Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Beyond JNU : Rising Above Scandalous Chauvinism and Fake Secularism

  30 April 2016

  by Diptendra Raychaudhuri
  Many years ago, I went to Punjab to cover an election held in the backdrop of terrorism tearing apart peace and prosperity of the State. That was in 1992. I was young, still not 30, and my perceptions about the world and India, about politics, about different developments, were mostly in black and white. The Khalistan movement was bad and anti-national, and I assumed anyone having sympathy either for the movement or for those who joined it were all anti-national (…)

• Comprehending Indian Politics from Indira Gandhi’s Last Term as PM

  30 April 2016

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Amna Mirza
  Autumn Of The Matriarch: Indira Gandhi’s Final Term In Office by Diego Maiorano; Publisher: Harpercollins Publishers India; 2015; 261 pages; Price: Rs 599.
  History has narratives and as great historian Santayana said, ‘Those who ignore mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them.’ In a similar vein, it also becomes important to question what history has to offer and whether any ideation was hitherto uncovered. It is one thing to learn history by (…)

• HC’s Uttarakhand Verdict, Drought Scene

  25 April 2016, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As we go to press, the most significant development today has been the judgment of the Uttarakhaand High Court setting aside the Centre’s decision to impose President’s Rule in the State. Reacting to this ruling the Opposition parties have unequivocally welcomed the Court order with the CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury aptly describing it as a “slap” on the face of subverters of the Constitution, that is, those who were behind the extension of the Centre’s jurisdiction in (…)

• Systematically Dismantling the Academic Credibility of our Institutions

  25 April 2016, by Sandeep Pandey

  Associate Professor Shreya Bhattacharji is the latest target of the Sangh Parivar. She was suspended from the Central University of Jharkhand by the Vice-Chancellor, Nand Kumar Yadav, for having invited retired Professor M.N. Panini of the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University to a CUJ event as the guest of honour. Panini has been accused of being a mentor of the students from JNU who face sedition charges. The fact is that Panini is (…)

• Lenin (April 22, 1870-January 21, 1924)

  25 April 2016

  Where accidents of birth or whims of money Determine the World’s value, high or low, And gambling greed flits where the wealthy go, Man’s bagatelle, a pawn, not worth a penny. Thru this external fault, mankind has been For ages dark, paltry amid profusion. But empire’s siren-song, of Commerce queen, Now ends, is changed in Life’s great revolution. Each his own value now—life’s based on reason. Now starts the blade sharp conflict that’s worldwide Of mind and body, that new forms allow, Being (…)

• Who is the Traitor?

  25 April 2016

  by Binoy Viswam
  The history of fascism is written in black. The ‘Reichstag arson’ is an inseparable chapter in that black history. Reichstag was the German Parliament House. On February 27, 1933 it was set on fire. This incident was pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. The responsi-bility for the arson was ‘promptly’ tagged on the Communist Party by Adolf Hitler and his accomplices. George Dimitrov, the leader of the world communist movement, was made the culprit in the case along (…)

• Nationalism and National Movement

  25 April 2016

  by P.C. Jain
  The Indian national movement has had a unique feature of being internationalistic. Its nationalism was not conservative, aggressively chauvinistic but inspired by humanitarianism. There was consciousness of what was happening in different parts of the world. This unique feature distinguished it from other national movements of the countries of Asia, Africa and South America. The national struggle was spearheaded by the Indian National Congress which also consisted of parties (…)

• Nation and the Psychopathology of Nationalism

  25 April 2016

  by Chetan Sinha
  Belongingness to the nation is a thinking and, in fact, a collaborative thinking. We as humans have the power to think and act on the environment and we do it by bringing visible changes. Now the questions are: ‘Why we bring change?’, ‘Who has given us the right to bring change?’, and the most important: ‘What is change and why it becomes important?’ These questions will be discussed under the context of a nation being nationalist and the claim of nationality.
  The (…)

• Democratic Disorder in India

  25 April 2016, by J.J. Roy Burman

  For many of us from North-East India, it is a shocking phenomenon that while eight States of the region are represented by only 25 members in the Lok Sabha, Uttar Pradesh alone is done so by 80 members. It is not realised usually that this arrangement leads to a North Indian hegemony automatically. The political party winning a majority of the seats in UP and may-be some more seats in a few other States easily forms the Union Government. This is exactly what the BJP has managed to do in the (…)

• Why did Mehbooba decide to go with the Fascist Forces?

  25 April 2016, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  I don’t believe in symbolic one-liners along the strain that a woman Chief Minister can do wonders for the women and men and children of the State. Women Chief Ministers in States other than J&K haven’t fared too well; not reached out to any particular segment… I’m of the opinion that you could have a ruler from any community or segment or class but he or she ought to be absolutely unbiased and straightforward.
  Like many others I feel saddened that Mehbooba Mufti decided to (…)