Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Envisioning a New South Asia

  28 June 2014

  by Malini Parthasarathy
  In the passing of Nikhil Chakravartty, this country has lost a distinguished member of a diminishing tribe of nationalists who were unabashed about their zeal and pride in being seen as the first generation of citizens of the new Indian republic. That sense of patriotism in the classical sense imbued all Nikhil Chakravartty’s writings even as it made him stand out as a rare spokesman for the highest political values that he strongly desired the Indian state to (…)

• Mohan Kumaramangalam — Cameos: An Old Comrade

  28 June 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  On May 31 this year it was the fortyfirst death anniversary of Mohan Kumaramangalam. On N.C.’s sixteenth death anniversary we reproduce the following tribute that the founder of this journal penned under the pseudonym ‘An Old Comrade’. M.K. and N.C. were indeed close comrades since their days in England in the 1930s and the friendship bloomed during their collective struggle in the communist movement; it was retained in subsequent years and even when Mohan joined the (…)

• What Events in Iraq Show

  21 June 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As in his pronouncements last week in both Houses of Parliament where he struck a bipartisan note, PM Narendra Modi’s statements in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, which he chose as his first foreign trip after assuming the prime ministerial office, were bereft of any partisan approach. While in his banquet speech on June 15 he reassured the Himalayan Kingdom steadily marching towards a democratic set-up that India would, despite the government change in New Delhi, continue to (…)

• Iraqi Communist Party’s Call

  21 June 2014

  The following are excerpts from a statement on the crisis in Iraq issued by the Political Bureau of the Iraqi Communist Party in Baghdad on June 10, 2014.
  It is truly the battle of the homeland that is now being threatened. Political, material, logistic and military prerequisites must be provided to stop the expansion of this malignant cancer. Terrorism is targeting all, and it has no religion or denomination or nationality, and it wants to finish off the political process in our country (…)

• When Iraq was Iraq

  21 June 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Near complete mess in Iraq. The once flourishing land is breaking apart, as rebel groups are taking over. Without taking you towards those details of the grand past of an unparalleled civilisation which this land boasted of, I’ll take you just about till the early nineties, when Iraq was Iraq. That is, before it was intruded into and ruined by American and Allied Forces. They used that alibi of ‘looking for weapons of mass destruction’ but didn’t find any. Instead destroyed that (…)

• Tribute: Janaky Thevar

  21 June 2014, by Sagari Chhabra

  Janaky Thevar, Commander of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, the first all-women’s military wing of the world and part of the Indian National Army, passed away in Kuala Lumpur recently. An amazing heroine imbued with a death-defying commitment to free India, any epithet would be inadequate to define Janaky Thevar Athi Nahappan. Short-statured and dark-skinned, Janaky was born in Malaya (now Malaysia) to parents of Tamilian origin.
  However, a life-transforming experience occurred when she heard (…)

• Modi-wave and Dalit-Card’s Impact in Hindi Belt!

  21 June 2014, by Nilofar Suhrawardy

  Not too long ago, most political analysts assumed that the era of single-party govern-ment was now history. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s stunning victory has conveyed a strong message. Strategic campaigning, resting on the political image of one man, can still help a party like the BJP to assume power without having to fall back on the support of other parties. Yes, without the hype raised about Modi-wave, the results may have been different. Similarly, had Narendra Modi not laid (…)

• Corporatisation of the Media

  21 June 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  I was not surprised when television channels did not cover the taking over of a large television news network by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited. Most channels—roughly around 300—are owned by property dealers who can afford to spend Rs 1 crore, an average monthly expenditure, through money laun-dering. Every one of them wants to be the Reliance one day.
  What has taken me aback is that the press has reported the deal but has preferred to keep quiet. Even though journalism has (…)

• Need for Altering Discourse in Contemporary Times

  21 June 2014, by Suranjita Ray

  While the 21st century appears more democratic, inclusive, and pluralist, the contem-porary global world has witnessed resurgence of new forms of discrimination, exclusion, polarisation and domination. The underlying philosophy of economic liberalisation and globalisation which compels integration with the capitalist world is certainly not to equalise but to create a peripheral status for the majority. The oligopolistic nature of the capitalist economy has successfully established the (…)

• Reflections on the Constitution

  21 June 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following is the second-last article of N.C. to appear in this journal. It was published in Mainstream (March 21, 1998). He passed away on June 27 of the same year.
  Reflections on the Constitution
  We are now witness to the transfer of power—from one group to another. Many of the differences are being sorted out while some remain as differences over which differences persist.
  It is to be recognised that on the issue of differences there arose disharmony which (…)