Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Duality of Deaths in the Sea | Debangana Chatterjee

  15 July 2023, by Debangana Chatterjee

  We are all inclined to believe that death is the ultimate equalizer, conditioned by the notion that empathy and love are still the guiding tenets of our societal fabric. However, every now and then the world we live in gives stark reminders that not all deaths are equal — the value assigned intrinsically, sickeningly rather, connected to the socio-economic and political interplay that seems to overpower and govern our conscience, consciousness and existence. It is not humanity that guides (…)

• Malerkotla: An Opportunity to Reimagine the Educational Experiences of Muslim Girls Using a Community-Based Approach | Gupta & Kaur

  15 July 2023

  by Mahima K. Gupta, Satvinderpal Kaur*
  Muslim girls and women are far behind in education and empowerment as compared to other communities. With recent tensions surrounding the educational experiences of Muslim women, including Karnataka’s hijab ban, the need to understand and protect Muslim minority women is more important than ever. Holding the unique status of being a Muslim city within a newly formed district, located in a Sikh-majority state (Punjab), and operating in a Hindu-majority (…)

• As access to maternity benefits declines alarmingly, improvements should not be delayed | Bharat Dogra

  15 July 2023, by Bharat Dogra

  There is a clear urgency of action needed to check the decline in access of benefits of the most important national-level maternity benefit scheme. The government must take immediate steps for this, particularly in the context of states like Gujarat and W.Bengal where the sharp decline in 2021-22 has been particularly distressing.
  According to the latest available data, maternity benefits which should be available for all child-births could reach only about one-third or so, and what is (…)

• Denial of Guaranteed Crop MSP is Pushing Farmers to Desperate sale | Soma Marla

  15 July 2023, by Soma S. Marla

  During the first fortnight of June Indian agriculture witnessed three important incidents. Farmers in Kurukshetra waged a two-week long agitation as state refused to buy Sunflower seeds at government announced procurement price (MSP), Union government announced support prices for current Kharif season, and thirdly, the announcement on a current instalment of PM Kisan funds to farmers.
  Recent farmers’ agitation started in Kapurtala when the Haryana government declined to buy sunflower (…)

• Flood fury / Frenzied Love / Survival In A War Zone | Humra Quraishi

  15 July 2023, by Humra Quraishi

  13 July 2023
  Where’s the so-called development when entire townships are drowning in flood waters! Never before such vast stretches of North India have witnessed this level of havoc. Even the capital city, New Delhi, is at the mercy of the rising water levels of the Yamuna! Flood fury …at its extreme!
  Amidst lofty political promises of safety and security of the residents, the situation stands nightmarish. This, is when every year huge budget allocations to the municipalities for (…)

• Japan’s religious right resists marriage equality | Ernils Larsson

  15 July 2023

  by Ernils Larsson *
  Marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights have become widely discussed in Japan following the G7 summit of same-sex marriage by the Nagoya District Court. The movement for marriage equality is experiencing popular support not seen before, with numbers in favour of reform in popular polls far surpassing those against, especially with younger generations.
  Support for marriage equality is widespread the text had been diluted to the (…)

• ICRICT open letter to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Financial Assistance to Sri Lanka

  15 July 2023

  (Text of an open letter to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Sri Lanka by the Sweden-based Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT))
  o o
  We are writing this open letter to you to express our concerns on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approach to the ongoing negotiation of financial assistance to Sri Lanka.
  As you have repeatedly noted, the world is currently facing multiple and interlinked crises that are greater, deeper, (…)

• Milan Kundera obituary - Influential Czech-born author of the bestselling novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Kate Webb

  15 July 2023

  by Kate Webb
  12 July 2023
  In December 1968, a plane carrying Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes touched down in Prague. The two authors had come to show solidarity with Czechoslovakia’s writers and to discuss the year’s historic events: how the hopes of Alexander Dubcek’s Prague Spring had ebbed into the interminable autumn of the Soviet patriarch.
  Their host was the Czech novelist and essayist Milan Kundera, who has died aged 94. Mindful of the need to talk freely, Kundera took (…)

• Platform of the 46 - 1923 Statement from Top Bolsheviks criticisng Russian Communist Party economic policy & calling for inner party democracy

  15 July 2023

  The Platform of the 46
  A week after Leon Trotsky had sent his letter to the Central Committee 46 prominent Bolsheviks, some of whom occupied leading posts in economic management, presented their own criticism of the economic and inner-Party policy of the Party leadership of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Stalin, Rykov and Tomsky. This statement of opposition which became known as ‘The Platform of the 46’ was submitted to the Politburo on October 15, 1923, after being circulated among a number of Party (…)

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  PUCL Statement on Manipur Government Criminalising Human Rights Work - FIR Against NFIW fact-Finding Team

  15 July 2023

  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.mails:, Please visit our website: www.pucl.org
  10th July, 2023
  PUCL Demands from the Manipur Government:
  • Stop Criminalising Human Rights Work! Respect the fundamental rights of citizens to conduct Fact Finding (…)