2019

BOOK REVIEW
by Bilal Ahmad Mir
Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-administered Kashmir by Anam Zakaria; Harper Collins India; 2018; pp. xxxviii + 282; Rs 599.
Anam Zakaria’s book, Between the Great Divide: A Journey into the Pakistan-administered Kashmir is a collection of ten lucid essays divided into three different but interlinked parts—Conflict, State Policies and Beyond the Cease Fire. This is basically a pure ethnographic study of a significant portion of the (…)

EDITORIAL
The first phase of polling in the seven-phase 17th Lok Sabha elections today across 20 States and Union Territories has witnessed sporadic violence with police firing in Nawada (Bihar) while certain areas of Andhra experienced skirmishes between members of contending parties, notably the ruling TDP and Opposition YSR Congress. The polling percentage too was somewhat low in comparison with the ones in previous elections.
However, what is significant is that eventually the (…)

The following is a letter from Prof C.H. Hanumantha Rao as a response to a request from the Mainstream editor to throw some light on the economic content of Indira Gandhi’s Garibi Hatao slogan in 1971 as he was in the decision-making apparatus of the Union Government in the 1980s.
Dear Shri Chakravartty,
It is so nice hearing from you. As desired, I am giving below my impressions on the current debate on schemes for reducing poverty and inequality. This piece is too small, as I am not in (…)

COMMUNICATION
The editorial comments on the Christchurch carnage [Mainstream, March 23, 2019] were indeed very apt and appreciable. The promptness and fortitude displayed by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, underscores her determination as well as approach to the issues. Gun control has received due priority for the administration to address in the backdrop of the carnage executed by a remorseless beast, who is a native of New Zealand. We feel sure he will pay the highest (…)

by Harish Chandela
The major American naval and air base in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago is unlikely to shut down, in spite of the International Court of Justice cancelling its lease and the decision that the island be returned to Mauritius, of which it was a part of.
The base had been used by the United States during its operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf war.
Refugees of the archipelago had gone to the International Court against Britain’s (…)

by Samit Kar
India, the world’s largest democracy, would go to polls shortly. Never in the history of Indian democracy, the party or the coalition that had been able to usurp power at the Centre could gain the support of more than 50 per cent of the net population of our country. In several cases, the support base was hardly 30 per cent of the national population. Though the concept of democracy was found in the Indus Valley Civilisation, the Greeks and the Romans were instrumental for the (…)

by Irfan Engineer
On March 15, 2019, 50 Muslims offering their Friday prayers died and 48 were injured when they were shot in the Masjid al Noor mosque in Christchurch and at the Linwood Avenue mosque in New Zealand. Brenton Tarrant, a 28- year-old son of an Australian working class family and the gunman behind at least one of the mosque shootings in New Zealand, posted his 74-page manifesto making his reasons for the shooting clear. The Prime Minister of New Zealand called it a terrorist (…)

by Mahi Pal Singh
When he contested the parliamentary elections in 2014 for the first time, Narendra Modi claimed to be a ‘chaiwala’, referring to his humble beginning as a child, so that ordinary people would identify with him and vote for him. He and his party did get 31 per cent votes which were sufficient for them to come to power under the multi-cornered and the present system of election in which the candidate getting the highest number of votes amongst the contestants is declared a (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
April 14, 2019 marks the 128th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. On this occasion we are reproducing the following piece by N.C. to offer our sincere homage to the abiding memory of that towering personality.
The award of the Bharat Ratna posthumously on B.R. Ambedkar raises mixed feelings. No doubt Ambedkar was one of the stalwarts of modern India; the high water-mark of his career was that he contributed most to the drafting of the Indian (…)

IMPRESSIONS
“The Hindus wanted Vedas, and they sent for Vyasa, who was not a caste Hindu. The Hindus wanted an epic, and they sent for Valmiki, an untouchable. The Hindus wanted a Constitution, and they have sent for me.” That was B.R. Ambedkar at his biting best. He went on to underline an existential misfortune of India: “The greatest tragedy of the Hindi belt is that the people of that region discarded Valmiki and installed Tulsidas.”
That was his way of saying that the impact of (…)