Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Ved Bhasin — A Tribute

  16 November 2015, by Badri Raina

  You inaugurated your first flush Of youth by shoring up innocent Blood in the bylanes of your Beloved city. And then never Once looked back from doing what Had to be done to keep kashmiris Of all definition together against The hate-mongering, bigoted Sectarian. You wrote and spoke Fearlessly on behalf of the human, Never letting the petty-minded Ruffle your masterly composure. Not least of your contributions Is the daughter you gave us— Schooled in the steel of your Conviction that it is in (…)

• Massacre at Delhi

  16 November 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  I was on my way to Peshawar from Lahore to meet Khan Abdul Wali Khan, son of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi. My friend and I stopped at Abottabad, halfway, to have a cup of tea. The radio continuously blared that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been assassinated by her Sikh security guards.
  It was a BBC broadcast. The All India Radio announcement came four hours later. There was no question of our proceeding further. But it was too late to catch the flight back to Delhi from (…)

• Why I am returning my Award

  16 November 2015, by Arundhati Roy

  The Sahitya Akademi is India’s premier institution of letters, with a stated commitment to “promoting Indian literature throughout the world”.
  Although I do not believe that awards are a measure of the work we do, I would like to add the National Award for Best Screenplay that I won in 1989 to the growing pile of returned awards. Also, I want to make it clear that I am not returning this award because I am “shocked” by what is being called the “growing intole-rance” being fostered by the (…)

• Why I am Returning the National Awards

  16 November 2015, by Tapan Bose

  Fundamental freedoms, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of movement are under serious threat in our country. Never in the history of independent India, we were told what kind of food we may eat and what we cannot eat, what kind of music we may hear and what we cannot, which books we may read or not read. Groups of self-appointed cultural and religious police aligned to the ruling party are roaming the streets intimidating, threatening and killing people with impunity. (…)

• Syria Peace Talks a Small Step, but Leans Forward

  16 November 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  When diplomats from seventeen countries sit down together for the first time in a particular format and after “a frank and constructive discussion” for over seven hours manage to find common ground to issue a joint statement spelling out in nine points their “mutual understanding”, although “substantial differences remain” regarding an acute regional conflict, that is a commendable effort—especially, when it is about “the grave situation in Syria and how to bring about an end to the violence (…)

• Panchayat Elections in UP Suggest New Trends

  16 November 2015

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The results of the panchayat elections in UP are indicative of the direction towards which the political power is shifting. Although these elections are not contested on party lines and are apolitical by nature, parties do support the candidates. The SP, the ruling party, emerged as the largest party. The BJP had entered the fray with the objective to rehearse the ensuing Assembly elections after two years. The Congress and BSP had also attempted to recapture (…)

• Politics of ‘Distancing’ a la BJP

  16 November 2015, by Sharad Rajimwale

  Among the many things fabricated by the BJP rulers after their assumption to power in India, one striking fixture is the politics of ‘distancing’. On a close look it appears to perfectly suit their total action plan which enjoys the benefit of being worked out with great care and meticulous vision by those who are not in power, yet are powerful. The RSS does not leave anything to chance. It believes in working out the fine blueprint and getting down to it well in advance. Even the communal (…)

• Nehru for Today

  16 November 2015, by Jawaharlal Nehru

  Jawaharlal Nehru’s 126th birth anniversary falls on November 14, 2015. On this occasion we are reproducing the following excerpts from Nehru’s speeches and writings that are of exceptional relevance today.
  Before I am anxious about anything today, it is the communal spirit in India. Before I can deal with the communal spirit of Pakistan, I want to deal with the communal spirit in India, the communal spirit of the Hindus and Sikhs more than that of the Muslims. I want this House to realise (…)

• Do We Need Nehru Today?

  16 November 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Twelve years ago Jawaharlal Nehru died is harness on May 27. Inevitably, much has changed in these twelve years among his people and in the humanity at large. He was not the man who would have preferred the status quo to change; and if the landscape and the skyline of his country have changed—at places beyond recognition—Nehru, had he been alive, would have tried to understand them, accelerate the process of change.
  What we who belong to the generations after him (…)

• India Needs Nehru Again

  16 November 2015

  by L.K. Sharma
  This is no usual anniversary for paying tributes to Nehru. He and his principles are under attack by those wanting to drag India into a direction not envisioned by the freedom fighters nor sanctified by the secular India’s Constitution.
  A debate on Nehru’s failures as the Prime Minister has been there for long and his record is a legitimate subject of criticism or praise. But today some basic principles, that Nehru, other Congress leaders and most Opposition leaders stood (…)