Mushahars of Mushahari
Long ago, in the late sixties of the last century, the Planning Commission of India constituted a Committee on Land Reforms under the chairmanship of Dr Z.A. Ahmed, a redoubtable CPI leader, who among...
View ArticleMedia Scene Today
How soon does time fly away? Mainstream is fifty years old. Yet it seems only yesterday when Nikhil Chakarvartty founded the magazine. He wanted to give the intelligentsia a mainstream where streams of...
View ArticleWhy We Salute Mainstream in its Golden Jubilee
The Indian discourse on development has no doubt taken a new turn since the initiation of the globalisation-liberalisation paradigm and the free flow of the global capital as well as capitalist forces...
View ArticleHands Rise, Sparks Fly: Many Facets of One Billion Rising Campaign
It was the night of March 29, 1978. A young woman in Hyderabad, Rameeza Bee, was subjected to rape by three policemen and her husband beaten to death for resisting them. Public outrage and frenzy...
View ArticleWhat is Happening in Kerala?
More than fifty years back people in the newly formed State of Kerala created history by voting to power, through the democratic election process, a Ministry led by the Communist Party. For the first...
View ArticleCaste, Sex and Crime: Aryavart in the Dark Age?
In a brief compass, the following article aims at an indepth focus on the history of female infanticides as we see in some of North Indian States. The materials used are drawn from the archival source...
View ArticleIslamic Resurgence: A Politico-economic Phenomenon
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...
View ArticleI.K. Gujral: A Tribute from Bangladesh
The author sent a note alongwith the following article to the editor that read: “Gujral's role was perhaps more appreciated in Bangladesh than it was in his own country which should be recognised, at...
View ArticleThoughts at 25
From N.C.'s WritingsAs, Mainstream completes fifty years, we reproduce N.C.'s ‘Editor's Notebook' that appeared in this journal's Twentyfifth Annual Special on October 10, 1987 as it brings out the...
View ArticlePledge Redeemed
With this Annual Number, this journal enters the fiftyfirst year of its publication. On the occasion of our Golden Jubilee we warmly greet all our readers as well as well-wishers who have stood by us...
View ArticleIndia and Pakistan: Between Hawks and Peaceniks is there a Middle Path?
The beheading and mutilation of the bodies of L/Nk Hemraj and L/Nk Sudarshan Singh by Pakistani soldiers on January 8, 2013, is yet another barbaric act by Pakistan's Army, following several earlier...
View ArticleWhat We Defend in Kashmir
FROM N.C.'S WRITINGSThe valiant defence of the Motherland by our armed forces as well as by the brave people of Jammu and Kashmir has inspired the nation. The grim determination of the people of this...
View ArticleBlood at the Border
It is an unfortunate coincidence that the border clashes and ceasefire violations between India and Pakistan have been at a time when Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had signed the Tashkent...
View ArticleProtests and Prospects
Even before Delhi and India got into the festive mood for the dawning of another New Year, 2013, the young girl who fell victim to the lust of six lascivious barbarous men, one of whom only in his...
View ArticleChilling Scenes in Delhi: Disturbing Response of the Authorities
It appears to me that in India we are rushing on that route envisaged by Rousseau. This foreboding I am getting because of the latest situation in Delhi where the well-intentioned non-political young...
View ArticleCouldn't the PM Show Some Feelings in a Time of Strong Feelings?
IMPRESSIONSOf the many things that went wrong during the Big Bad Year 2012, which was the most upsetting? That's not an easy question to answer because there were too many Big Bad Things that were...
View ArticleRape and Punishment: Conservatives Exposed
by ASGHAR ALI ENGINEERThe rape of Nirbhaya (as the 23-year-old victim has been named by The Times of India) on the night of December 16 rightly raised grave concern about the safety of women in modern...
View ArticleNetaji on India after Independence
On the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 116th birth annivarsary on January 23 this year, we offer our homage to the memory of that indomitable freedom fighter by reproducing excerpts from one...
View ArticleMahatma Gandhi
On the occasion of the sixtyfifth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom on January 30 this year, we offer our sincere homage to his abiding memory by reproducing excerpts from two speeches of...
View ArticleWanted: Public Intervention
As we approach our sixtyfourth Republic Day, the political class in the country has been gripped by an unprecedented crisis—the crisis of credibility. This has been recently witnessed in the unique...
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