Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Noorani was much more than an Iconic Muslim legal luminary and intellectual | John Dayal

  7 September 2024, by John Dayal

  Obituary
  There have been some excellent obituaries written of the 94 year old lawyer-historian Abdul Ghafoor Noorani who passed away on 29th August 2024 in his native Mumbai after a long illness. A bachelor, AG Noorani – the byline which he used - is survived by a body of work which will be quoted by generations of lawyers, academics and journalists writing on some of the major issues that have more than once threatened constitutionalism in India, and triggered targeted sectarian violence, (…)

• A Tribute to a Critical Scholar of Jurisprudence | Arup Kumar Sen

  7 September 2024, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Very recently, we witnessed the death of one rare critical scholar of jurisprudence, A. G. Noorani. Two commentators have aptly narrated the trajectory of his critical journey: “He wrote - and wrote fearlessly - on the Emergency, on Kashmir, on the Babri Masjid. A leading voice on constitutional law and issues of Kashmir and Indian Muslims…” (The Indian Express, August 30, 2024). To put it in the words of the eminent Supreme Court advocate, Shyam Divan: “He was more of a lawyer outside the (…)

• Reimagining Political Leadership: The Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Haryana | Apoorva Redhu

  7 September 2024

  Women comprise nearly half of Haryana’s electorate but hold only 10% of the assembly seats. Often viewed merely as a valuable voting demographic, they are not seen as influential changemakers. Isn’t it time it changes?
  Haryana is a state with a rich history of remarkable women: Vinesh Phogat, the first woman wrestler to reach the Olympic finals; Manu Bhaker, who won double medals in a single Olympics; Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in space; and Manushi Chhillar, who brought home (…)

• Morality in Premchand’s Kafan: For Dalits or Anti-Dalit ? | Pragya Ranjan

  7 September 2024

  Kafan, also known as The Shroud in English, is a story written by Premchand in 1936. He is often regarded as the pioneer of modern Hindi fiction writing and is one of the first authors to address the caste hierarchies prevalent in Indian society. Kafan is one of his most renowned as well as controversial works, portraying the sufferings of those who are at the bottom of this pyramidal social structure. The story revolves around two active characters, Madhav and Ghisu who are the primary mode (…)

• Bangladesh was ready to explode. I was there with the students | Shahidul Alam

  7 September 2024

  What comes next will determine whether my country can find lasting change.
  by Shahidul Alam
  September 4, 2024
  We had violated curfew to join the protest at Shahbag, the Bangladeshi equivalent of Tahrir Square. Injured friends we left behind bade tearful goodbyes, not knowing whether it would be the last time we’d meet. Police opened fire on our group of 20-some students, teachers and journalists. Three were hit, and as they were taken to the hospital, my partner and I happened upon a (…)

• The Simplest Lesson Learnt by Children—to be Very Cautious While Dealing with Most Dangerous Objects—is Ignored Today by World Leaders | Bharat Dogra

  7 September 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  There is a strong case for arguing that the number of nuclear weapons at world level should have never been allowed to increase to three digits, let alone four or five digits. In fact it would have been much better to find ways of stopping any accumulation of nuclear weapons at a very early stage, either even before Hiroshima or else soon after this. At the most a stock of about fifty or so nuclear weapons ( at the most) could have been kept under the authorization of the United Nations to (…)

• Engineered cells and bacteria offer hope for diabetes, arthritis | Jugal Das, Aryashree Arunima and Shrijita Banerjee

  7 September 2024

  September 4, 2024
  Therapy combining a type of engineered blood cells and bacteria that modify the gut microbiome offers promise for managing autoimmune diseases.
  Blame it on lifestyles, genetic predispositions, and changes in our environment: autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis are emerging as a significant public health challenge.
  Estimates suggest that a staggering 18 per cent are living with an autoimmune disease — although (…)

• Bid to Target Kharge in New Land Scam in Karnataka | J P Gadkari

  7 September 2024, by J P Gadkari

  September 5, 2024
  The BJP Government at the Centre appears to have decided to go all out not only in its bid to destabilise the Congress Government in Karnataka, but use the office of Karnataka Governor to attack the Congress leadership at the National level by targetting its national president Mallikarjun Kharge in an alleged new land scam case.
  While the hearing on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s petition challenging the State Governor’s order to prosecute him in the (…)

• Communal poisoning unleashed daily by those in power | Humra Quraishi

  7 September 2024, by Humra Quraishi

  5 September 2024
  Tell me how many more will get lynched, murdered, and slaughtered on the beef alibi! It’s just too shocking and disgusting to see how the goon brigades are calling the shots. Quite obviously they have the Hindutva backing and the go-ahead nods. The situation gets just too lethal as the political cum state machinery is under the control of the Right-Wing rulers of the day.
  Lynching and humiliating Muslims on the beef alibi is increasing by the day. Last week an elderly (…)

• Surge of Mpox: What is India Doing While History Repeats Itself | Gouri Sankar Nag

  7 September 2024

  The emergence of new health epidemics, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent outbreaks such as Monkeypox, reflects a continuous spectre of Non-traditional Security threats with the complex interplay of factors that distinguish these phenomena from historical epidemics.
  First, the rapid spread of COVID-19 is largely attributed to unprecedented levels of global travel and trade due to closer integration of the world economy. The more the degree of (…)