Mainstream Weekly

Reflections on Republic Day, 2014

Syed Shahabuddin — 2014-01-28T17:03:51Z

I
Bleeding India, Burning India, Battered India, Beleaguered India, Bewildered India, Disintegrating India, Starving India, Dying India
• in which democracy has become the government of the elite, by the elite, for the elite, dividing people vertically and horizontally;
• in which the higher strata, the elite, form a separate nation, colonising the motherland;
• in which politics has turned into commerce and trade;
• in which Corruption has become a way of life in every sphere;
• (…)

- 2014

So Distant from India and So Close to Gandhi: A Note on a Gandhian President of a South American Republic

Syed Shahabuddin — 2013-12-01T22:17:26Z

Uruguay is the second smallest state in South America with a GDP of $ 56.3 billion and a per capita GDP of $ 16,600. Jose Mujica, the head of state elected under the Constitution as the President of Uruguay, controls the Secretariat of the Presidency, the Council of Ministers and the office of Planning and Budget. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The President and Vice-President are elected by direct elections for a period of five years, but without the right of (…)

- 2013

Proposal for a Self-contained New Wakf Act for Normal Situation

Syed Shahabuddin — 2013-09-02T17:12:44Z

The Select Committee Report on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2010 along with a draft law has been circulated. An Amendment Bill, one presumes, shall now be placed by the government before the Rajya Sabha and then it will go to the Lok Sabha. The Select Committee Report has led to much controversy, particularly on the alienation of Wakf property.
Going through the history of Wakf Acts from 1954 to 1995, the present form of the Wakf Act was perhaps inevitable, as designed to protect the Wakf (…)

- 2013

How to Extinguish Bodo-Muslim Conflict and other Ethnic Conflicts in Assam

Syed Shahabuddin — 2013-02-26T16:47:28Z

According to the tentative results of Census 2011, Assam with an area 78,438 square kilometres has a multi-ethnic population of 31.2 million, distributed in 27 districts. It is said to have 72 identifiable communities including a large number of ethnic tribes who have their own religion and language, though many of them have been culturally Hinduised. The Bodos are the biggest tribe, claiming to be the original inhabitants; they are scattered all over the State but concentrated in the (…)

- 2013

Islamic Resurgence: A Politico-economic Phenomenon

Syed Shahabuddin — 2013-01-03T19:10:25Z

One hears a lot of Islamic fundamentalism these days and the tone and context make it clear that fundamentalism is being equated with orthodoxy and obscurantism. The established image is that of a Mullah with a gun. Indeed fundamentalism has become a derogatory term, just as two generations ago pan-Islamism had become a dirty word, an emotive term. In course of time, political terminologies change in sartorial fashion. However, the task to explain the happenings in the Muslim world has to be (…)

- 2012

Muslim Demand for Political Empowerment

Syed Shahabuddin — 2012-01-31T11:25:31Z

My purpose of this article is not to scratch the countless wounds, received since independence, nor to recite old grievances, but basically a fresh endeavour to achieve social justice in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and to make a new beginning.
Introduction
SOCIAL JUSTICE has many aspects including sharing power, due benefits for every social group in the development that the country is making, part-nership in governance and thus in the utilisation of its natural (…)

- 2012

Guiding Principles for Acquisition of Land by the Government

Syed Shahabuddin — 2011-11-08T08:34:54Z

The draft Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011, introduced in the Lok Sabha on November 7, 2011, stands referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. The Committee invited views and suggestions from the public but gave such a short time that it was not possible for interested individuals or organisations to submit detailed memoranda to the Committee.
A first glance, however, shows that the draft Bill constitutes a great advance on the Act of (…)

- 2011

A Blueprint for the Revival and Expansion of the Left Movement

Syed Shahabuddin — 2011-10-25T13:39:23Z

The Indian polity needs the Left in order not only to provide an alternative to the Right, represented by the BJP and the Congress, but to stop close cooperation between the two which has of late seen new dimensions of collaboration on several political, economic and social issues. Who knows they may eventually form a coalition around a common social constituency and support of the market economy?
Political Status
IN the General Election 2009, the Left representation was reduced. In the (…)

- 2011

Satyagraha in Today's India

Syed Shahabuddin — 2011-09-06T15:53:33Z

COMMUNICATION
I have seen Shri Alok Bajpai's article on ‘Duragraha' (“Duragraha in the Name of Satyagraha: A Gandhian Perspective” in the Mainstream issue of July 30, 2011) in which he has concluded that the peaceful and non-violent Satyagraha by Gandhiji was conceived as a strategy against the British rule and that ‘once people were free and had a parliamentary government, the legislature can be the means of achieving the concrete pursuit of truth and non-violence'. This was Gandhiji's (…)

- 2011

Some Aspects of the Vastanvi Episode in Dar-ul-Uloom, Deoband

Syed Shahabuddin — 2011-09-02T10:23:49Z

The mass media has highlighted the decision of the Dar-ul-Uloom, Deoband, to terminate the recent appointment of Maulana G.M. Vastanvi as Mohtamin (Rector) and focused on the Muslim Indian's continuing rejection of Narendra Modi, the mastermind of the Gujarat Genocide of 2002.
The economic development of Gujarat under Modi is totally irrelevant to the Muslim Gujaratis who have re-built their shattered lives to the extent possible since the Genocide of 2002 with their own efforts without (…)

- 2011