Mainstream Weekly

Why Is Kashmir Quiet?

Uddipan Mukherjee — 2011-07-25T12:48:39Z

“After a winter's gestation in its eggshell of ice, the valley had beaked its way out into the open, moist and yellow. The new grass bided its time underground; the mountains were retreating to their hill-stations for the warm season.“
—Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, p. 5
In such a landscape, as Aadam Aziz set foot on the streets of Srinagar, he was fortunate not to observe any Army camp on the lakeside. He was privileged not to exchange unfriendly stares with any khaki-clad (…)

- 2011

The Kashmir Calculus

Uddipan Mukherjee — 2010-10-14T01:44:17Z

To an average high school science candidate in India, the mathematical intricacies of Calculus can appear to be intractable, at least in the preliminary approach. He or she would waste no time indeed to curse both Newton and Leibnitz to eternal perdition for innovation of the subject. Furthermore, it becomes a tormenting exercise to solve problems involving applications of the same.
And Calculus can turn out to be bizarre as one goes up the ladder in his or her educational enterprise. (…)

- 2010

When and How in Kandahar

Uddipan Mukherjee — 2010-07-22T12:11:00Z

The interviews for an article in the Rolling Stone magazine has cost General McChrystal his job. Nevertheless, the Obama Administration is keen to move ahead with the Counter-insurgency (COIN) Doctrine in Afghanistan since the offensive at Marjah. Against this backdrop, this article looks into various aspects of the COIN for the impending battle in Kandahar: the Taliban's fortress.
Since McChrystal has now expectedly capitulated to his Rolling Stone misdemeanor, the American COIN (…)

- 2010

An Analytical Look at McChrystal's Report

Uddipan Mukherjee — 2009-11-28T01:28:02Z

Is the inexorable march of the NATO-led coalition forces, through the cobweb of insurgency in Afghanistan led by non-state actors, coming to a grinding halt? It is no longer a mere wishful thinking by the resurgent Taliban that the NATO-led forces are on the brink of defeat; rather it appears to be an ineluctable destiny for the US-spearheaded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) unless bolstered by an invigorating strategy and further resources. This is the prognosis put forth by (…)

- November 2009