Mainstream Weekly

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• Manual scavenging laws in India: Some Observations | Jannat

  9 July 2021

  by Jannat
  Introduction
  Manual scavenging refers to cleaning, removing, disposing of, or otherwise dealing with human excreta in an unsanitary latrine, an open drain or sewer, a septic tank, or a pit manually. Buckets, brooms, and shovels are common hand instruments used by manual scavengers. Using brooms and tin plates, the workers must transfer the excreta into baskets, which they then transport to disposal sites, which can be several kilometres distant. Personal protection equipment (…)

• A hybrid war to replace Afghan ‘forever war’? | MK Bhadrakumar

  9 July 2021, by M K Bhadrakumar

  by MK Bhadrakumar
  July 6, 2021
  The British newspaper Daily Telegraph did some kite-flying in the weekend that London is considering open-ended deployment of a contingent of elite special forces to Afghanistan “ to provide training to Afghan units and deploy with them on the ground as advisers.”
  At the same time, the New York Times reported that White House approves Gen. Austin S. Miller, the top American commander in Afghanistan, staying on at his post for “at least a couple more (…)

• Israel deprives Central Europeans of moral cover | James M. Dorsey

  9 July 2021

  James M. Dorsey
  July 4, 2021
  When Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently sparked a war of words with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki he was doing more than resisting Central European attempts at rewriting the history and legacy of the Holocaust and right-wing nationalistic flirting with anti-Semitic tropes.
  The war centred on a bill debated in the Polish parliament that makes it essentially impossible for Jews to claim property they owned before the Holocaust. Mr. Lapid (…)

• 

  Locating Everest Was Himalayan Task | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  9 July 2021, by M R Narayan Swamy

  Review by M.R. Narayan Swamy
  The Hunt for Mount Everest
  by Craig Storti
  John Murray/Hachette India; Pages: 301; Price: Rs 699
  When someone asserted in 1760 that the Himalayas occupied the highest heights in “the old hemisphere”, a British daily dubbed it an “absurd claim from the land of rope tricks and reincarnation”. Before more could be found out, Nanda Devi was discovered in 1822 with a height of 25,749 feet. After 25 years, Kangchenjunga (28,176 feet) dethroned Nanda Devi. And, (…)

• 

  Pathe on ’Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India (ed.) Sandeep Mertiea’

  9 July 2021

  Book Review by Vikas Pathe*
  Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India
  Edited by Sandeep Mertiea
  Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2020 Partner: The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ISBN print-on-demand: 9789492302717 ISBN EPUB: 9789492302700
  __0__
  Almost 25 years after the Internet’s arrival, digital has become a new normal in which data plays a critical role. In the present digital environment, how these data are (…)

• The New Suits of Capitalist Developmentalism: Ecocapitalism & Citizen Avant-garde | Miguel Amoras

  9 July 2021

  by Miguel Amoras
  The capitalist world is debates itself in an unprecedented ecological crisis that threatens its continuity as a system based on the pursuit of private profit. From the pollution of air, water and soil to the accumulation of waste and rubbish; from the depletion of natural resources to the extinction of species; from the urbanizing tide to climate change; it seems that a sword of Damocles hangs over market society. Leaders from all spheres of activity are concerned about (…)

• A plea for sparrows | S Maria Reagan

  9 July 2021

  For the death of sparrows
  The streets of this city are weeping.
  You are just passing by the bird’s carcass
  To hear the The dictatorial king’s speech
  For Yoga Day.
  Is the bird alive?
  Only one dog is burying his face.
  The death of that bird that roared east
  Tells to the emperor.
  In the book of death that the king has
  Added a number
  & Sits with yoga posture
  India has meditated.
  The death of a sparrow
  You do not care.
  Of sparrows that do not add to the surplus
  Who cares (…)

• You made me a Martyr | Suhas Borker

  9 July 2021, by Suhas Borker

  You made me
  a simple eighty-four old Jesuit priest
  into a martyr
  By demonizing me
  By putting me in jail
  By repeatedly denying me bail
  By declining even a sipper
  to my Parkinson’s torn body
  You tormented and tortured me enough
  But you could never imprison my spirit
  a simple adivasi rights activist
  fighting for my people’s human dignity.
  Remember you will never be able to
  wash the blood on your hands
  till the day of judgment
  You killed me - one Stan Swamy
  But my sacrifice (…)

• Father Stan Swamy | Sagari Chhabra

  9 July 2021, by Sagari Chhabra

  Father, forgive us, For we know not what we do; We only know how to Keep a man of god Without a sipper and a glass; Nothing now, leaves us aghast. As your health ebbed away, You told them, ‘It is possible I may die soon, For I can neither bathe Nor eat on my own’; But they did disown, Not only you, but our entire humanity, By denying you bail, Keeping you suffering For two hundred and thirty four days in jail. Afflicted with Parkinsons coupled with Covid Your breath slowly ebbed away; (…)

• 

  News Reports on the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru & Sukhdev Thapar in Lahore Conspiracy Case in 1931

  9 July 2021

  March 23, 1931 – Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru & Sukhdev Thapar were hanged for the assassination of a policeman during the Indian struggle for independence