Mainstream Weekly

Jaya Dasgupta, an unsung warrior, is no more | Gargi Chakravartty

Gargi Chakravartty — 2020-12-19T16:21:53Z

Jayashree Dasgupta, popularly known as Jaya, was a silent political activist throughout her life.
Jaya, born on August 15, 1939, belonged to a truly nationalist family, her father, Nirmalendu Mukherjee, being a well known Congress leader in West Bengal. In the humble setting of her home, a photo of Gandhiji used to hang on the wall.
Entering Ashutosh College, South Kolkata in the mid-fifties, she was soon drawn into Left politics and became an active member of the Bengal Provincial (…)

- 2020

Religious Faith, Secularism and Gandhi

Gargi Chakravartty — 2020-01-27T10:22:26Z

The following paper was presented at an International Winter School on “Globalistion and Religious Diversity: Issues, Perspectives and the Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy”, organised by the Ambedkar University, Delhi and Aarhus University, on January 8-14, 2020.
Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I find it most relevant to talk about a subject like religious faith and secularism. Gandhi, a truly religious man, struggled throughout his life to make the people of (…)

- 2020

Last Phase in the Life of Mahatma Gandhi

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-10-13T11:35:02Z

Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, it may be strange to focus on the days before his martyrdom. To me that was the most glorious phase of his life, when he was bold enough and uncompromising on issues most dear to him since his plunge into our national movement. Among those the most vital was the quesition of Hindu-Muslim unity. He battled throughout his life to make the Congress and also the people of the entire country to understand the importance of the issue. (…)

- 2019

Reclaiming Secular Democracy in Today's India

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-08-18T22:43:36Z

Secularism is under serious threat today, as the ruling dispensation's narrative of the concept is totally different from what our national leaders of the freedom struggle had professed and taught us. The Hindutvavadis proclaim that secularism means appeasement of minorities, mainly Muslims, and denial of their much-hyped Hindu identity and Hindu Rashtra. They with all their affiliates spread their own narrative of a Hindu society mounted on an anti-Hindu state and try to convince ordinary (…)

- 2019

Return of Hindutva: A Challenge for Secularism

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-07-13T17:59:40Z

BOOK REVIEW
Hindutva's Second Coming by Subhas Gatade; published by Media House, Delhi; 2019; pages: 272; Rs 395 (US $ 18).
The return of Modi to power with a huge margin in this 2019 election is a clear verdict for the Hindutva plank. Why and how it happened leave us, the secular billions, to ponder about the reality and its aftermath. And at that juncture Subhas Gatade's 272-page analysis titled ‘Hindutva's Second Coming' gives us something concrete to think over once again. This (…)

- 2019

Return of }Hindutva: A Challenge for Secularism

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-07-13T17:59:00Z

- 2019

A Tribute to Primla Loomba

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-07-07T08:55:26Z

Primla Loomba, popularly known as Pimmi, left us on June 24, 2019. She was outstanding as an educationist and a strong pillar of the women's movement of our country. Though she may not have identified herself as a feminist, but her political thinking and activities clearly show that she was a socialist feminist in the true sense of the term. She was radical in her outlook and far ahead of her times. She had the immense power to communicate with people of all age-groups from diverse (…)

- 2019

Eighth March this year on a Different Note

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-03-11T08:04:13Z

Eighth March is a day for women across the world—not merely a day for celebration as is generally considered in the corporate sector, but a day to express solidarity with all the toiling and grassroots women, a day to protest against the discrimination and exploitation of women, a day to campaign for their rights for employment, livelihood, forest rights of adivasi women and, most importantly, for their security. However, this year in an ambience of violence, conflict, terrorism and (…)

- 2019

Pakistan: An Alternative Perspective

Gargi Chakravartty — 2019-01-28T20:11:35Z

BOOK REVIEW
People's Movements in Pakistan by Aslam Khwaja; The Marginalised Publication, Wardha and Delhi; 2017; Rs 800.
At a time when there is so much communal polarisation in our country with a spate of hate politics towards minorities, particularly the Muslims, manufactured by a series of distorted historical facts and endorsed by a Right-wing government whose sole aim is the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra by poisoning the minds of the ordinary people with slogans of ‘Hindi, (…)

- 2019

Through the Prism of a True Communist

Gargi Chakravartty — 2018-12-23T20:31:21Z

BOOK REVIEW
Fragments of Time: Memoirs of a Romantic Revolutionary by Subrata Banerjee; published by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh; 2017; pages i-xx and 494; Price: Rs 875, US $ 35.
In popular image of Indian Communists, the names of Jyoti Basu, Hiren Mukherjee, Bhupesh Gupta or E.M.S. Namboodiripad generally surface. Subrata Banerjee did not belong to that category; yet he was a unique and distinct Communist. He has done a yeoman's (…)

- 2018