Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Sri Lanka Stays on the Right Course

  31 August 2015, by Apratim Mukarji

  On August 17, Sri Lanka’s former dictatorial President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s gamble failed decisively and the country wisely stayed on its course to correct the misdeeds of the past by electing a government committed to democracy and the rule of law. The mood of the moment was memorably described by the outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe (also tipped to be the new Prime Minister) in these words: “Let us build a decent society. Let us work with consensus.” Elaborating, he said on (…)

• On the Hanging of Yaqub Memon

  31 August 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  The following lines were written just before Yaqub Memon’s execution. It is being published now as its contents have not lost their validity.
  Why am I writing for the second consecutive week on Yaqub Memon? Perhaps, because the more I’m hearing television debates and those fiercely charged discussions out there in the open on his proposed hanging, I feel its relevant to focus on those thoughts hitting ever so persistently.
  Foremost, why is it that in the midst of our supposed (…)

• The Naga Peace Accord 2015: A Step in the Right Direction

  31 August 2015

  by M.R. Biju
  The word “Naga” denotes a conglomeration of ethnic tribes living on the Himalayan range in North-East India. Angami, Ao, Chakesang, Konyak, Tangshang (formerly known as Heimi, Pangmi, Tangsa, Wancho, Nocte), Lotha, Pochury, Rengma, Sumi, Maram Mao, Tangkhul Thangal, Sangtam, Poumai, Zeliangrong, Phom, Nocte, Maring, etc. are some important sub-tribes of Naga. They are not to be confused with the Hindu Nagas (Sadhus). It is the British who brought the several tribes on these (…)

• A True Story from Partition Days

  31 August 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  This is a story of a Sikh girl who, like the hundreds of women on both sides of the border, bore the brunt of partition. Woman suffered most and underwent all type of atrocities. Rawalpindi, even before the partition, was a Muslim town. But it had then a smattering of Sikh population. Both communities had lived amicably for decades until the demand for Pakistan, a separate homeland for Muslims, soured relations between the two. Overnight, they developed an unbridgeable gulf as if their (…)

• OROP — Where is the Bitterness?

  31 August 2015, by S G Vombatkere

  The Veterans’ peaceful and dignified agitation, including relay fast, for OROP at Jantar Mantar has crossed the two-month mark. The ill-conceived police action against demonstrating Veterans on August 14 raised nationwide condemnation and media attention, and caused two Veterans to start an indefinite fast. The Veterans hold PM Narendra Modi along with his Cabinet of Defence, Home and Finance Ministers accountable, while on the opposite side, some persons are stating obstacles to OROP.
  One (…)

• Freedom Day at Amritsar

  31 August 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Three landmarks to cover in a single day—that was how some of us spent our fiftieth Independence Day.
  The first of the pilgrimage was to the Indo-Pak border post at Wagah to celebrate the anniversary of the freedom at midnight.
  Reaching Amritsar by the Shatabdi Express in the late evening of August 14, about a dozen of us led by the President of the Citizens for Democracy, Kuldip Nayar, we were received by a huge crowd at the Amritsar station itself—which included (…)

• Anonimity, Fear and Surveillence

  31 August 2015

  by Vikash Sharma and Ananya Pathak
  The modern civilisation has brought with it the expansion of urban centres, the growth of specialised occupations, the ever growing anxiety for basic resources and a perpetual threat upon one’s need to make an identity in an increasingly competitive, ruthless cultural ethos.
  Our lives are today extremely preoccupied with professional demands leaving us with little or no time to reflect upon matters that are not utilitarian but existential in their (…)

• An In-depth View of Resistance Movements in North-East India

  31 August 2015, by K S Subramanian

  BOOK REVIEW
  Rendezvous with Rebels, Journey to Meet India’s Most Wanted Men by Rajeev Bhattacharyya; 2014; Harper Collins; pp. 311; price: Rs 399.
  This is an extraordinary book which provides an integrated account of the author’s risky, exciting and adventurous 800 km journey (much of it on foot) in late 2011 from the State of Assam to eastern Nagaland in Myanmar (lasting three months and twenty days) and an un-blinkered analysis, based on interviews with the leading actors, of the main (…)

• Secularism and Faith in Europe: A Study of Religious Minorities in the United Kingdom

  31 August 2015

  by Purusottam Bhattacharya
  I
  In the late medieval and early modern era, ties between the government and the Church were strong in Europe. The Church was the predominat force and the government was considered to be almost a department of the Church. For many years religion guided the nations of Europe. While Catholicism predominated in France, Spain, Italy and Ireland; England, Germany and the Netherlands were Protestant and Greece was Orthodox. As the Treaty of Westphalia paved the way (…)

• Referendum — Indian Style

  31 August 2015

  by M.C. Pindwal
  Looking at the impasse in both Houses of the Indian Parliament in the monsoon session of 2015, it is desirable that we evolve a system to overcome such situations which are increasing over the last few years. Hence this idea of referendum, that is, to go back to the electorate on certain key issues of public and national importance. Following are some such issues of public importance. It may be a continued deadlock in Parliament as seen these days. Or if an ordinance is (…)