Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Kalpana Dutt

  16 February 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following lines were written by N.C. twenty years ago and published in this journal’s February 18, 1995 issue. It is being reproduced on the occasion of the distinguished revolutionary Kalpana Dutt’s twentieth death anniversary which fell on February 8 this year. It came and went with hardly anyone remembering her on that day. Kalpana’s birth centenary on July 27, 2013 also went virtually unnoticed. But we in Mainstream have decided to offer our homage to her (…)

• Sunil Dasgupta Is No More

  16 February 2015

  On January 8, passed away in Berlin Sunil K. Dasgupta, 86. He is survived by his wife Barbara and two sons.
  His wife, Barbara Dasgupta, sent the following life-sketch of Sunil Dasgupta for publication in Mainstream.
  “Fondly known as ‘Ramuda’ or simply ‘Dada’, Sunil Kumar Dasgupta was born in 1928 in Beldhakan, now Jalakati, in Barisal in a family of ayurvedic doctors. His uncle was Nalini Gupta, the famous Chacha of ‘Chachar Kahini’, one of the founders of the Communist Party of India. (…)

• Appeal to Voters of Delhi

  16 February 2015

  DOCUMENT
  The following appeal to the voters of Delhi was issued in the form of a press release from the Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity on February 5, 2015 just before the Delhi Assembly elections which took place on February 7. Even though the elections are over and the results have been announced, we are publishing the appeal, signed by eminent personalities (like Prof Muchkund Dubey, Justice Rajindar Sachar, Kuldip Nayar), as it brings out several concerns before our polity at (…)

• Tribute to R.K. Laxman by Jayaraj Vellur

  16 February 2015

• Regional Parties: New Challenges

  16 February 2015

  by Moitree Bhattacharya
  The politics of regional parties in India is passing through a critical phase in recent times. In this phase, the regional parties are not only losing political influence, they are also facing a threat of electoral decline. In the last few decades these regional parties gradually expanded both politically and electorally, emerged as important actors not only in the States but also in national politics. By improving electoral performance some of them even acquired (…)

• Editorial

  31 January 2015, by SC

  The country has observed its sixtysixth Republic Day across our vast landmass today with the prospect of uncertainty looming large over the national scene.
  Elements which were hitherto in the fringes of our polity, unabashedly espousing majoritarian communalism, have suddenly captured the centre-stage following the Narendra Modi-led BJP’s resounding victory at the hustings eight months ago and are engaged in making all kinds of divisive statements that have caused justifiable concern not (…)

• Obama’s Visit

  31 January 2015

  Commentary
  The second visit of Barack Hussein Obama to this country during his presidency—this time as the first US head of state to attend the Republic Day celebrations at the invitation of PM Narendra Damodardas Modi—has predictably generated a lot of hype that has turned into euphoria following reports in our media of a “remarkable breakthrough’’ in operationalising the Indo-US civil nuclear coopera-tion agreement signed more than six years ago by previous dispensations in both the (…)

• Break the Siege

  31 January 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Once again the nation celebrates the birthday of our Republic, now crossing the fortyfirst milestone of its eventful career, Beyond the rituals of the occcasion, this time has come in the mind of many of the citizens of the Republic serious premonitions about its durability, whether it has the strength to overcome the challenges that beset it. Never before in these fortyone years since the promulgation of the Republic have its foundations been so badly shaken as they (…)

• Netaji on India after Independence

  31 January 2015

  On the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 118th birth annivarsary on January 23 this year, we offer our homage to the memory of that indomitable freedom fighter by reproducing excerpts from one of his writings.
  A question which many people ask is as to what will happen when the British are forced to leave India. British propaganda has made many people think that without the British there will be anarchy and chaos in India. These people conveniently forget that British occupation (…)

• Glorious Dust

  31 January 2015

  January 30 this year marks the sixtyseventh anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. To mark the occasion we are reproducing the following editorial that appeared in Pakistan Times (January 31, 1948). This was perhaps the best tribute to Gandhiji after his demise written anywhere in the subcontinent. (The writer was one of Pakistan’s most respected and best journalists, Mazhar Ali Khan.) Reproduction of this editorial is warranted in view of the anti-Pakistan sentiments being whipped (…)