Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Odds after the Maharashtra, Haryana elections: Turning Towards Inclusive Well-being

  2 November 2014, by Uttam Sen

  On the face of it, the BJP’s ascendancy in Maha-rashtra and Haryana mirrors an extraordinarily unipolar political fabric. The condition has to be viewed in the background both of the political and economic uncertainty which preceded the installation of the government at the Centre, and the undoubtedly decisive image Narendra Modi subsequently presented. The government’s credibility has been subsequently enhanced by a drop in global crude prices which has automatically kept food inflation in (…)

• Neither Love Nor Jihad: The Politics of Hate-Mongering

  2 November 2014

  by Navneet Sharma, Harikrishnan B. and Pradeep Nair
  Love Jihad would literally mean the ‘war for love’ but is understood more symbolically as a war cry for the spread and propagation of a particular religion wherein Muslim men entice or deceit Hindu women into their love and marriage thereby forcing them for conversion to Islam; thus, a conspiracy to rob the honour of Hindus and raise the number of Muslims.
  Love Jihad as a social reality is either denied for its existence or feared for (…)

• Is Winning Elections all that matters in Democracy? What about Values and the Rules of Conduct?

  2 November 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  For a pregnant Sunday morning, only hours before history opens a new page, some timely queries: Is the NCP a Naturally Corrupt Party as Narendra Modi says it is? Is Narendra Modi lowering the dignity of prime ministership by resorting to cheap electioneering as Sharad Pawar says he is? Has the BJP betrayed Hindutva by ditching the Shiv Sena as Uddhav Thackeray says it has? Is Modi a street-level operator as the Congress says he is?
  Elections are the feather on India’s (…)

• Memories of 1984

  2 November 2014, by Nandita Haksar

  I
  The moment I heard that Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, I hoped the assassin was not a Sikh. My parents said that when they first heard the news that Gandhiji had been assassinated, they hoped that the assassin was not a Muslim. We live in a strange country; when our leaders are assassinated, we hope the assassin is not from the minority community. At least those of us who want India to belong to all communities.
  II
  The next morning I saw the Guru Harkrishan School opposite my (…)

• Rubbing Salt into the Muslims’ Wounds

  2 November 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  by Kuldip Nayar
  After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the Muslims felt for the first time since independence that they were a minority in the real sense. The partition, on the basis of religion, did not cast a shadow on their future. But the liberal era of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian Constitution guaranteeing equality to all citizens saw the country through a period which other-wise could have been more violent and more divided than what the migration of bloodshed that took (…)

• Lingering Shadow of Feudal Oppression

  2 November 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  The threat of feudal violence has started resonating in rural Bihar. The manner in which the feudal forces had started taking refuge in the BJP in the wake of the Lok Sabha elections had given rise to the apprehension that the future was not bright for the rural poor, particularly the Dalits and Mahadalits, as was being tried to make out.
  The major feudal action took place just a month ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. On March 23, villagers of Repura in the Ara Lok (…)

• Violence In Mewat-Tauru, A Flashpoint

  2 November 2014, by D.R. Chaudhry

  This article was sent quite sometime ago, but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  A simple road accident in the Tauru town of the Mewat district on June 8, 2014, so common all over India, resulting in one casualty, triggered communal violence disturbing the communal harmony Mewat is known for. Even during partition and demolition of the Babri Masjid, Mewat remained an island of harmony. To understand this paradox a team of the Haryana Insaaf Society comprising Prof D.R. (…)

• Arresting the Administrative Rot

  2 November 2014

  by Pranjit Agarwala
  The former DGP of Assam Shankar Barua’s suicide because of the multi-crore Saradha chit-fund scam has not only shocked the country but has also shaken the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Whatever the merits of the unproven allegations, the fact that the CBI’s actions created circumstances which forced an officer with thirtyeight years of meritorious service to take his own life exposes the intrigues and intricacies within the administrative system and the dirt (…)

• Nikhil Chakravartty’s 101st birth anniversary

  2 November 2014

  On November 3 this year falls Nikhil Chakravartty’s 101st birth anniversary. On this occasion we are reproducing three of his writings. The first one is one of his earliest articles, published under the peudonym ‘Vanguard’ in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette (September 13, 1941) during World War II. The second article appeared as the Editor’s Notebook in Mainstream at the height of the Emergency. We are also reproducing tributes to his abiding memory by V.R. Krishna Iyer, Madhu Dandavate and (…)

• Salutations to a Dear Comrade

  2 November 2014, by V R Krishna Iyer

  What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! Dear Nikhil is dead. Is he? It is blaspheme to say he is dead. He dwells in the hearts of millions within Bharat and all over the globe. ‘Death, be not proud...for those whom thou think’st thou does overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet can’st thou kill them.’