2016

A mother of two small children at 41 after a life of passion doing good for the unfortunate, the refugee, and a member of Parliament to boot, shot dead on a British street talking to constituents. And you tell me there is a God.
S. Nihal Singh

Lest We Forget
Fortyone years ago on June 26, 1975, the Emergency was proclaimed throughout the country as the ruling leadership bared its fangs nakedly displaying its dictatorial proclivities. We present here write-ups and poems that bring back the nightmare of those dark days when our freedom was sought to be snatched away and our voice throttled.—Editor
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Emergency: What it meant by Amiya Rao, B G Rao (27 June 2012) http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article3526.html
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The (…)

The trick of the times clearly is to bloat the least of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s successes into an India-shaking phenomenon. Thus, does it matter that in Assam the Congress had been in government for fifteen years and was by any reckoning due for rejection; never mind the fact that had that party borrowed an iota of the BJP’s cunning and struck what might have seemed alliances-waiting-to-be-made, it could well have got a fourth term in office? Or does it matter that even now the INC has (…)

There is a good deal of misunderstanding about the subject itself, which is aggravated by the language of Article 44 of the Constitution. Most people believe that we do not have common civil laws in this country. The reality is, all civil laws are common, except one law, namely, the personal law which varies with the religious groups. The personal law relates to marriage, divorce, succession and inheritance, main-tenance, custody of children and adoption. By tradition, the personal law is (…)

According to a report in The Hindu newspaper of June 12, 2016, Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak said that he is “sad to see that Hindu organisations [are] being targeted in spite of a Hindu government being in power”. He forgot that the law has no religion and that the law is above the government in power. A man who kills another human being is a murderer, plain and simple, and he is liable to the same punishment regardless of his religion. Most important, the Constitution of India (…)

by Praveen Davar
No two leaders in the freedom struggle were closer to each other ideologically, and personally, than Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. Nehru and Bose had much in common when it came to their views about the social and economic reconstruction of India. Both believed in variants of socialism and were deeply committed to secularism and Hindu-Muslim unity. It was only in 1939, less than two years before Subhash escaped to Germany, that the duo fell out. No two leaders (…)

The following is the speech delivered by the CPI-M General Secretary at the EMS Smrithi, Thrissur, (Kerala) on June 13, 2016.
I am, indeed, very happy to be back at the EMS Smrithi. I am honoured to inaugurate this 2016 discussions on the ‘Idea of India: A New Agenda for Reclaiming Secular Democracy’.
‘Idea of India’ — The Backdrop
The emergence of Nation-States was integral to the long process of transition of human civilisation from the stage of feudalism to capitalism. This period (…)

June 27 this year marks the eighteenth death anniversary of Mainstream‘s founder Nikhil Chakravartty, known to readers of this journal as N.C. On this occasion while remembering him we are reproducing tributes to N.C. by three stalwarts of Indian journalism—Inder Malhotra (who breathed his last only this month on June 11, 2016), Chanchal Sarkar and Prabhash Joshi (both of whom predeceased Inder Malhotra). Thereafter we are reproducing a few of N.C.’s writings.
Memories of a (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
My Earliest Recollections
After N.C.’s demise on June 27, 1998 three pieces were recovered from his notes as evidence that he had started writing his autobiography.We are carrying the following piece (written on March 5, 1990) on his birth and childhood.
What’s the earliest memory I have about myself? I have tried to look back to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be the earliest scene I can remember about my life.
I don’t remember anything about my birth and (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Aijaz Ashraf Wani and Mehrag Ud Din Bhat
Why India Votes by Mukulika Banerjee; Routledge Publishers; 2014; pages: 326 (2nd edition); ISBN: 9781138019713; Price: Rs 595.
Elections form the bedrock of any democracy in the world. Elections give power to the people and enable them to choose their leaders who make decisions on their behalf. Without elections democracy cannot be based on the wishes and aspirations of the people. Rather, it will turn into any other form of (…)