Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Bird | Sagari Chhabra

  1 April 2022, by Sagari Chhabra

  This morning I saw a bird
  on top of a pine tree,
  perched on its pinnacle
  on a mere twig;
  it was feeling the air,
  swaying with the breeze,
  surveying the snow-capped Himalayas
  in utter ease.
  She was a tiny, feathered cobalt blue;
  I do not know her name,
  nor do I wish to know;
  I want it to be, just so.
  She was telling me to be:
  dear human being
  why are you always doing,
  doing so much;
  there is nothing more
  than peace, as such.
  I gazed at the mountains,
  tall and majestic, (…)

• 

  Video: Reviving River Ganga - lecture by Dr Ravi Chopra | March 2022

  1 April 2022

  Play
  Reviving River Ganga - River lecture by Dr. Ravi Chopra by Waterconflictforum Waterconflictforum https://youtu.be/kN3u9h6KHx0

• Ukraine war shows ‘nuclear deterrence’ doesn’t work. We need disarmament | Rebecca Johnson

  1 April 2022

  by Rebecca Johnson
  24 March 2022
  Despite leaders’ claims, nuclear weapons don’t prevent war or make life safer or more peaceful – they put the survival of the whole planet at risk
  In late February, as his invasion of Ukraine became bogged down, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia’s nuclear forces had been put on ‘special alert’. This posturing is familiar in wargame scenarios. It frequently ends with nuclear weapons being launched.
  So, how did we get back to believing that nuclear (…)

• 

  Open Letter From Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and Citizens of the World Against War and Nuclear Weapons

  1 April 2022

  We reject war and nuclear weapons. We call on all our fellow citizens of the world to join us in protecting our planet, home for all of us, from those who threaten to destroy it.
  The invasion of Ukraine has created a humanitarian disaster for its people. The entire world is facing the greatest threat in history: a large-scale nuclear war, capable of destroying our civilization and causing vast ecological damage across the Earth.
  We call for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of (…)

• 

  Music: Victor Jara - El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (The right to live in peace) 1971 Album

  1 April 2022

  Play
  Victor Jara - El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (Álbum completo) by Victor Jara - Música https://youtu.be/WSg53srhQyQ
  Track list:
  00:00 El Derecho de Vivir en Paz
  04:35 Abre la Ventana
  08:30 La Partida
  11:56 El Niño Yuntero
  15:41 Vamos por Ancho Camino
  18:59 A la Molina No Voy Más
  22:11 A Cuba
  26:11 Las Casitas del Barrio Alto
  28:41 El Alma Llena de Banderas
  32:41 Ni Chicha Ni Limoná
  36:04 Plegaria a un Labrador
  39:20 Brigada Ramona Parra
  42:35 Oíga Pues (…)

• 

  Table of Contents, Mainstream, March 26, 2022

  25 March 2022

  * Lived Body Experience of Women in Prostitution | Sur & Chakraborty
  * Integrating struggles of Farmers, Fishers & Forest Dwellers | Dholakia & Ramakrishnan
  * The Congress Party: towards reinvention or split? | Jayaramu
  * Russia Must End the Invasion of Ukraine | Rajimwale

• Letter to the readers, Mainstream, March 26, 2022

  25 March 2022

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, March 26, 2022
  Brutal social violence and revenge killings in which numerous people were burnt to death in Rampurhat, in West Bengal made big news recently. A village council political functionary was murdered triggering counter-violence leading to 8 people being burnt to death. These killings are being read as part of the prevalent culture of ‘political’ violence? Why do political actors use violence? A police investigation may tell more about the case (…)

• The Aura of Bhagat Singh | M R Narayan Swamy

  25 March 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  The decision by Bhagwant Singh Mann to take his oath of office and secrecy as Punjab’s new Chief Minister at the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh was probably the first instance since India’s independence when the famed revolutionary got the kind of national attention that was long overdue.
  Without a shadow of doubt, Bhagat Singh occupies a special place in the pantheon of British era revolutionaries who were not enthused by Mahatma Gandhi. Innumerable young revolutionaries suffered (…)

• Lived Body Experience of Women in Prostitution: Estrangement and Agency | Piyali Sur and Stuti Chakraborty

  25 March 2022, by Piyali Sur, Stuti Chakraborty

  Abstract
  This article is an inquiry into the lived experience of nine women in prostitution, their feelings of alienation from their bodies as well as feelings of empowerment and control. The focus is on the strategies used by women prostitutes to distance themselves from their bodies while selling sex and how they reconnect with their bodies.
  Keywords: prostitutes; estrangement; beautification.
  __0__
  Introduction
  Though all women are reduced to their sexualized bodies, the (…)

• Integrating struggles of Farmers, Fishers and Forest Dwellers | Dipak Dholakia and Rajesh Ramakrishnan

  25 March 2022

  by Dipak Dholakia and Rajesh Ramakrishnan *
  All well-meaning intellectuals and activists swear by the idea of ‘Community control over natural resources’ as a countervailing argument against ‘Corporate control over natural resources’ made possible after economic liberalisation in the early 1990s. There have been attempts to integrate and present Jal, Jangal and Zamin as natural resources but activists do not seem to have made much headway on the ground, and on the contrary, the government (…)