. The beginnings were almost (…)

by A Commentator
Bushmaster guns have made it to the headlines after the recent heartbreaking shooting in a school in the United States. While the debate on gun ownership following the massacre was marked with outrage, what remained unchanged was the fact that ownership of weapons, especially guns, is part of the US heritage and culture and therefore a deep-rooted social issue. The roots of weaponries in the US culture are so deep that apart from gun shops and supershops even the average (…)

There were fireworks and dancing in the streets when Ajmal Kasab was hanged. It is unlikely that the damage done in Mumbai in November 2008 was undone by this noise and boisterousness, and there is no reason to believe that the man’s execution will keep others from doing what he did; but the event, like a victory in a cricket match or a wedding in the family of the local zamindar, whether or not a legislator also, had to be celebrated. Importantly, the flag of National Security had been (…)

BOOK REVIEW
The Underside of Things: India and the World: A Citizen’s Miscellany, 2006-2011 by Badri Raina; Three Essays Collective; 2012; Pages: xxii+758; Paperback Rs 850.
Badri Raina is like an all-season fruit-bearing tree. And the more he ages the mellower gets the fruit he bears. The 134 essays gathered between the covers of this book and written for Z-net over six years between 2006 and 2011 are ample testimony to his engaged critical productivity. Each essay is a timely, more (…)

In the context of the globalising economy, the hegemonic neo-liberal global policies have regained relevance. Based on large-scale indus-trialisation and privatisation, a higher economic growth focuses on increasing investment in terms of capital and technology. The growth-centric approach to development has contri-buted to an economy that is extractive in terms of resources and labour power. Ironically, this has resulted in further disparities and divisions between the geographical regions (…)