Mainstream Weekly

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• Negotiating Women’s Entrepreneurship | Asmita Pant

  27 November 2021

  by Asmita Pant *
  Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is a day on which the work of women entrepreneurs is celebrated and is globally observed on the nineteenth of November of each year. However, women in India are not basking with the glory of entrepreneurship spirt. Number of factors could be attributed to the banality of stoic entrepreneurial ambitions.
  Women form an estimate of 48.04% of the total population of India. But when it comes to the percentage of female entrepreneurs, they (…)

• Woman’s Question in Communal Ideologies in India: A Study into the Ideologies of RSS and Jamat-e-Islami | Ish Mishra

  27 November 2021

  [This paper was originally prepared in 1987 for CWDS (Centre for Women’s Development Studies). The first paragraph is a subsequent addition.]
  Attack on women’s fundamental right to equality has been the common, continuing feature of the communal forces in India, of all hues irrespective of the religion from the particularly motivated interpretation of which they derive their ideological base and political support. Rape and gang rape have historically been integral part of communal pogroms, (…)

• Electoral Rout of Hindutva in the 2021 West Bengal Bye-elections | Shubham Sharma

  27 November 2021

  by Shubham Sharma *
  The recently concluded by-elections in West Bengal witnessed a huge political retreat of the forces of Hindutva. The BJP not only lost all the four assembly segments to the TMC but saw a huge erosion in their vote share. In Dinhata, Shantipur, Khardaha and Gosaba, its vote share went down from 47.6% to 11.31%, 49.4% to 23.22%, 33.67% to 13.07 and 41.88% to 9.95%, respectively.
  Although by-polls are not the best markers to assess a party’s electoral position but when (…)

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  A Revolutionary Revolt Pre-1857 | M R Narayan Swamy

  27 November 2021, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
  Foreshadowing the Great Rebellion: The Vellore Revolt, 1806 by K.A. Manikumar
  Orient BlackSwan
  ISBN 9789354421181
  Pages 288
  Price: Rs 695
  __0__
  About half a century before the 1857 Rebellion or the First War of Independence, hundreds of Indian soldiers of the East India Company revolted against the British in 1806 in Vellore in present day Tamil Nadu. It was brutally crushed and hundreds of soldiers were mercilessly slaughtered by the British. In many ways, the (…)

• The Food Growers | Badri Raina

  27 November 2021, by Badri Raina

  November 24, 2021
  (For P. Sainath)
  Remember how once we thumbed their nose, And dubbed them a “sack of potatoes?” Well, not any more; The food growers knock at the republic’s door When those that should have known better Have lost the grit and the skill To unravel the fetter That so imprisons the conglomerate will Of the land now sought to be ruled By an iron hand.
  The pulpit looks askance At their knowledge of things That it was thought only the think-tank And the English language (…)

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  Statement on Repeal of Farm Laws | Radical Socialist (Nov 21, 2021)

  27 November 2021

  [21 Nov 2021
  RS Statement on Repeal of Farm Laws
  The battle has been won, but the war is still on
  After over 15 months of farmers protests, Modi has finally been made to accept defeat and to come out and announce the repeal of the three farm laws. Indeed, this is a historic win. After dismantling the anti NRC/CAA movement, by staging Delhi riots and throwing the anti-Hindutva activists in prisons, this was the second formidable challenge for the Modi regime. We in Radical Socialist (…)

• Solar panels: we need to recycle parts of them to use again and avoid a mountain of waste | Matthew Davies

  27 November 2021

  by Matthew Davies *
  November 24, 2021
  Billions of solar panels globally will soon come to the end of their lives, but when they get thrown away essential materials that are needed to make future panels are being wasted.
  It is estimated that there will be 78 million tonnes of total waste by 2050. This is roughly 4 billion panels. But these panels have not been designed so that we can easily extract the elements within them again to use again, so it is likely that the majority of the (…)

• Radical Psychiatry and Movement Groups | Claude Steiner

  27 November 2021

  by Claude Steiner * Lefter Than Thou Levelling, hierarchies, and leadership
  Radical psychiatry’s main goal is to help human beings overcome alienation. Because overcoming alienation requires contact with other human beings in groups it is important that radical psychiatry provide guidelines for the healthy functioning and survival of groups. When people who are interested in radical changes organize groups they quite naturally wish to organize them along lines which differ from the (…)

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  26 Nov 2021 Marked One Year of the Farmers Protest Movement - A Photo of speakers waiting to address the crowd at the Samyukt Kisan Morcha Protest Site on Singhu Border, Delhi

  27 November 2021

  Credits: Photo shared by Annie Raja, National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW)

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  Cartoon: Tarzan in Times of Covid | Manuel Arriaga

  27 November 2021