Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, April 16, 2022

  15 April 2022

  * India’s Agribusiness Firms Consolidate Power | Pritam Singh
  * Agitated Lankans Could Learn From Their Calm Indian Counterparts | Badri Raina
  * A.R. Wadia (1888-1971) - Remembering a Liberal Educationist | Murzban Jal
  * Russia’s assault on Ukraine - An appeal to everyone who speaks Russian

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 16, 2022

  15 April 2022

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 16, 2022
  Summary justice with disregard for rule of law has been on open display in Madhya Pradesh following Ram Navami violence in Khargone recently. Police rounded up and arrested over 70 odd suspects involved in the violence in Kahrgone and a day after the violence sent in bulldozers to demolish their homes or shops and some 45 properties were demolished. Institutions of the state and the enforcement agencies are supposed to strictly follow the (…)

• India’s Agribusiness Firms Consolidate Power | Pritam Singh

  15 April 2022, by Pritam Singh

  Agribusiness corporations have been on the rise in India since the 1970s. Unless there is a change in government policy, smaller farms face a bleak future.
  April 5, 2022
  A qualitative change took place in Indian agriculture in the 1970s: the government then had announced that the country had achieved domestic food self-sufficiency, and also that India had a surplus of food for export.
  Fifty years on, this idea of achieving a food surplus remains elusive for India, especially since the (…)

• Agitated Lankans Could Learn From Their Calm Indian Counterparts | Badri Raina

  15 April 2022, by Badri Raina

  Sri Lankan people are mostly sedate and peace-loving by temperament.
  But, now, they are agitated about the grave conditions in their pretty Island home.
  Things, they say, have been mismanaged to the worst they could.
  So, their agitation is understandable, but, as custodians of order tell us, , agitations are not good.
  Agitations bring bad name to duly elected governments.
  And, duly elected governments are never wrong. Only those agitations are kosher which (…)

• Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India: Hate brings ruination | Faraz Ahmad

  15 April 2022, by Faraz Ahmad

  Sri Lankan politics has turned 180 degrees with the Sri Lankan Buddhist haters of the Tamil minority, who celebrated and danced on the streets of Colombo when the majoritarian Buddhist regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa wiped the Liberation of Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) out from the northern Jafna province, after capturing alive its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in a net, tortured him mercilessly and humiliated him thoroughly before killing him.
  Even the Tamil civilian population was not (…)

• A.R. Wadia (1888-1971). Remembering a Liberal Educationist in the Age of Post-Liberalism | Murzban Jal

  15 April 2022

  by Murzban Jal
  When the old liberal world dies and authoritarianism takes its place, it is definitely the time to mourn. But it is also a time for remembrance, remembrance where memories of making the world a better place can be evoked.
  There was definitely a time where teachers were recruited at least where the dreams of a free, cultured and educated India could be possible. At least then in the good old days, teachers and Vice Chancellors were recruited with larger goals in mind. And (…)

• Congress: Internal discord, outside expectations | Prem Singh

  15 April 2022, by Prem Singh

  (1) Internal discord in the party has intensified after Congress’s dismal performance in the five assembly elections held in February-March 2022. Political pundits, leaders of other parties and politically aware citizens are questioning the role of the Congress for future politics. Among those who put in question there are many people who have reasonable expectations from the Congress as an all-India political party. The two issues - internal discord and the role of the Congress in future (…)

• The Rise of Communal Nationalism | T J S George

  15 April 2022, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  There was Nehru’s India and then there was Vajpayee’s India and now there is Modi’s India. Same soil, but three different countries as it were. It is useful to keep this transformatory evolution in mind as we struggle to cope with changing notions of patriotism in our country. What Modi’s India expects from a patriot is different from what Nehru’s India’s expected.
  Nehru’s India had two main characteristics. One, it promoted big-scale nation-building projects, an example (…)

• Par-Tapi-Narmada River Link Project Should be Fully Withdrawn | Bharat Dogra

  15 April 2022, by Bharat Dogra

  There has been a great surge of united actions by tribal communities against the Par-Tapi-Narmada River Link Project following which the central government and the Gujarat state government have suspended the project for the time-being. Apart from protests by tribal communities, the fact that the Congress party has extended its support to the opposition of this river-link project and that assembly elections are due in the near future must have also weighed with the governments while (…)

• Once communal strife spreads out, only vultures survive | Humra Quraishi

  15 April 2022, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  13 April 2022
  Like mute spectators we are helplessly witnessing the hounding of the Muslim community in the country. To compound the horrific communal targeting is the grim fact that only a handful of strong voices of condemnation. Tell me, where are we heading? It gets distressing to see an entire minority community attacked and assaulted and rendered so very helpless on all accounts.
  Last week, where were all the women and men of our country to ask for the immediate arrest (…)