Mainstream Weekly

On the Question of Socialism Today

Randhir Singh — 2016-02-13T23:10:57Z

The following are excerpts from the conlcuding part of an address that Prof Randhir Singh delivered to the journal Itihasbodh at Allahabad on March 8, 2007. The full text of the address, entitled ‘Future of Socialism', is available in the Monthly Review website http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org The concluding part of the address was published in Mainstream (February 16, 2008).
It was Engels' adjuration to followers to ‘not pick quotations from Marx or from him as if from sacred texts, but (…)

- 2015

Historic Significance of October Revolution

Randhir Singh — 2014-11-09T19:33:59Z

On November 7 this year falls the ninetyseventh anniversary of the historic October Revolution that changed the face of Russia and led to the birth of the USSR three years later. Remembering that Revolution we are reproducing excerpts from the chapter “Crisis of Socialism” in Prof Randhir Singh's Five Lectures in Marxist Mode (published in 1993). These excerpts appeared fifteen years ago in Mainstream (November 9, 1996). Prof Randhir Singh is a distinguished teacher and a renowned Marxist (…)

- 2014

Remembering Victor Kiernan

Randhir Singh — 2012-06-20T17:11:11Z

As I complete 90 years of my residence on this earth and ponder over my long career as a teacher, I am struck by the happy accidents that marked its progress alongwith the missed opportunities to learn a little more and become a better teacher. Of such accidents three stand out in my memory.
The happiest accident occurred at the very beginning of my career as a teacher in Delhi University. A teacher in Delhi College, I got the opportunity to teach ‘political thought' to the post-graduate (…)

- 2012

What was Built in the Soviet Union

Randhir Singh — 2011-12-12T17:33:23Z

By way of introduction to our discussion of what was or came to be built in the Soviet Union, I would like to share these two relatively recent statements from Paul Sweezy:
I have no doubt whatever that the Russian Revolution and the ones that followed—with a few obvious exceptions like the Iranian revolution—were genuine socialist revolutions with deep roots in an international movement that traces its origin back to the first half of the nineteenth century. The parties and their leaders (…)

- 2011

Historic Significance of October Revolution

Randhir Singh — 2011-11-08T07:39:02Z

[(On November 7 this year falls the ninetyfourth anniversary of the historic October Revolution that changed the face of Russia and led to the birth of the USSR three years later. Remembering that Revolution we are reproducing excerpts from the chapter “Crisis of Socialism” in Prof Randhir Singh's Five Lectures in Marxist Mode (published in 1993). These excerpts appeared fifteen years ago in Mainstream (November 9, 1996). Prof Randhir Singh is a distinguished teacher and a renowned Marxist (…)

- 2011

Plea for Truthful Analysis of Ongoing Events

Randhir Singh — 2011-04-21T17:58:29Z

The following is the text of the convocation address that Prof Randhir Singh, the renowned Marxist scholar who retired as the Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi, some years ago, was invited to deliver at the Punjabi University in Patiala in December 2010; however, he could not deliver it in person as he met with a minor accident at his residence in the New Delhi, and it had to be read out in absentia.
It is generous of Dr Jaspal Singh and the Punjabi University authorities (…)

- 2011

A Note on the Current Political Situation

Randhir Singh — 2010-08-22T17:22:58Z

By way of explanation the author, one of the most successful teachers in the University of Delhi as a Professor of Political Theory (now retired), writes:
“The opening section of this note dealing with the most important issue in the current political situation—'the Maoist' or the Naxal issue—sets the context for the argument that follows, which deals with issues involved in understanding this situation. I reproduce some key passages, marginally modified and compressed in one case, from my (…)

- 2010

On Violence and the Question of Means and Ends

Randhir Singh — 2009-05-13T13:38:06Z

The following are excerpts from the author's inaugural address to the Conference on ‘Emerging Trends of Violence in North-West India' at Punjabi University, Patiala, on November 5, 2007.
Gandhi remains central to any discussion of violence, and therefore non-violence in the world today. Presently his ‘non-violence' is a matter of celebrations the world over. If his birth and death anniversaries are occasions for elaborate official and non-official functions in India and the UGC has gone (…)

- May 2009

Relevance of Burrows Dunham Today

Randhir Singh — 2007-09-09T00:59:23Z

I have been asked to write a brief foreword to this edition of Barrows Dunham's Man Against Myth. Let me begin by stating that if there is one book which I have, over the years, wanted republished in the country, it is Man Against Myth. I was even willing to risk piracy for it. It is very gratifying to know that the book will now be available in a more than properly published Indian edition. National Book Trust and Professor Bipan Chandra are to be congratulated for their bold initiative in (…)

- September 8, 2007