Questions of Freedom and People's Emancipation — V
Kobad Ghandy from Tihar Jail is writing on the concept of freedom vis-s-vis present-day society as also in relation to a future just order, bringing out some causes for the failure of the erstwhile...
View ArticleEric Hobsbawm: An Outstanding Marxist Theoretician
Eric Hobsbawm was a bold theorist, keeping alive the thought process of scientific Marxism as opposed to its mechanical and orthodox variety. He straddled the world of theory for long decades, leaving...
View ArticleNot Sorrow but Atonement
FROM N.C.'S WRITINGSThe following piece, which was published as ‘Political Notebook' in Mainstream (December 12, 1992), is being reproduced on the twentieth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri...
View ArticleMarup System that Binds the Meiteis of Manipur Together
The State of Manipur is in throes of militancy and violence for the last few decades. The Meiteis are the predominant people of the State principally inhabiting in the Imphal valley. The valley...
View ArticleThe Bangladesh Scene
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina only articulated her people's sentiments when she rejected the invitation by Pakistan to attend the summit of the Developing Eight. Even a short visit to Dhaka,...
View ArticleWhither the Quest for an Alternative Political Party (APP)?
AAP KAHAN JAYENGE?Contrary to the criticism voiced at several levels about the decision of Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues to form a political party (AAP—the Aam Aadmi Party), there is nothing...
View ArticleUSSR: The Contemporary Scene
The main subject of my talk at this august forum is the tidal waves of change in the Soviet Union. Let me begin with a confession. It is not an easy subject to dwell upon. What we are witnessing is not...
View ArticleTribute to I K Gujral
Four days before his 93rd birthday, former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral breathed his last at Gurgaon's Medicity Centre on November 30, 2012, suffering from multiple ailments aggravated by lung...
View ArticleStatement by Retired IAAS Officers on the Ongoing 2G Controversy
DOCUMENTThe signatories to this statement, who are a group of retired officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, are dismayed and distressed at the reported statements by R.P. Singh, the former...
View ArticleUPA Wins in Parliament, but . . .
The Union Government has been able to defeat in both Houses of Parliament motions opposing the Manmohan Singh dispensation's decision to introduce 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. On December 5,...
View ArticleThe Truth About DMK
by S. Mohan KumaramangalamThe recent victory of the DMK in the Tiruchengode by-election has once more drawn all-India attention to this party. Naturally, throughout the country and even in Tamilnad...
View Article‘George' Biswas: Power and Passion of Song
Early in the morning on August 18, there passed away in Calcutta a pre-eminent exponent of Rabindra Sangeet, truly a people's artiste whose vast repertoire was always ungrudgingly at the service of the...
View ArticlePolitical System is Hostage to Racketeers
by Madhu LimayeIn a scarcely noticed address to the 12th Joint Conference of the CBI and State Anti-Corruption Bureau Officers on October 20, 1994 the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, called for “a...
View ArticleThe Great Suicide
by CongressmanThe dust of the Lok Sabha election is settling down… Well, not quite, because the Assembly elections in several States to be held shortly will be the final act after which the country...
View ArticleMoney-Power in Elections: A Plea For Public Funding
by L.K. AdvaniShortly after assuming office as the Prime Minister in January, 1985, Rajiv Gandhi invited various party spokesmen in Parliament, one by one, for a series of informal talks on problems...
View ArticleTaxation and Disparities
The question is often asked: Is taxation in this country equitable? On the one hand national income has gone up, on the other economic disparities have widened. In this article, which is based on an...
View ArticleNew Tasks in Agriculture
Agriculture continues to be the weakest link in the chain of India's Plan-progress. In a certain sense this is true for every country, whether advanced or backward, or whether under the capitalist or...
View ArticleDemolishing the Wall
The following is the editiorial that appeared in the first issue of Mainstream (September 1, 1962)Dear Reader,The other day a letter arrived at our desk from a senior leader of the Indian National...
View ArticleTagore for Today
The following appeared under Editor's Notebook in the first Mainstream issue to come out after the proclamation of Emergency (June 25, 1975).Somewhere in the excitement of National Emergency, the...
View ArticleMeeting the Challenge
Dear Reader,Freedom is in peril; let us defend it with all our might.The threat to our freedom and national integrity has in the last few days assumed menacing proportions. The new wave of Chinese...
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