Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Revisiting and Contextualising Nehruvian Economic Philosophy

  16 November 2014

  by Ranjit Singh Ghuman
  Prior to its independence on August 15, 1947 India had a bigger industrial sector than any other country which became a European colony. It was unique in being an industrial exporter in pre-colonial times. In 1700 AD India’s share in the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) was 24 per cent. That, however, declined to 16 per cent in 1820 and to 12.2 per cent in 1870. It declined further to 7.6 per cent in 1913 and dwindled to 4.2 per cent in 1950.
  During the first (…)

• Ominous Signals

  9 November 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Striking a note of departure from what PM Narendra Modi had promised the electorate during his whirlwind Lok Sabha election campaign earlier this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said rectifying the economy would take a “lot of time” since the “pit was reasonably deep” and a “large number of steps are needed”.
  At the same time he told the India Economic Summit (organised by the World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry) in New Delhi yesterday that some (…)

• Why Is Left Unity So Vital Today?

  9 November 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  At a time when the Left forces are in obvious decline, why is it so important to emphasise the need for unity of the Left forces and strengthening of the Left forces? The reason for this goes much beyond electoral gains or other narrow considerations.
  The real reason why it is of the greatest significance to strengthen the Leftist forces is that to resolve the most pressing problems of the world in time the solutions need to have an important socialist content. The problems (…)

• Imperatives of Secular-Democratic Unity

  9 November 2014, by Barun Das Gupta

  The Congress suffered its worst ever electoral defeat in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. What has been happening since then is that the two fundamental tenets of our polity, namely, secularism and democracy, are being challenged by the ruling party which came to power after solemnly taking the oath to uphold the Constitution. Secularism is being frontally attacked. Secularists are called pseudo-secularists and appeasers of minority communalism. Democracy has not been formally opposed yet (…)

• As Things Stand

  9 November 2014, by Badri Raina

  The first principle of dialectic: things never remain the same. Thus, contrary to what you may think, there are important stirrings within the Indian Left.
  History knows no greater motivator than a recognition that a termination may be in the offing. It has taken a while but an Aristotelian anagnorisis seems now dawning that India’s new Rightwing Government may not after all be just Rightwing in a classical economic sense but rightwing plus in relation to theories of state as well. India (…)

• Ukraine Poll gives Fractured Verdict

  9 November 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The quotient of happiness in politics can be very strange. All three external protagonists in the Ukraine crisis—Russia, European Union [EU] and the United States—have reasons to be both happy and unhappy with the results of the October 26 parliamentary election in that country.
  Russia draws satisfaction that President Petro Poroshenko’s faction did well, but feels uneasy that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (who is reputed to be virulently “anti-Russia”) did slightly better and came out (…)

• Love Jihad and targeting of Religious Minorities

  9 November 2014, by John Dayal

  The recent outpouring of support for the “development” agenda of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, by several leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches may possibly stave off the immediate attention of the dreaded Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Home Affairs, but it is not likely to reduce the deep and seemingly abiding distrust the Indian political and social system has of what is popularly called the “Missionaries”. Nor will it mitigate the hate that is now erupting in India (…)

• Action More Important than Disclosure of Names

  9 November 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  In the midst of the debate on the illegal foreign account holders, the names of those who were given amnesty a few days before the debate, have been forgotten. Apparently, they are from both the main political parties, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Otherwise, the shouting would not have stopped in such a short time. One other noticeable point is that there has not been even a cursory mention of how the account holders came to accumulate so much money and what steps have been (…)

• Letter from Kolkata: Saradha and Mamata Banerjee

  9 November 2014, by Amitava Mukherjee

  Finally, by winding up the Justice Shyamal Sen Commission, Mamata Banerjee did what she should have done long before. There is really no point in doling out money from the State’s exchequer to refund those who have exhibited avarice by depositing their money with the Saradha while several safe avenues of investment like banks and post offices were around. Moreover taking out money from the State’s coffer and then distributing it among the Saradha depositors is both morally and legally open (…)

• After Indira Gandhi

  9 November 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty