Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Urban Poor Finding It Increasingly Difficult to Meet Basic Needs | Bharat Dogra

  16 December 2023, by Bharat Dogra

  Recently this writer visited some working class settlements as well as gathering places of daily wage workers in Delhi. Conversations with people here revealed serious, persistent and increasing difficulties in meeting basic needs in a situation of stagnant wages and escalating inflation. In consultation with social workers and people I tried to make an approximate calculation of the minimum income that a 5 member household would need to meet basic needs in a reasonably satisfactory way (…)

• Climate Crisis, Human Suffering, and Hope: A Global Perspective | S N Tripathy

  16 December 2023, by S N Tripathy

  In a world where hunger, drought, and gender-related conflicts intertwine, the narrative of despair becomes palpable, especially for the vulnerable, our children. As unsustainable changes in land and sea wreak havoc on nature and biodiversity, the urgency to address these interconnected challenges cannot be overstated. Discussing climate without acknowledging the pain in the world would be a disservice, for these challenges reflect our failings and strengths, shaping our response to the (…)

• Citizens Memorandum on Elections / Palestinian Poet Refaat Alareer | Humra Quraishi

  16 December 2023, by Humra Quraishi

  14 December 2023
  There’s a strange sort of unease cum disbelief amongst the voters to the elections results in the backdrop of the EVMs and much of the connected factors. In fact, last week, on 8 December 2023, M. G. Devasahayam, a former bureaucrat and now an activist and coordinator of the Citizens Commission on Elections (CCE), sent to the Election Commission of India and the Election Commissioners a memorandum, which is signed by thousands of voters. To quote Devasahayam on (…)

• Revisiting Pathaan: Identities performed, Nation redeemed | Alok Ranjan, Sanjana K.S.

  16 December 2023

  Abstract
  Cinema often anticipates and projects collective fancies and discomforts within popular culture. ’Mainstream’ or conventional cinema is assumed to be a usually accessible suspect that performs this function. This essay moves against this intuition in approaching Pathaan through a focus on its affective power and experiential effect on popular culture. The essay parses out the socio-political imagery of the film to observe that it articulates a kind of nation that offers a (…)

• Ahimsa’s Song

  16 December 2023, by Sagari Chhabra

  Bring women to the table we said, you will get the wellsprings, of motherhood and sisterhood, the fragrance the world has been denied, for we have always relied on men, guns and oil, while we women are clean, unspoiled. You have kept us away from our share of the sun, you men have led the dance, had all the fun.
  The women came full of good intentions to be the bedrock; flowers falling on rock, become rock, whose blood is red, as readily useless as any man’s blood shed in Ukraine; what the (…)

• Sri Lanka: The Future of Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism | Shashik Silva & Ammaarah Nilafdeen

  16 December 2023

  During his recent visit to the United States, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the National People’s Power, addressed an interesting question from a Sri Lankan resident. The person highlighted the significant dominance of the white population in the US but also emphasized their peaceful coexistence with other migrant communities despite their majority status. In drawing a comparison to Sri Lanka, the person underscored the prevalent presence of the Sinhala people yet pointed out (…)

• Why don’t we do what matters? The world should demand that Norway uses its oil wealth for a green future | Erik Solheim

  16 December 2023

  by Erik Solheim
  A close to united Norwegian political elite portrays the climate challenge as an existential crisis. It is the biggest challenge of our time. It is a matter of the survival of humanity. It’s about the future of our children and grandchildren. There is no shortage of big words.
  What is not discussed is the only Norwegian initiative that could mean something important to the world. Investing part of the Norwegian oil wealth in a green future.
  Could one of the reasons why (…)

• Problems with Israel/Palestine Left Activism & More: A contribution to the debate on left renewal and transformation

  16 December 2023

  FOR A CONSISTENTLY DEMOCRATIC AND INTERNATIONALIST LEFT
  A contribution to left renewal and transformation
  We have been watching the civilian death toll in Gaza mount, in horror, day by day, for weeks on end now. We are appalled and outraged at the collective punishment meted out to Gazans by the IDF, increasing settler violence in the West Bank, and repression by the state and right wing mobs against Palestinian citizens of Israel. In the US, in Europe, in India and elsewhere, Palestine (…)

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  PUCL Statement on Expulsion of Mahua Moitra | 13 Dec 2023

  16 December 2023

  PUCL PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
  332, Patpar Ganj, Opp. Anand Lok Apartments, (Gate No. 2), Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi 110 091
  Founder: Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde
  President: Ms. Kavita Srivastava (Rajasthan); General Secretary: V Suresh (Tamil Nadu); E.mail:puclnat[at]gmail.com, Please visit our website: www.pucl.org (…)

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  Review of India’s National Security Challenges Edited by NN Vohra

  16 December 2023, by K S Subramanian

  Reviewed by KS Subramanian IPS (retd)
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  India’s National Security Challenges Edited by NN Vohra India International Centre, New Delhi Primus Books
  2023 HB ISBN : 978-93-5852-037-8
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  This is a collection of articles on India’s national security, edited by N N Vohra former J& K Governor (2008-18) and Life Trustee of the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, devoted to promotion of discussion on national security and similar issues.
  The Covid 19 pandemic had (…)