Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Assault on Secularism

  10 October 2015

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has said, in the wake of the lynching of Mohammmed Akhlaq at Bisada village of Dadri in UP for allegedly storing and eating beef, that he supports banning beef. “Out of 29 States, cow slaughter is banned in 24 States and this was done during the Congress rule,” he has asserted. He added in the same breath that even during the Mughal rule, cow slaughter was banned. Singh’s comments will undoubtedly (…)

• A Note on Dadri

  10 October 2015, by Mukul Dube

  When I read of the killing, in Bisada village of Dadri, of a Muslim man by Hindus who suspected him of keeping beef in his house, I was taken back to the Gujarat massacre of 2002. That wound is fresh: the passing of a dozen years has done nothing to lessen the pain and the anger. Indeed, many more wounds have been added after Modi’s election victory, which has enabled the underlying evil to spread its tentacles and grow more vicious. It is not surprising that people are reacting to Dadri (…)

• Air warriors and Dadri - Bisada

  10 October 2015, by Suhas Borker

  The lynching at Dadri-Bisada pushes the scorched earth
  into the throes of communal conflagration.
  Farmer Mohammad Akhlaq is dead
  and son Danish is battling for life.
  But the perpetrators’ diabolical machinations
  are thrown asunder
  as the air warriors gently descend
  from the azure sky
  and uplift and relocate you in the
  national mindscape of secular India.
  Jai Hai My India! Jai Hai!
  —Suhas Borker
  October 5, 2015
  Suhas Borker is an independent documentary film-maker and Editor, (…)

• The Lynchings

  10 October 2015, by Badri Raina

  A quickly assembled loud speaker atop a make-shift temple first blared the rumour that, allegedly, a cow had been slaughtered in the village and that Hindus must gather apace. Simultaneously, that wonder from Silicon Valley called Whatsapp helped spread the good word within minutes, enabling a large mob to collect in front of the only two Muslim families in the village of Bisada in Dadri, Western Uttar Pradesh.
  And, lo and behold, “beef” was discovered in the refrigerator at one of the (…)

• Today‘s Imperative / Moradabad: What Really Happened

  10 October 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In the wake of the horrendous incident in Bisada village at Dadri, we reproduce here N.C.’s editorial in Mainstream Annual 1980 highlighting the happenings in Moradabad in August 1980. It is followed by the reproduction of a first-hand report by a Special Correspondent on the Moradabad riots that was published in this journal’s August 23, 1980 issue.
  Today‘s Imperative
  The time has come when we can no longer afford to indulge in mutual recrimination. The time has (…)

• Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das: A Compassionate Rebel and a Modern Man

  10 October 2015

  by S.N. Sahu
  Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das was one of the extraordinary personalities of modern India. He was born in Odisha on October 9, 1877 seven years after the birth of Mahatma Gandhi and breathed his last in 1928, twenty years before the assassination of the Father of our Nation. He lived only for fiftyone years. But his inspiring legacy of service and sacrifice and modern approach to social change and nation-building endures. What he did in the context of India in general, and Odisha in (…)

• Forgotten Heroes

  10 October 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  I have not been able to understand why Pakistan is reluctant to recognise heroes who went to the gallows during the national struggle for independence. Bhagat Singh is one of them. Eightyfour years ago he was sentenced to death by the special court at Lahore and was hanged in the city jail. Pakistan should lead the celebrations.
  In the thickening Islamic atmosphere, Bhagat Singh is a kafir. Bhagat Singh’s life should be taught in Pakistan’s schools as it is done in India. There is nothing (…)

• Media and Children

  10 October 2015

  by Dipa Dixit
  India is home to 17 per cent of the world’s children, and has the world’s largest child population. Despite this, India’s children are often neglected and their rights ignored. Of the 430 million children in India, an estimated 55 per cent—a staggering 236.5 million—currently experience rights’ violations. Yet children are not considered a key audience segment in either news broadcasting or the print media.
  India’s media landscape, one of the oldest and largest in the (…)

• Exploring Women’s Spaces

  10 October 2015

  book review
  by Noor Zaheer
  Indian Women: Contemporary Essays, editors: Devaki Jain and C.P. Sujaya; Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broad-casting, Government of India; 2015; pages: (i)- (xi) + 235; Price: Rs 335.
  Feminist criticism grew from the moment attention was slowly but definitely focused on images of women in societies and particularly urban, escorted analysis of the socio-economic developments. Women’s effort to construct a movement to represent their (…)

• Nepal’s New Constitution and Contending Voices

  10 October 2015

  by Sangeeta Thapliyal
  Nepal created history by writing a new Constitution through an elected Constituent Assembly. The Constitution was promulgated on September 20 in the Constituent Assembly hall which acted as working place for the CA. On the historic day, the CA building was decorated with lights, flowers and balloons. People were invited to witness and be part of the occasion. The CA members, heads of diplomatic missions, party leaders, and invited guests were inside the main hall. In (…)