Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• India’s Covid Death Toll: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics | K N Ninan

  23 October 2021

  by K N Ninan
  Mark Twain, an American writer is credited with popularising a statement rightly or wrongly attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister during 1874 to 1880 which stated that: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. Standard textbooks in statistics quote this to introduce students to the subject. Darrell Huff, a journalist wrote a book in 1954 titled ‘How to Lie with Statistics’ which aptly sums up how statistics can be used, misused or (…)

• Global Financial Architecture Underlies the Illegality of the Rich Who are the New Colonizers | Arun Kumar

  23 October 2021, by Arun Kumar

  The Pandora Papers, published on October 3, once again expose the illegal activities of the rich and the mighty across the world. The investigation into these papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), is the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration. It involved more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. They researched and analysed approximately 12 million documents which became available approximately two years back. Their (…)

• Not all can see democracy’s power | T J S George

  23 October 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Uttar Pradesh is considered India’s lead state. Its size, and Delhi being virtually a geographic part of it could be the main reason. UP does have a hold on Delhi’s affairs in ways no other state has. Some of our great national leaders came from UP, the likes of G. B. Pant, Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Dev, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, not to mention Jawaharlal Nehru.
  Compare them with today’s leaders — Yogi Adityhanath, Uma Bharathi, Smriti Irani, Shazia Ilmi. The (…)

• Online Dating Apps: Changes and Continuities in Gender Relations | Piyali Sur

  23 October 2021, by Piyali Sur

  Abstract
  This article looks at how online dating apps provide opportunities to women to ‘take charge’ sexually but within a wider context of persistent coercion and inequality.
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  Introduction
  Dating applications, primarily navigated by young adults, have emerged as a new platform to connect and form relationships that may be romantic or sexual, committed or casual in our consumerist society. Tinder, launched in India in 2016 is the most widely used app with 100 million users at (…)

• Violence, Militancy and Terrorism: A way forward | S.G.Vombatkere

  23 October 2021, by S G Vombatkere

  Terror, terrorism, terrorists
  Terror is the emotion of “extreme fear” caused by the threat or use of violence. Terror is also an instrument to cause fear, “a weapon of the impotent, the disenfranchised and the unorganized in the face of profound grievance“. Causing extreme fear using the instrument of terror are both age-old.
  However, only in recent times has terrorism been defined: “The use of violence or the threat of violence to harm or intimidate civilians for political purposes”; (…)

• Chronology Samjhiye Rajnath Singhji: Do not Outrageously Falsify History by Linking Gandhi with Savarkar’s Mercy Petitions | S N Sahu

  23 October 2021, by S N Sahu

  V D Savarkar who desperately submitted multiple clemency petitions to the British authorities from 1911 onwards for his release from Cellular jail of Andamans was also charged with conspiracy to murder of Mahatma Gandhi and the then Home Minister of India Sardar Patel wrote to Prime Minister Nehru on 27 February 1948 that ““ It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy ( to murder Gandhi Ji). “ Seventy three years after Sardar Patel’s (…)

• J P and his many experiments with democracy | Murari Sharan Verma

  23 October 2021

  by Murari Sharan Verma *
  Jaiprakash Narayan was one of the leading lights of India’s freedom movement and an iconic figure in post-independence India. He inspired millions but his ideas also evoked cynicism in several quarters. Ironically, J P has been more pilloried than eulogized and more respected than accepted. But he has an abiding place in the history of Indian political thought. The critics often miss the logical connection in his evolving thoughts and worldviews. Much of the (…)

• JP as a failed politician | Radhakanta Barik

  23 October 2021, by Radhakanta Barik

  by Prof Radhakanta Barik
  JP Narayan (JP) after leaving his party politics he decided to enjoy his freedom. He felt restricted in his freedom to think and act as free intellectual as a member of the party. He defined it as “freedom of the mind, freedom of spirit’ He left the party and but remained active in public life. He joined the sarvodaya which meant welfare of all. This is a utopian idea guided him for some years. He campaigned for the sarvodaya which demanded the rich to hand (…)

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  Caste, Class Combined to Make Bombay | M R Narayan Swamy

  23 October 2021, by M R Narayan Swamy

  by M.R. Narayan Swamy
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  Outcaste Bombay:
  City Making and the Politics of the Poor
  by Juned Shaikh
  Orient BlackSwan
  Pages: 226; Price Rs 995
  ISBN 9789354420405
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  When Bombay expanded in the 19th century from a trading town into a manufacturing hub, it became heavily dependent on cheap labour provided mainly by low caste Hindus. Shudras and Dalits comprised 59-64 percent of Bombay’s population between 1864 and 1881. Many Dalits migrated to the city in the late 19th (…)

• Justice Lokur’s Strong Advocacy of Protective Role of Judiciary Strengthens Democracy | Bharat Dogra

  23 October 2021, by Bharat Dogra

  Recently eminent jurist and former judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Madan B. Lokur, made three important points which have been widely welcomed by all citizens devoted to strengthening democracy in India (interview with Karan Thapar, the Wire.in, October 6 2021). Firstly he stated that the reason why our Supreme Court has been called the most powerful court internationally is that it derives its strength from the people. The constitution provides fundamental rights to people and (…)