Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Greeks Have Spoken: What Happens Next?

  11 July 2015

  by Kavaljit Singh
  The Greek citizens have delivered a resounding ‘No’ to bailout conditions demanded by creditors in a referendum held on Sunday, July 5. The referendum was announced by Greece’s Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, on June 27 after bailout talks with the creditors failed. The referendum asked voters to decide “whether to accept the outline of the agreement submitted by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund at the Eurogroup of (…)

• Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis: A True Bharat Ratna

  11 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  June 29, 2015 marked the 122nd birth anniversary of Prof Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. On this occasion we reproduce the following piece by N.C. that appeared at the time of Mahalanobis’ birth centenary in 1993. This is particularly important now that the Narandra Modi dispensation has decided to completely devalue and destroy the Planning Commission which was painstakingly built during the days of the Nehru-Mahaalanobis model of development that charted out the path (…)

• Aftermath of 1965 War

  11 July 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  The war between India and Pakistan in 1965 is 50 years old. Even today, hostilities are attributed to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the then Foreign Minister of Pakistan. This is correct. General Mohammad Ayub Khan, who was heading Pakistan at that time, admitted in an interview that he did not want to disturb the peace, however uneasy.
  When I checked with Bhutto, he did not deny his role. In his defence he said he felt that if there was a time when Pakistan could defeat India, it was then. He (…)

• On India, Israel and Palestine

  11 July 2015, by Eduardo Faleiro

  Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj announced recently that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit Israel. Shri Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to do so. Indo-Israeli relations have witnessed a sharp upswing since the present government came to power and there has been an unprecedented level of bilateral visits by senior Ministers from India to Israel and vice-versa.
  The Israel-Palestine conflict is an unresolved issue of international politics dating from the end of the First (…)

• So Many said So Much about Emergency Excesses. But why is there No Inquiry into the Tortures?

  11 July 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  What a surfeit of Emergency narratives we’ve had this past week! Not surprising, given the way those two years, 1975-77, changed the very character of Indian democracy. A generation has grown up with no personal acquaintance of that traumatic period. For them the Emergency is likely to be no more than a word. Like Independence. Yet these are words that made—and remade—our country. Tens of thousands sacrificed their lives for independence which, today, we take for granted. Tens (…)

• Celebration in the Era of Modi

  11 July 2015

  by Imtiaz Ahmad Ansari
  Last year it was “achche din aane wale hain” (good days are about to come). It was in reference to two predictions. First, that a Modi-led government will be formed at the Centre and, second, the Modi-led government will be a panacea for all the ills India was suffering from. The first part of the prediction came true with a clear BJP-led majority government at the Centre. However, the second part of the prediction is still in limbo. Sloganeering is one thing and its (…)

• Return of Pandits to Homeland: Need for a Humanistic and not Political Approach

  11 July 2015

  by Aijaz Ashraf Wani and Mehrag Ud Din Bhat
  Over the last few months a lot of political noise has been made over the issue of return of Kashmiri Pandits to their native land. However, instead of dealing with the issue from a humanistic perspective, it has been used, as has been the case most of the time, for political rabble-rousing and drawing cheap political mileage out of it. It needs to be mentioned that the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley is a very sensitive issue, both (…)

• RSS Brand of Yoga on Display on June 21

  11 July 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Yoga is a great form of exercise. So is walking, swimming, jogging and even classical dancing. Can the government make all these compulsory in our daily lives ...in schools, colleges or offices?
  Don’t compel, don’t utter compulsory, for the minute you do so you are destroying and denting the very concept of acceptance.
  Let yoga stand out in its natural form, with all its hues intact. Don’t thrust and force it on the hapless masses. Don’t use it as a means to divide and (…)

• Indo-Pak CBMs: A Crying Need of the Hour

  11 July 2015

  by Duryodhan Nahak
  In modern times, the term confidence building measures (CBMs), assumes significance in the study of international politics. In a conflict-ridden world with growing discontent against the use of lethal, chemical and nuclear weapons, the CBMs seem to be only alternative in the hands of sovereign nation-states in general and India and Pakistan in particular through which peace and stability can be achieved in the world. Despite the history of protracted conflict and bitter (…)

• Ecological Conservation and The Historian’s Craft

  11 July 2015

  by Namrata Singh
  Due to changes in the climate in the past decades, interest in ecological changes and conservation has arisen in all academic disciplines.This is true for the discipline of History as well. E.H. Carr has defined history as a dialogue of the present with its past. This means that contemporary issues are sought to be understood in the context of the past. By doing so, certain historians, as pointed out by Beverley Southgate, write history, to provide examples from the past. (…)