Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Tagore’s ecological philosophy | Jayanta Kumar Ghosal

  13 May 2023

  by Jayanta Kumar Ghosal *
  “The standard of living in modern civilisation has been raised far higher than the average level of our necessity. The strain which this entails serves at the outset to increase our physical and mental alertness. The claim upon our energy accelerates growth. This in its turn produces activity that expresses itself by raising life’s standards still higher.
  When this standard attains a degree that is a great deal above the normal it encourages the passion of (…)

• Trilochan Kanungo’s style of politics: An Obituary Note | Radhakanta Barik

  13 May 2023, by Radhakanta Barik

  He had a long political career in Odisha politics. He created an image of intellectual politician. In reality he got involved with factionalism of local politics. He died recently at 83 age
  Trilochan Kanungo is perhaps the most interesting and complex politician of Odisha politics. At state level politics he is an idealist and pursues value based politics. But at local level he is like any other politician who works through factions of the village. He works with the landlords and Maqdams (…)

• Obituary: Zarina Bhatty (1933 – 2023) | Sagari Chhabra

  13 May 2023, by Sagari Chhabra

  Warm-hearted, witty, a pioneer sociologist, feminist and one of the founders and key persons of the Indian Association of Women’s Studies, Zarina Bhatty passed away on 28 April 2023.
  Born an underweight baby in Lucknow on 9 August 1933 to Muslim parents, Fariul Haq and Mohammadi Begum of Barabanki she was not expected to live but she not only survived and rebelled but thrived till the age of 89. It was unusual for a girl to want to go abroad for studies at that time and her mother – who (…)

• Ukraine War & Why a Ceasefire Is the First Step Toward Lasting Peace | Phyllis Bennis

  13 May 2023

  As Russia marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of the Nazis 78 years ago, Ukraine is preparing to launch a major counteroffensive, which has forced Moscow to issue an evacuation order for thousands of residents in areas occupied by Russian forces. Meanwhile, international actors are calling for negotiations, possibly brokered by China or Brazil, to end the war. For more on the prognosis for peace in Ukraine, we’re joined by Phyllis Bennis, author and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. (…)

• Believing and Making People Believe | Michel de Certeau

  13 May 2023

  From: Chapter 13, L’Invention du quotidien by Michel de Certeau (1980)
  I like the word believe. In general, when one says “I know,” one doesn’t know, one believes. — Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp du signe (Paris, Flammarion, 1975, p. 185)
  Jews, Leon Poliakov once said, are French people who, instead of no longer going to church, no longer go to synagogue. In the comic tradition of the Hagadah, this joke referred to past beliefs that no longer organize practices. Political convictions seem (…)

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  China’s Challenge to America | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  13 May 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
  by M.R. Narayan Swamy
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  Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy
  by Kishore Mahbubani
  PublicAffairs, New York Pages: 312; Price: Rs 699 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541768132 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541768130
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  Is China’s tremendous economic growth a threat to the United States? Is Beijing trying to dethrone Washington as the world’s numero uno? Is the Communist Party of China trying to destabilize American and Western values? Will China’s aggressive onward (…)

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  Review of The Rafale Deal: Flying Lies? by Ravi Nair and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta | Shubham Sharma

  13 May 2023

  Book Review:
  by Shubham Sharma
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  The Rafale Deal: Flying Lies? The Role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India’s Biggest Defence Scandal
  by Ravi Nair and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
  2022. pp 532 HB: Rs 795
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  Until recently, India, like other Western-capitalist countries, lacked a robust domestic ‘military-industrial complex’ (MIC). It could be defined as the presence of a defence procurement mechanism which involves a transactional nexus between private group(s) that (…)

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  Newton’s Review of Melody Jue, Rafico Ruiz, eds., Saturation: An Elemental Politics

  13 May 2023

  BOOK REVIEW:
  Reviewed by Samm Newton (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
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  Saturation: An Elemental Politics
  Melody Jue, Rafico Ruiz, eds.
  Duke University Press
  2021. xii + 332 pp. (e-book), ISBN 978-1-4780-1304-4 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4780-1146-0
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  Saturation: An Elemental Politics, edited by Melody Jue and Rafico Ruiz, is a rich and varied collection of essays that offers a multidisciplinary foray into how the concept of saturati can be employed as an interpretive lens (…)

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  Photo: Miriam Makeba, Kenneth Kaunda, Dorothy Masuka and Harry Belafonte (1963)

  13 May 2023

  Photo of Miriam Makeba, Kenneth Kaunda, Dorothy Masuka and Harry Belafonte in Nairobi, Kenya attending the Independence celebrations of that country. December, 1963

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  Sexual Harrasment of Women Wrestlers - NFIW Letter to the Speaker Lok Sabha to Suspend the MP involved

  13 May 2023

  NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDIAN WOMEN 1002, Ansal Bhawan, 16, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110 001 Tele : 011-23319541 | E-mail : nfiwdelhi[at]gmail.com
  President : Aruna Roy General Secretary : Annie Raja
  To, Date: 08/05/2023
  Shri. Om Birla Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Parliament of India New Delhi
  Sub: SUSPENSION OF BRIJ BHUSHAN SHARAN SINGH, MP
  Honourable Sir,
  The NFIW would like to draw your attention to a very serious issue connected with Mr Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, (…)