2018

On May 31, 1973 Mohan Kumaramangalam passed away in a tragic air accident. On N.C.’s twentieth death anniversary we reproduce the following tribute that the founder of this journal penned under the pseudonym ‘An Old Comrade’. M.K. and N.C. were indeed close comrades since their days in England in the 1930s and the friendship bloomed during their collective struggle in the communist movement; it was retained in subsequent years and even when Mohan joined the Indira Gandhi Cabinet as a (…)

Alienation of the Minorities
Since the BJP-led government under the leadership of Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre in 2014, the country has been sinking into multi-pronged degradation. The minority communities, particularly the Muslims, have never felt as insecure and excluded from the mainstream of national life, as they are feeling today. Organised gangs, most of them affiliated with the ruling party, the BJP, and its political and cultural mentor, the RSS, are on a rampage to (…)

In 1986 the Universtiy of Wisconsin Press published my book on Charles Dickens.
My purpose in that book was to demonstrate through an intimate analysis of Dickens oeuvre how Dickens’ deeply felt human concerns were vitiated often by the fact that he was simultaneously both a disgusted and an aspiring Victorian. His disingenuous equation with the then industrial working class may be a classic instance. In the Introduction to that long argument, I made reference to the parallels of that (…)

Nikhilda (Respected Nikhil), as he was widely known and referred to, much as his close compatriot G. Parthasarathi was better known as G.P., was a wonderful many-sided personality like his colleagues and compatriots—of whom G.P. and his “brother” P.N. Haksar were the key figures. Nikhil (who was about the same age) was a product of the radical 1930s when Left-wing political, economic and social views were the norm. To Nikhilda, the anti-Fascist movement worldwide was integrally connected to (…)

The entire village was agog:
an important person coming to dine
at the house of a poor Dalit.
There was big commotion rising
from slow pitch to high crescendo.
A spurt of activity followed:
the lane in front of the house cleaned,
watered; garbage removed;
a portable generator installed
to provide power uninterrupted.
Furniture, carpet, electric fans
were all arranged to make
the dining space comfortable
for the honoured guest
to savour food along with the (…)

One day in a distant summer, I followed Sumit Chakravartty up the steps of the platform at Nigambodh Ghat where, a day before, the nation’s senior journalists, politicians and activists had cremated Nikhil Chakravartty, editor in chief of Mainstream, and mentor to a generation of younger scribes. There were no mantras and no religious rites, but the son had saluted his father recalling words we had often heard, This above all, Be Truthful to Yourself. Our fingers now groped in the quenched (…)

I had first met Nikhil Chakravartty in the Spring of 1987. That was the time I was working as a Features Editor with a magazine and was assigned to do a feature on him. Of course, I had heard him at the various meets but had never had the privilege of conversing with him, although each time I would hear him speak at those forums I would be more than tempted to go up to him and tell him how I admired his forthrightness and the bravado with which he’d speak. There was that strong sense of (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Of the many realities refreshed by the ongoing football frenzy, two are revelatory for India. First: Kicking a ball around is an instinctive urge of all humans which explains both the universality and the irresistibility of football. India fell off the grid because of the willingness with which it surrendered its soul to the concocted colonial game of cricket. Second which follows from the first: In a world festival where even countries like Saudi Arabia and Tunisia are stars, (…)

BOOK REVIEW
My Journey from Marxism-Leninism to Nehruvian Socialism: Some Memoirs and Reflections on Inclusive Growth by Dr C.H. Hanumantha Rao; Academic Foundation, New Delhi; Price: Rs 1295/-.
A supple mind does not stick to a rigid formulation on any socio-economic issue. Ground realities change. Hence, except for a frozen mind, theories reflecting the real situation also have to undergo change. Mathematical rigidity would make these theories non-applicable. John Marshall wrote his (…)

by L.K. Sharma
The following is the second and concluding part of a two-part article. The first part appeared in Mainstream
(June 23, 2018)
Britain has undergone rapid secularisation in the last 50 years. It is no playground for religious bigots. Northern Ireland is an exception. There some people are always ready to die for their religion. In the rest of the country, the clergy’s influence has waned over the years.
In the neighbouring Ireland, the Catholic church’s hold on popular (…)