Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Has ‘Development’ Ever Been Benign?: From the Perspective of the Last Person

  29 April 2019, by Arun Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  Close Encounters of Another Kind: Women and Development Economics by Devki Jain; New Delhi: Sage/Yoda Press; pp. xxv+398; Rs 1095.
  The book under review is by an influential economist who has consistently attempted to move the development debate away from its mainstream moorings. The Introduction itself begins with “The term ‘development’ — in my view, ... undermined if not destroyed the road to progress for the former colonies.” In Chapter 8, she argues that the development (…)

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  Political Parties Jettisoning Moral Values

  23 April 2019

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The ongoing 17th general elections in India have already proved two points conclusively. First, the quality of the political leadership in the country has abysmally gone down. Secondly, democracy in India is now under peril. For every right thinking citizen the time has come for taking note of these two deadly cankers.
  West Bengal, the State known for its political volatility, has remained true to its reputation in the second phase of the election process. Although the (…)

• Jallianwala Bagh: Will an Apology a Hundred Years Late Help?

  23 April 2019

  by Mahendra Ved
  Of the numerous incidents of violence perpetrated on the unarmed by the British while colonising much of the world, the carnage at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, is and shall remain unique.
  Many say that firing 1650 bullets on the unarmed civilians that day, Britain shot itself in the foot, eventually losing India, its “Jewel in the Crown”. And that, in turn, unleashed the global process of de-colonisation.
  As that event marks completion of a century (…)

• Jallianwala Bagh: Hundred Years of Sacrifice

  23 April 2019

  by Prem Singh
  Today (April 13, 2019) is the hundredth year of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It was the day of Baisakhi festival. Thousands of male, female and children had come to Amritsar from nearby villages and towns. Many of them had camped in Jallianwala Bagh’s open ground. There was an atmosphere of tension in Punjab due to the agitation organised to oppose the infamous Rowlatt Act. The public and police forces had clashed in Amritsar three days before the Jallianwala Bagh incident. (…)

• Tagore’s Letter declining Knighthood

  23 April 2019

  The following is the letter written on May 30, 1919 by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore after the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy (that took place in Amritsar on April 13, 1919) returning the title of Knighthood conferred on him earlier by the British King.
  Your Excellency,
  The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The (…)

• Gandhi and the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and Beyond

  23 April 2019

  by Pravat Ranjan Sethi
  Before the 1919 Jallianwalla Bagh tragedy, Gandhi had not at all visited Punjab. The mass murder, however, changed him everlastingly. It transformed him from a British Empire loyalist to a relentless opponent of British rule.
  The first major national campaign organised by Mahatma Gandhi was in opposition to the Rowlatt Act, which harshly limited civil liberties. This movement began with an all-India hartal, observed on Sunday, April 6, 1919. Although he had once (…)

• Freedom Day at Amritsar

  23 April 2019, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following piece was written by N.C. 23 years ago. It is being reproduced now to highlight the importance of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, the centenary of which was observed in the country on April 13, 2019.
  Three landmarks to cover in a single day—that was how some of us spent our fiftieth Independence Day.
  The first of the pilgrimage was to the Indo-Pak border post at Wagah to celebrate the anniversary of the freedom at midnight.
  Reaching Amritsar by the (…)

• Present Indo-Pacific Strategy Initiative aims to establish American Hegemony

  23 April 2019

  by Monaem Sarker
  The United States’ approach to the Indo-Pacific focuses on three vital areas—economic, governance and security. This is a ploy to establish hegemony. In the name of enhancing shared prosperity the USA wants to enter this region like the Middle East; in the latter case it was the so-called “Arab Spring”. This time slogan is: “advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific Region”.
  The United States is taking a holistic government approach to advance fair and reciprocal trade, (…)

• Democracy Dumbed Down

  23 April 2019

  by L.K. Sharma
  India is a parliamentary democracy though those covering the current election campaign may think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the presidential candidate. Modi has run a somewhat presidential form of government with a symbolic presence of his Cabinet colleagues. His office has concentrated all power. And neither his party nor its mentor organisation utters a word even when Modi goes against any of their principles or policies.
  What are Indian voters discussing? A (…)

• Putin votes for Modi. Can he help Modi win?

  23 April 2019, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree in Moscow on April 12 conferring on Prime Minister Narendra Modi Russia’s highest state award, the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called. This is the highest and oldest state order of Russia, first established in 1698. It was abolished under the Soviet Union but re-established in 1998.
  Modi is the first leader from the democratic world to receive the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called. For the beleaguered Indian (…)