Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  China, India and Tibet—Strategies and Responses

  21 December 2008, by Madhuri Santanam Sondhi

  China’s renewed intransigence over the Dalai Lama and Arunachal suggests, on the one hand, a post-Olympics accretion of confidence following the success of her spectacular performance and, on the other, a general nervousness induced by the global financial crisis. Tibet is in any case a seething cauldron of discontent, inviting a massive post-Olympics crackdown at home and abroad, while on the mainland businesses have closed and there is a significant rise in urban unemployment. Indeed, the (…)

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  Medvedev Visit to India: A Significant Indo-Russian Summit

  21 December 2008, by Arun Mohanty

  The recently concluded Indo-Russian summit at Delhi has in many ways opened a”new chapter” in our bilateral relations, as was stated by President Dmitry Medvedev during his first ever official visit to India on December 4-5, 2008. The summit reflected the time-tested and trustworthy friendship between the two countries, and further consolidated the growing strategic partnership between them in various areas. Altogether nine agreements on nuclear energy, defence, trade and economic relations, (…)

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  Recasting Tradition: Dress, Difference and Dissent in Darjeeling Hills

  21 December 2008, by Swatahsiddha Sarkar

  As a non-verbal mode of communication clothing often represents the cultural identity and cultural value premises of a group living in any society. Within its space biased and time biased limits of operation the clothing pattern is capable enough to negotiate between the distinctiveness of a cultural self, expressions of group conformity and individual status, and the malleability of individual taste and sense of aesthetics all at once. Furthermore, a specific dress code may be indicative of (…)

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  Why ’Sanatan Sanstha’ and ’Hindu Janajagruti Samity’ should be Banned

  21 December 2008, by Subhash Gatade

  [It is really difficult to believe how an organisation which supposedly ‘aims to present religious mysticism in a scientific language for the curious and to guide-seekers’ and which ‘conducts weekly spiritual meetings, discourses, child guidance classes, workshops on spirituality, training in self-defence and campaigns to create awareness of righteousness’ to further these aims can double up as an organisation which can invite prosecution under ‘laws meant for unlawful and terrorist (…)

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  India 60: Multiple Readings

  21 December 2008, by Arup Kumar Sen

  India has a rich tradition of story telling. Even a single story carries multiple meanings in the plural culture of India. A.K. Ramanujan, a profound scholar of South Asian language and culture, once raised the question:
  How many Ramayanas? Three thousand? At the end of some Ramayanas, a question is sometimes asked: How many Ramayanas have there been? And there are stories that answer the question.1
  The 60-year story of India’s independence carries multiple meanings. The (…)

• Mumbai 11/26 and Our Response

  12 December 2008, by SC

  It is more than a week since the monumental tragedy unfolded on the night of November 26 with the terrorists striking high-profile targets in South Mumbai. The people of Mumbai have once again been compelled to bear the brunt of yet another massive terror assault, the major past attacks in the city having been the serial explosions on symbols of its commercial foundation in March 1993 and the serial train blasts in July 2006. The residents of the metropolis have yet to overcome the trauma (…)

• Tribute to V.P. Singh

  12 December 2008

  Former PM V.P. Singh, who headed a non-Coongress National Front, at the Centre in 1989-90 and introduced the reservation system for the OBCs on the basis of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission that changed the course of the Indian polity, passed away in New Delhi on November 27. A steadfast champion of the poor and the downtrodden, he upheld secular values both in and out of power and in fact sacrificed his government at the Centre for defending secularism that was sought to be (…)

• Open Letter to Our Dear Brothers in Pakistan

  12 December 2008, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  Our dear brothers in Pakistan,
  In the intense grief that I am in due to the mindless raid and killings in the Taj and Oberoi Trident hotels which visitors from Pakistan or in undivided India would vividly remember, Nariman House, Leopold Cafe, the Victoria Terminus and Chowpatty which cost nearly 200 lives and many more injuries, I write with utter disbelief and shock that such a thing should have been the handiwork of any of the good people of Pakistan.
  I have been to your (…)

• Mumbai Terror Attack: Thus Far and No More

  12 December 2008, by Bharti Chhibber

  India is a great country. India is a vibrant and resilient democracy. We can be resilient in the face of international economic recession, slowdown in our economy, we can be resilient in the face of economic sanctions imposed on us as we became nuclear for our country’s security, we can be resilient in the face of environmental disasters, we are resilient when politicians, political parties do not let a government last the full term of five years and make sure that a government falls by one (…)

• Voice of a Responsible Citizen

  12 December 2008, by Reshmi Kazi

  Yet another terrorist attack on November 26 has rocked the entire nation. The country’s economic hub—Mumbai—was held hostage for over 62 hours leaving 195 dead and counting and injuring over 300 innocent people. Preliminary investigations reveal involvement of about 10-odd well-trained and well-equipped terrorists from across the western border in the blasts. The post-blast investigations will reveal several conspiracy theories. Some will be politically motivated while some might be (…)