Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Danger Signal from Bombay

  5 May 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The time has come when we have to seriously ask ourselves if we are really serious about preserving in one piece this Republic of India. Many in our country think that to talk about disintegration of the Indian Union is just a fantasy with an over-dose of panic. They can’t take it that we may have taken the road to Bosnia.
  Three months ago, this impression was widespread. It can’t happen here—was the average Indian reaction when the mighty USSR fell apart without a (…)

• Fundamental Discoveries in Marxist Philosophy and Philosophy in General

  5 May 2014

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Bajinder Singh Mann
  The Particle and Philosophy in Crisis: Towards Mode of Information by Anil Rajimwale; Aakar Publishers, New Delhi; 2013; pp. 456; price: Rs 395 (paperback).
  It is perhaps for the first time after Lenin that the whole of Marxist philosophy, and philo-sophy in general, has been reworked and taken to higher levels in a holistic manner, particularly using the dialectical method through and through. Here is a work which not only makes original (…)

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Magic Realism, Castro and Socialism

  5 May 2014

  TRIBUTE
  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  Gabriel Garcia is dead. With him died a writer who remained nostalgic throughout his life for his parent county, Columbia, where he was born on March 6, 1928 at Aracataca; with him also died parts of a glorious friendship between two Greats. His departure saddens one but he will never evaporate due to the emotional experiences and many memories his readers have accumulated while travelling through his great writings.
  One Hundred Years of Solitude (…)

• Modi Lacks Knowledge of Kashmir

  5 May 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  I was happy when Kashmir was not the election issue till two-thirds of the country had gone to the polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did say in its election manifesto that it would delete Article 370 which gave a special status to the State. But this was nothing new. The BJP had been articulating the demand for many years. It got very little attention.
  Bihar BJP leader Giriraj Singh’s outburst that those who did not vote for Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan spoilt the atmosphere (…)

• Freedom of Speech versus Hate Speech

  5 May 2014

  by Imtiaz Ahmad Ansari
  “I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Voltaire
  While writing this article I am little bit apprehensive. This apprehension arises out of the way the notion of freedom of speech has been understood and implemented in India. Freedom of speech and expression is one of the fundamental principles on which any free society is based. Most of the democratic nations consider freedom of speech a fundamental right. (…)

• Footfalls of Fascism?

  29 April 2014

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The contours of the rift within the BJP are becoming clear. It is not a mere Advani versus Modi or an ‘old-versus-new’ battle but has an ideological edge, too, which needs to be taken note of. A Bihar BJP leader, Giriraj Singh, said at an election meeting at Deoghar in Jharkhand on April 19 that those opposing Narendra Modi are looking to Pakistan. Such people will have place only in Pakistan and not in India. ‘After the general election those opposing Modi will have to (…)

• Last Opportunity for Indian Communists

  29 April 2014

  by Daya Varma, Vinod Mubayi
  The 2014 parliamentary elections are more critical for the future of India than any other in the past. A victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, would not only end the Congress domination of Indian politics, it would set in motion a new culture and reverse the secular foundations of India.
  There are many factors for the decline of the influence of the Congress but none has played as big a role as its denunciation by the block of Communist (…)

• Know Your NaMo: Like ‘Father’, like ‘Son’ ?

  29 April 2014, by Subhash Gatade

  Not very many people—living outside Gujarat—know that Narendra Modi, the Parivar’s ‘PM in waiting’, also happens to be a ‘passionate writer, poet and a lover of culture.’ and how ‘[d]espite his busy, .. schedule,.. devotes time to ..writing, interacting with people on social media etc.’ (www.narendramodi.in) We are also told that he has been writing ‘since he was young’.
  Let me admit at the outset that this poor pen-pusher was rather unaware of Modi’s writing prowess apart from one of his (…)

• Why We Can Never be Hindus or the Struggle against Fascism in India

  29 April 2014

  by Murzban Jal
  Every rise of fascism bears witness to a failed revolution.
  Walter Benjamin
  Now in your own interest and in the interest of this great country you must learn to listen and to read what we say. A people who refuse to listen to new questions and learn new answers will perish and not prosper.
  Kancha Ilaiah
  Whose sentiments are really being hurt? Are we going to stagnate as a culture that continuously touches the feet of intolerance?
  Stephen Alter
  Fascism and the (…)

• Somnath Bharti as an Embarrassment for the Aam Aadmi Party

  29 April 2014

  by Sanjay Mishra
  Introduction
  For all its promise of cleansing the Indian politics of corruption—a tall order by any yardstick given the gargantuan and deep-rooted corruption in Indian politics—and for all its boastful tom-tom of its ephemeral, 49-day governance in Delhi being the best ever by any state government in post-independence India, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), ever since its dream electoral debut in Delhi, has been dogged by one controversy after another. This is not to brush (…)