2016

by Showkat Ahmad
To understand the Kashmir issue one needs to realise and accept its complexity. Depending on the side from where you view it, the conflict in Kashmir can be seen as a fight for identity, a fight against the political status quo, the remnants of partition, the result of religious assertion, long denied political promises and rights or India-Pakistan friction. More so, Kashmir has often been described as the unfinished business of partition by the Pakistani leadership and (…)

by V.G. George
Prof Irfan Habib‘s letter to the CPI-M Polit-Bureau on June 26 seeking a positive approach to the Congress in the context of the BJP‘s emergence [that appeared in Mainstream (July 23, 2016)] deserves a considered discussion. The traditional Left parties in the country, including the socialists and communists, are on the wane and they alone cannot fight the BJP is a plain truth. The socialists, who had secured ten per cent votes in the first general elections, could secure (…)

COMMUNICATION
Gandhi Jayanti, that is, the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, the idol of millions of Indians, under whose supreme leadership the country became free and independent, is celebrated on October 2 throughout our vast landmass. He stood for a united, secular and democratic India, equal respect for all religions, a composite national culture and the elimination of hatred and discrimination through his highly inspiring principle of ahimsa. But the RSS (…)

November 3, 2016 marked Nikhil Chakravartty’s 103rd birth anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce three pieces on N.C. written by three personalities, former President K.R. Narayanan and eminent journalists N.S. Jagannathan and Hiranmay Karlekar, who knew him closely. These appeared first in The Book Review (August 1998) and then in Mainstream (September 12, 1998).
For N.C. Democracy and Socialism were Inseparable
k.r. narayanan
It was in 1963 that I met Nikhil Chakravartty for the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
November 1 this year marked the birth centenary of Mohan Kumaramangalam. On this occasion we pay our homage to him by reproducing the following piece that N.C. wrote under the pseudonym ‘An Old Comrade’ after Mohan’s untimely death due to an aircrash near Palam airport on May 31, 1973. M.K. and N.C. were indeed close comrades since their days in England in the 1930s (and they had a gap of three years in age—N.C. was born on November 3, 1913 and M.K. on November 1, (…)

Indira Gandhi’s 32nd death anniversary fell on October 31 this year. On this occasion we are reproducing the following ‘Editor’s Notebook’ that N.C. wrote after her death.
Twenty years after her great father’s passing away, Indira Gandhi fell, he frail body riddled with the assasin’s bullets, in the winter morning of October 31, 1984.
She died as she lived—taking danger as her constant companion. And she left behind a nation not only benumbed with searing sorrow but engulfed in (…)

by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
More than three decades have passed since Mrs Indira Gandhi, the last most pragmatic Prime Minister of the country, was assassinated. A candid review of her tenure may throw up several questions; but at the same time several achievements also crown that glorious period when she was at the helm of affairs. These glittering effects have withstood the onslaught of time, political parties and historians of the defeated countries and researchers of the powerful (…)

by Satya Narayana Sahu
For the first time in the history of our independent India the Union Government took a momentous decision to celebrate October 31, the birthday Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as the National Unity Day. He was one of the towering figures of our freedom struggle and along with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru he played an epoch-making role in fighting for our independence, unifying our country and, above all, setting an example of a leader who was acclaimed for probity, (…)

October Revolution: Ninetyninth Anniversary
Seventh November this year will be observed as the ninetyninth anniversary of the historic October Revolution whose centenary will be marked next year. Although the socio-economic system in Russia has been overturned and the once mighty USSR dismantled, the worldwide significance of the Russian Revolution of 1917 has not waned in the least; on the contrary its importance has been heightened in the light of the latest international events that (…)

Sister Nivedita was a firebrand disciple of Vivekananda. She lived in India for 13 years (1898-1911). She could have the association of her Master for only three years and five months and worked wholeheartedly for the cause of freedom of India for the remaining nine years. But her initial stint in India is more well known than the latter. It is rather imperative to put the content of social discourse straight in the context of her 150th birth anniversary on October 28, 2016.
Vivekananda (…)