2017

Hashimpura is as deep a tragedy as the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Both minorities have not allowed the wounds to heal because they go on reminding them of the killings at that time. The perpetrators, the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) from the UP Police, are hoping that the dust would settle down sooner or later and the nation would consider the tragedy as part of ugly history to move on.
I remember the whole thing vividly. It was sometime towards the end of May when I went to Meerut in (…)

by Jayanta Kumar Ghosal
The 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore was observed this month on May 9. This year will also mark the centenary of the Great October Revolution. The following article is being pubished against the backdrop of these two events.
The history of mankind is replete with great events. One of the great events that stirred the socio-economic and political structure of the world was the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The centenary of this (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Hindu Rashtra is the goal of Hindu nationalist politics, which is also called Hindutva. In contrast to Hinduism, Hindutva is politics in the name of Hinduism with Brahmanism as the core of the same. In a nutshell, Hindutva is politics based on the Brahmanical values of caste and gender hierarchy. The concept of Hindutva-Hindu nation is a modern one, which developed as a parallel to Islamic nationalism, and in opposition to the concept of Indian nationalism. Indian (…)

May 27 this year marks the fiftythird death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. On this occasion we are reproducing the following excerpts from Nehru’s writings and interviews that are of exceptional relevance even today.
Words that Endure
The want of clear ideals and objectives in our struggle for freedom undoubtedly helped the spread of communalism. The masses saw no clear connection between their day-to-day sufferings and the fight for swaraj. They fought well enough at times by (…)

by M. Chalapathi Rau
The following article appeared in Mainstream on November 10, 1962, to mark Jawaharlal Nehru’s 73rd birth anniversary on November 14 that year. This took place during the Chinese aggression in India which began on October 20, 1962.
If only Jawaharlal Nehru had insisted on Tibet’s independence in 1950; if he had only propounded no Panchsheel with the Chinese; if only he had aligned India with the West—these are the irritant ‘ifs’ bandied about in coffee houses by (…)

by S. Gopal
The following contribution from Nehru’s biographer, Dr S. Gopal, was published in Mainstream (November 12, 1988). It was based on the Ansari Memorial Lecture which he delivered at the Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi on February 22, 1988. It is now being reproduced here because of its relevance in the present scenario.
When Jawaharlal Nehru came to active politics in the early twenties, he had not yet moved to the personal position of religious agnosticism which was to mark him in (…)

by Rafiq Zakaria
The following is a tribute to Nehru offered by the author as a member of the Nationl Committee set up for Nehru’s birth centenary. This contribution was included in a book published on November 14, 1989 following yearlong commemoration of Nehru’s birth centenary.
Jawaharlal Nehru while in power, it must be conceded, could not implement many of his ideas which he so passionately advocated when fighting against the British during our freedom struggle. He himself admitted: (…)

I. The “Nehru Models”: The Historical Nehru Model and the Posthumous Nehru Model
In most circles where opinion-making on behalf of minorities takes place, one of the reasons for appreciation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s approach towards the minorities generally is his statement that majority communalism, that is, sectarianism, is more dangerous than minority communalism. He said that “the communalism of a majority community must of necessity bear a closer resemblance to nationalism than the (…)

by Sukumaran C. V.
“Nehru Dead! Nehru Dead!! Nehru Dead!!!” The teleprinter message was hammering away in my brain. At 2 pm on Wednesday, May 27, 1964, each one of us, four hundred and fifty million Indians, died, as the great-hearted Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the heart of the nation, breathed his last. A solemn hush of silence descended on the nation. The farmer in the field, the worker in the factory, the clerk in the office, the housewives at their hearths, the children in schools—each (…)

by Prem Singh
At the time of the establishment of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) on May 17, 1934, in Patna, under the chairmanship of the patriarch of the Indian socialist movement, Acharya Narendra Deva, two goals were clear: to achieve the independence of the country and to enhance the pace of the organised efforts towards establishing a socialist system. To achieve both of these goals, it was necessary to strengthen the true anti-imperialist spirit. At the first All India Congress (…)