2016

by Malavika Nagarkar
The following is the address by Malavika Nagarkar, the President of the Brahmo Conference, at the inaugural session of the 126th All India Brahmo Conference (New Delhi, November 12, 2016).
I feel truly humbled as I stand here today to address this august congregation, in a position earlier held by some very highly eminent and venerated citizens of this great land, scholars and members of the Brahmo Samaj, and of society at large—persons who contributed to the (…)

In a country which neglects its school education can we expect a good quality higher education programme? All the governments, since the Kothari Commission’s recommendation of the Common School System was made in 1968, have successfully evaded implementation of the idea. With the adoption of the policies of privatisation, globalisation and liberalisation as part of the new economic policies since the early 1990s, two types of education system can clearly be discerned. The rich are sending (…)

by Arun Srivastava
While the fascist ultra-nationalist forces have been striving hard to occupy the centre- stage of the global polity and evolve their own variant ideology, it is heartening to note that the Communists and Left forces especially in the capitalist countries have also started asserting their existence and voice.
Probably the lone exception to this emerging trend has been the communist movement in India. The believers of Marxism and communism have refrained from asserting (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Gujarat Files—Anatomy of a Cover Up by Rana Ayyub, With an Introduction by Justice B.N. Srikrishna; Self-published; 2016; pages: 204; Price: Rs 295.
Gujarat—Behind the Curtain by R.B. Sreekumar, Indian Police Service [Retired]; Manas Publications, New Delhi; Rs 595.
Language evolves. Specially when defining violence. “Genocide” as a term came out of the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution to eliminate Jews from the Germanic Fatherland. “Persecution” is when small (…)

by Mahi Pal
Since independence, in spite of implementing various programmes for rural development and improving the quality of life of the people, issues of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, sanitation and hygiene, lack of skill development, problem of connectivity have been persisting as obstacles in the development trajectory of the country.
As far as rural development is concerned, the Government of India has been implementing a fleet of programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National (…)

by Amiya Dev
‘Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher’ is a proverb we come across in DonQuixote, its source being Sancho Panza, that mine of popular wisdom. He justifies it to his master by simply saying that a blind man may see into it. Indeed a blind man may see into the intolerance that is in the air now—the stone hitting the pitcher. The pitcher-stone image has surely many meanings; but one such meaning is that of the minority-majority (…)

by Paresh Chattopadhyay
We read with considerable interest the short piece ‘Rosa Luxemburg: Future belongs to Bolshevism’. (Mainstream, vol. LIV, No. 46) We may be permitted to make a couple of comments on this piece. (In the following we use the shortened form RL for Rosa Luxemburg.)
RL’s longstanding critique of the Bolshevik leadership is well known. However, her rather positive estimate of the Bolshevik leadership, as it appears in this short piece (in fact it is part of a longer (…)

EDITORIAL
As we go to press, Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa Jayaram, 68, is no more. She passed away at Chennai’s Appolo Hospitals on Monday night (December 5). She was admitted there on September 22 with fever and dehydration, and breathed her last at 11.30 pm on December 5 after numerous complications in her condition followed by cardiac arrest on Sunday evening (December 4).
Jayalalithaa was a remarkable personality. A brilliant student, an accomplished film star, she entered politics (…)

TRIBUTE
by Nina Dey-Gupta
Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 and passed away on November 25, 2016 after a prolonged illness of diverticulitis.
Gandhi and Castro were both political leaders. While Gandhi’s political experience and experiments in politics began in South Africa based on non-violence, Castro’s was a purely home-spun one shaped by events closer home in Cuba, having led a popular uprising against General Batista, the dictator, who had seized power in a military coup in (…)

The appointment of the new Army Chief in Pakistan invariably becomes an edifying spectacle for Indian observers. The ‘new normal’—namely, that a superannuating General calmly and with head held high walks into the sunset—underscores that Pakistan is getting accustomed to orderly transitions.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s choice of General Raheel Sharif as the Army Chief three years ago proved to be judicious. His choice of General Qama Javed Bajwa as the new Army Chief also appears to be (…)