Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• West Bengal Politics Recycled: Retrospect and Prospect

  26 July 2015

  by Pratip Chattopadhyay
  Introduction
  “Ek je chilo raja, tar bhaari dukhh...ahaa raja, kade raja...dakho raja ...bechara rajar aj bhari dukhh....”
  (There was a King immersed in sorrow... poor soul, the king is in tears...it’s a pity that today the King is sad...)
  The famous Bengal film maestro, Satyajit Ray, in his film, Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen (1968), composed a song (a part quoted above) that has been utilised by Ray to observe that even a powerful ruler is not immune from the (…)

• Highly Painful and Offensive Remarks of Prime Minister Modi

  25 July 2015

  COMMUNICATION
  Kapil Sibal has rightly condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Shanghai that Indians used to see their butt in India as a curse and a slight to national pride. He is cent per cent correct in stating that never in history has there been a moment when the Prime Minister went abroad and remarked that it was his misfortune that he was born in India. There has never been a Prime Minister like Modi who felt ashamed of being born in his country.
  Dr M. Hashim Kidwai, (…)

• The Image Is All

  25 July 2015, by Mukul Dube

  The view is held by many that we Indians are loud in whatever we do. To take a recent example, Kanak Mani Dixit of Nepal’s Himal is reported to have said, of Indian media people in the aftermath of the earthquake, “The shrillness, jingoism, exaggerations, boorishness and sometimes mistakes in coverage have rankled the host community.”
  The Hindu Right exemplifies this feature of Indianness. It is convinced that the pretence and the trappings of grandeur are necessary always. We have before (…)

• After Iran Deal and Modi-Sharif Talks

  20 July 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Two major events have taken place on the global plane.
  On July 14 Iran and a group of six nations (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) clinched a final, historic deal on Iran’s nuclear activities. In turn, the deal will end Iran’s international isolation. It is a remarkable breakthrough in world affairs and the global media acknowledged the pivotal role played by US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in securing this momentous (…)

• Chinese Pundits tell Fairy Tales

  20 July 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Do not be surprised if after reading former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran’s column in the Business Standard newspaper, entitled “The Beijing paradox”, on a Track II in the Chinese capital, the Chinese think-tanker bears striking resemblance to his Indian counterpart, trading in fantasies and passing them off as strategy.
  Saran summed up some hypotheses that lie behind China’s global strategy. One, China assumes that the emergent world order will be “bipolar” and headed by it and the United (…)

• July 16, 2015 marks Aruna Asaf Ali’s 106th birth anniversary

  20 July 2015

  Born as Aruna Ganguly in Barisal (now Bangladesh) on July 16, 1909, she emerged as one of the most striking freedom fighters especially in the last stage of our battle for emancipation from foreign yoke. Her dedication to the cause of liberation of the toiling millions remained undiminshed till the very end and she tirelessly worked in various capacities to realise the dream of an exploitation-free, new and radiant India she and her colleagues in the national movement had before them when (…)

• Looking back on August 1942

  20 July 2015, by SC

  How do you reflect on those unforgettable days of August 1942 after fifty years?
  Aruna Asaf Ali: Gandhiji’s ‘Do or Die’ message and his statement that every person is his own leader thrilled the masses and some of us. A few of us decided that going to jail was no way of serving the national cause. So we thought we’ll stay out of jail and lead the masses in the ‘Do or Die’ battle.
  That’s how we then felt. We did not kill people for the sake of killing but we decided that we would upset (…)

• Aruna Asaf Ali: A Tribute

  20 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Generations spanning over centuries have been told that the French Revolution devoured its own children. In a sense, this could be said also of the Russian Revolution in which many of its heroes had themselves to face the firing squad.
  There is however the other side, the heroic aspect of every revolution as it throws up leaders, and these in turn try to carry forward the revolution itself. Aruna Asaf Ali was one of these beautiful children reared by the Indian (…)

• I Salute You

  20 July 2015, by Som Benegal

  One more link with the past has gone,
  One more patriot gone to rest forever,
  United with history in the journal of her life.
  O, Aruna Asaf Ali, I salute you
  For your tireless wanderings
  Through the maze of revolution,
  But never faltering even though
  Your comrades locked you out at journey’s end.
  Som Benegal
  July 31, 1996 (Mainstream, August 10, 1996)

• Letter to Friends and Relatives from Tihar Jail-3

  20 July 2015, by Kobad Ghandy

  The following letter reached us late. We are thus belatedly publishing it for the benefit of our readersin general and Kobad Ghandy’s friends and relatives in particular.
  This is to thank you all ever so much for the support you rendered, in so many ways, against the harassment I have been facing since the past nine months due to routine three-four monthly jail transfers.
  This method of routine jail transfers is a notorious weapon of harassment (earlier used as a form of punishment), (…)