Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Bunkar Sandesh Abhiyan: A Campaign for Protecting Livelihoods of Weavers and Artisans

  18 April 2009, by Bharat Dogra

  In recent years it has become increasingly difficult for a large number of handloom weavers and other craftspersons to sustain their livelihoods. While earlier also there were problems relating to the grip of middlemen and the actual artisans being denied a fair share of the earnings, the livelihood situation deteriorated rapidly in recent years for many silk handloom weavers due to increased imports of cheap silk cloth from China. At the same time many craftspersons employed in zardozi (…)

• Fighters for a Great Yesterday! Brand Advani: Perils of Rebranding!!

  18 April 2009, by Subhash Gatade

  [It is for the first time in his nearly five-year-old tenure as the PM that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a stinging attack on L.K. Advani—the PM-in-waiting as far as the Sangh Parivar is concerned. The Prime Minister was candid enough to remind about the “prominent role” played by Advani in the Babri Masjid demolition, or how he presided over the Gujarat riots and failed to prevent terror attacks on Parliament and Red Fort as the Union Home Minister.]
  I
  L.K. Advani, the (…)

• Track Record of the Shiela Dikshit Government in Delhi

  18 April 2009, by Suvrokamal Dutta

  (The following article was written sometime back but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.)
  The recent Delhi Assembly election results have proved as to who rules Delhi. Truly after the third successive victory Shiela Dikshit has proved that she is the unchallenged empress of Delhi no matter how serious the challenges are from her political foes. Shiela Dikshit has proved it once again that the coveted throne of Delhi will remain with her again for at least for five years (…)

• Reinforcing New Stereotypes

  18 April 2009, by Kumkum Roy

  Book Review
  Zealous Reformers, Deadly Laws: Battling Stereotypes by Madhu Purnima Kishwar; Sage Publications, New Delhi; pp. 420; Price: Rs 495.
  Madhu Kishwar is someone who has been zealously campaigning for decades, championing a range of causes with remarkable energy and determination. Most of us, who have been or are in some way associated with the women‘s movement, have had the opportunity to interact with her, listen to her, and read her. This volume captures her arguments, (…)

• The Newspaper as a Looking Glass

  18 April 2009, by Uttam Sen

  Media
  The world of journalism is regularly split into various categories by external purveyors. English and vernacular, mainstream and regional, to name a few. In these classifications there is one constant: the employee or wage-earner, the sub-editor, reporter, news editor, special correspondent, assistant editor, or even editor. Given today’s emphasis on the product rather than the person who contributes to its creation, as ephemeral an item as a newspaper or magazine does not (…)

• Tribute: Smitu Kothari

  18 April 2009, by Praful Bidwai

  Nothing sums up Smitu’s involvement with civil society organisations and social movements—that is to say, the core of his life-activity—as eloqu-ently as the brilliant calendar his organisation, Intercultural Resources, produced three months ago.
  The calendar is right in front of me as I write this. It is called “Social Movements in India”. Each month is devoted to a specific theme, such as agitations against land acquisition and displace-ment, movements for women’s rights, (…)

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  Scanning P.C. Joshi’s Biography | Daya Varma

  18 April 2009, by Daya Varma

  Review Article
  The following review article has been sent to the Mainstream editor on April 6 with a note from the reviewer that reads:
  “I am submitting a review of Gargi Chakravartty’s P.C. Joshi: A Biography for favour of publication in Mainstream weekly. Not living in India, I was able to get the book only a while ago. Nevertheless I feel reviews of this important book reflecting different experiences and perspectives do not get dated. I hope Mainstream will be generous enough to (…)

• Venomous Communalism

  18 April 2009, by M Hashim Kidwai

  COMMUNICATION
  With the glorious Gandhi surname Varun Gandhi’s highly inflammatory vitriolic anti-Muslim speech is both obnoxious and unpardonable. It has added fuel to the raging fire of communalism. His venomous communalism is decidedly quite contradictory to his illustrious great grandfather’s vision, that reflected the broad outlook of independent India’s founder-leader, of a liberal and secular India and a shame to the glorious Nehruvian ethics and legacy. His diatribe against the (…)

• Beyond Election-season Trivialities

  12 April 2009, by SC

  As the country approaches the 15th general elections next week, trivial issues are dominating the scene making the poll exercise the most bizarre in post-independence India.
  Five years ago, in 2004, there was one issue before the secular forces everywhere: to somehow defeat the BJP-dominated NDA so as to dislodge it from power; they were spurred by the urgency to act decisively, given the enormity of the danger springing from the growing communalisation of the polity as manifest in (…)

• Oust the Tyrants!

  12 April 2009, by Mahasweta Devi

  The following is a message from Mahasweta Devi, veteran novelist and one of the foremost intellectuals of West Bengal today, to a Press Meet organised by the friends of Kabir Suman, a noted progressive singer, contesting from the Jadavpur constituency of Kolkata for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Press Meet took place at the Kolkata Press Club on April 2, 2009. The message speaks volumes of Mahasweta Devi’s passionate advocacy of the cause of democracy in the present scenario of (…)