2019

June 27 this year marks the 21st death anniversary of the founder of this journal, Nikhil Chakravartty. On this occasion we are reproducing the following article published in Mainstream (June 28, 2008). We we are also reproducing a letter from Mrinalini Sarabhai and a message from Justice P.B. Sawant, the former Chairman of the Press Council of India, published earlier in Mainstream and an article by Barun Das Gupta who had worked under N.C. as a journalist.
Nikhil Chakravartty: I Salute (…)

The following report by Nikhil Chakravartty, the Calcutta correspondent of People’s Age (published from Bombay), appeared in the weekly’s August 24, 1947 issue (it was wired from Calcutta on August 17, 1947) under the following headlines: ‘End of a Nightmare and Birth of New Dawn!’; ‘Calcutta Transformed by Spirit Of Independence’; ‘Hindus, Muslims Hug Each Other In Wild Joy—Tears Roll Down Where Blood Once Soaked The Streets’.
Day One in Calcutta
Frenzy has overtaken Calcutta. It is a (…)

On May 31 this year it was the fortysixth death anniversary of Mohan Kumaramangalam. On N.C.’s twentyfirst death anniversary (June 27, 2019) 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 (…)

by Sagari Chhabra
Girish Karnad (1938—2019) playwright, actor, film-director, administrator and public intellectual, passed away recently at a time when he was needed the most. Karnad was an incredibly talented, multi-dimensional artiste; his thought provoking plays broke away from the Western dramatic form. His performance in television serials and films, such as Malgudi Days and Swami, were appreciable, but his role as a public intellectual was incredibly courageous.
The photograph of (…)

IMPRESSIONS
No Parliament got off to a more disgraceful start than the one in session now. The Prime Minister struck a high note when he said that the Opposition should not worry about numbers, that their viewpoints would be honoured. Formalities finished, mayhem began. Oath-taking turned into a political tamasha. If one MP shouted Har Har Mahadev, another came up with Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim. Sonia Gandhi was interrupted by BJP patriots shouting Jai Shri Ram. Asauddin Owaisi (…)

by Ayushi Golwara
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently announced that women will be allowed to travel for free on the Delhi Metro, Delhi Transport Corporation buses which sparked a lot of discussion and debate. The Chief Minister said he has given officials a week’s time to make a detailed proposal on how the scheme can be implemented and “they are also seeking suggestions from people, regarding implementation,” he said, according to ANI.
In the press conference, Kejriwal (…)

by Harish Chandola
India has so far not commented on the danger or possibility of a nuclear war erupting in its neighbourhood, in West Asia, where a very dangerous development is taking shape in the Persian Gulf, to which an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is heading, to be joined by bombers, following unspecified threats from Iran.
This is in retaliation to a statement made by the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, who said his country would no longer abide by the terms of a (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The week-long strike of the junior doctors in West Bengal, which brought the entire public health care system to a grinding halt, causing untold misery to the suffering public, was called off after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee personally intervened in the situation to break the deadlock. The students relented and did not insist on the CM personally coming and apologising to them at the NRS Medical College and Hospital where the trouble started after some relations of a (…)

by Apoorvanand
The following article was first published in a different form in The Wire (https://thewire.in/communalism/bengal-violence-tmc-bjp) on June 14, 2018. This is its revised and updated version. Since this piece was written things have changed for the better in Bengal: following a fruitfull meeting with the CM, the junior doctors are back at work, having called off their strike.
Do all of us, those who love Rabindra Sangeet, those who wistfully talk about Satyajit Ray, Ritwik (…)

by Krishna Prasad
Modesty is not a virtue of the media in the pixel age, in which preening is a 24x7 pastime. There is neither a demand for it from consumers, nor a supply of it from the practitioners. Equili-brium has been achieved in the marketplace of the mind. Even so, while print, electronic and digital news purveyors use the benefit of hindsight to retro-fit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “stunning” victory into a grand narrative arc, it should not escape the attention of the (…)