Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Etching: Stone Breaker, Le Raincy (1881) by Georges Seurat

  22 April 2023
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  Video: The Baloons - 1985 animation film | B.R.Shendge

  22 April 2023

  B.R.Shendge Year: 1985

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  Music: Noori & His Dorpa Band - Al Amal (Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast)

  22 April 2023

  Play
  Noori & His Dorpa Band — Al Amal (Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast) by Ostinato Records https://youtu.be/IgCl1UnRgAg

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  Table of Contents - Mainstream, Apr 15, 2023

  15 April 2023

  * Philosophy of Neo-Liberal Education | Arup Maharatna
  * Looking into the Other Side of Merit | Gyan Prakash
  * The plight of ad hoc teachers at Delhi University | Garima Mani Tripathi
  * Renamed Booker Prize | Devaki Jain
  * A splendid dream interrupted | Jawed Naqvi

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Apr 15, 2023

  15 April 2023

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 15, 2023
  The return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021 led to a wave of outward migration, a humanitarian crisis & also the basic civil rights of Afghans have been ditched for a crude religious code determining what is considered right or wrong. Despite all the failings, the twenty-year effort at promoting education for girls and women and opening women’s participation in the economy had had some success – the number of girls (…)

• What’s wrong in a neoliberal philosophy of education? | Arup Maharatna

  15 April 2023

  by Arup Maharatna *
  I
  The popular notion of democracy, as we know and see it, construes inter alias that the entire adult population are impeccably equal in their right or entitlement to electing/selecting the government. But it should not be forgotten that this perfect equality of electoral right does not stem from a notion that all people are potentially equal in terms of intrinsic intellectual capabilities, talents, imaginativeness, and innate affinities. It is bountifully evident and (…)

• The plight of ad hoc teachers in Delhi University: is there a just way out? | Garima Mani Tripathi

  15 April 2023

  by Garima Mani Tripathi *
  Pankaj Lal (name changed) was teaching at a Delhi University college as an ad hoc faculty for the last 12 years. Originally from Western Uttar Pradesh, he has been an outstanding academician and boasts a rich list of publications. And yet, he was one of those many unlucky ad hoc faculty members who could not succeed when interviews were held in his college for permanent teaching positions. Indeed, the failure of these ad hoc teachers is symptomatic of the (…)

• Looking into the Other Side of Merit: Rethinking Our One-Dimensional Imagination | Gyan Prakash

  15 April 2023

  by Gyan Prakash *
  Abstract
  The discourses around merit often delink an individual from his/her social and cultural history. One-dimensional imagination of merit checks the emergence of alternative thinking. There is an immediate need to ensure the equality of conditions in order to meet the tyranny of meritocracy. Broadening the idea of affirmative action could be a way forward.
  A judge from Patna high court while hearing a case related to a suspended district land acquisition officer (…)

• ‘Rationalization’ of Text books or Communalization of Polity? | Ram Puniyani

  15 April 2023, by Ram Puniyani

  by Ram Puniyani
  Textbooks of schools are also a site of contestation between differing versions of nationalism. The two inheritors of colonial India, India and Pakistan show this in a parallel and opposite ways. In Pakistan since the country came up in the name of Islam, it taught a history in schools which began with Mohammad bin Kasim ruling in Sind in eight century. The Hindu kings and Hindus are shown in a poor light to the extent that an average child in Pakistan school will refer to (…)

• Six Problems in Implementing India’s Rural Employment Guarantee which should be Resolved Immediately | Bharat Dogra

  15 April 2023, by Bharat Dogra

  India’s rural employment guarantee scheme has been a big help for the poorest rural households in recent years. This scheme has been created under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to which the name of India’s most respected leader Mahatma Gandhi is often added, making it MG-NREGA. It has attracted international appreciation as a means of providing the kind of livelihood opportunities to weaker section people that can strengthen rural life by promoting such important work (…)