2016

The most despicable action due to the growth of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s ideology was the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. If there is one individual with whom people associate India’s identity all over the world it is Gandhi. Gandhi is a source of inspiration for many struggles globally where the marginalised fight against the oppressor and lately the environ-mental movements. The RSS will never be able to wash away this sin irrespective of howsoever Narendra Modi may try to use him as a (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It is not for nothing that every Rajnikant movie is released with uproarious publicity brouhaha, from milk abhishekam of oversize portraits to trailers exploding with the hero’s superman feats. Marketing is everything. For film folk, it is the magic line between life and death. But the principle behind it applies to writers, artists and musicians as well.
M.F. Husain became India’s most famous artist by being in the news always. He was of course one of our best. But so was (…)

by R.G. GIDADHUBLI
As the year 2016 comes to an end, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has reason to feel relieved with signs of economic recovery after persisting recession during the last few years. This is because Russia’s Minister for Economic Development, Alexei Ulyukaev, has been confident that, as estimated by the Central Bank of Russia, the annual GDP growth in 2016 will be positive at about 0.2 per cent to 0.3 per cent. This will be a major development since in 2015 the GDP (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Amidst the profusion of tributes paid to Indira Gandhi on the tenth anniversary of her martyrdom on October 31, perhaps the most eloquent but concise was by the eminent scientist-philosopher, Professor Yash Pal, who said she had made us feel proud of being an Indian.
To be proud of belonging to our motherland was the constant injunction that my generation had to abide by when we were young students—that was before the country became independent. The galling yoke of (…)

It has been a stiff climb, chiselling steps _ both by heart and charter; _ yet the cliff still seems eluding. Today, I see myself in a cage, _ scrawled with a tattoo — a stigma to me, _ not erased, but paraded by them _ to use me as a pawn _ in the murky game of numbers. A meal shared, night halt at my hut _ may generate a feeling of nearness; _ yet it evaporates in the trail _ of the departing motorcade. Memorials built far away _ intend to capture imagination, _ but the sense of (…)

by P.C. JAIN
November 19 marks Indira Gandhi’s ninetyninth birth anniversary.
Indira Gandhi has been much maligned and misunderstood for imposition of the Emergency and the excesses committed during this period. What to talk of the Right even the Left criticised and condemned her for flaunting the Emergency and crucification of democracy and fundamental human rights during this period. This criticism and condemnation overlooked and clouded the considered achievements to her credit during (…)

Over 90 per cent of the world population is affiliated to some religion or the other and for millions of people life would be unthinkable without the guidance of their religion. Religion provides a sense of peace and meaning to life and connects human beings to the family and society.
Yet, in the present age, religion has emerged as a major source of conflict across the globe. Ideological strife has given place to the “clash of civilisations” and it is felt that in the foreseeable future, (…)

With the Eighth BRICS Summit over at Goa, it is time for stock-taking of the developments at the meet. BRICS is the youngest and fastest growing international grouping that is designed to make the world truly multipolar ending the hegemony of any particular country. In order to assess the outcome of the BRICS Summit at Goa on October 15-16, one must look at the genesis of this grouping, its importance for its members and the extent to which it can influence international decision-making. (…)

The great English romantic poet of old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, once described the power of imaginative poetry in terms of its ability to cause a “suspension of disbelief” for the moment in favour of poetic truth.
This now seems rather cannily applicable to India’s contemporary political life.
Remember that little problem in Kashmir? We were told on poetic authority that it was all the doing of Pakistan, the Satan of the times. And that not dialogue or any namby-pamby suchlike but (…)

COMMUNICATION
Kuldip Nayar’s column captioned, ‘The Partition’ (Mainstream, August 27, 2016), merits our observation. Our leaders, who donned the patriotic kurta, were power hungry. Tired of long struggles and expectation for the bliss of power, they instantaneously accepted the offer of partition which installed them straight in the seat of authority. Any discourse on politics of the partition of India in 1947 sans demography, which occupies the central position in the plot, mocks its (…)