Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 - Disowning the Constitutional Duty — A Framework of Calculated Abdication | Rajan Kshirsagar

  6 September 2025, by Rajan Kshirsagar

  The Narendra Modi-led BJP government has forcefully passed the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 & brought India’s disaster management policy, on the surface, appears to be modernising. The recent revision of norms for the State and National Disaster Response Funds (SDRF/NDRF) for 2022-23 to 2025-26, communicated by the Ministry of Home Affairs in July 2023, presents itself as a blueprint for a robust response.
  However, a critical examination reveals that these developments are (…)

• For the state, Umar Khalid and others are worse then heinous criminals | Faraz Ahmad

  6 September 2025, by Faraz Ahmad

  Heinous crimes, as described in the Indian jurisprudence, are those offences for which the punishment under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or any other Indian law for the time being in force, is imprisonment for seven years or more.
  These crimes are described as crimes against humanity, such as murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, rape, and persecution. Other examples, or crimes with a similar severe nature, might include genocide, terrorism, and large-scale human trafficking, as (…)

• Devolution to Panchayats in the States: Experiences of Three Decades | Mahi Pal

  6 September 2025

  Abstract: Constitution of India envisages Panchayats as Institution of Self-Governments meaning thereby, they are expected to not only enjoy benefits of the implementation of the mandatory provisions like setting up State Finance Commission, State Election Commission and District Planning Committees, but also be empowered to plan for economic development with social justice integrating the 29 subjects listed in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution. These are also expected to be capable (…)

• Dadabhai Naoroji at 200: The Grand Old Man Who Exposed an Empire

  6 September 2025

• Regulating AI in Indian Social Science Research, Teaching and Publications: Balancing Innovation and Ethics | Adfer Rashid Shah

  6 September 2025

  Integrating AI into academic research though inevitable in India has simultaneously evolved as a major concern given the ethical, methodological, pedagogical and quality concerns. For publishers or editors today there are serious questions on the permissible AI content limit amid the emerging humanizing tools and websites that claim even AI written content cannot be detected by plagiarism detection tools. This has created a confusing situation be it the conduct of teaching and research in (…)

• The Dark Side of Meme Culture: Arjun Kapoor’s Trolling and the Game of Traction | Kaleem Ullah Fasihi

  6 September 2025

  Abstract
  This article examines the negative consequences of unrestrained trolling on social media, where toxic behavior is frequently concealed by memes, normalizing harm and encouraging a cycle of replication. As seen in the recent case of Arjun Kapoor’s trolling, where meme-based trolling caused social disengagement, it draws attention to how content producers take advantage of popular subjects, mirroring broader trends of celebrity stress and loneliness. The analysis, which uses (…)

• Crossroads of Conflict: Chittagong and Rakhine Province in Turmoil | Manas Mukul Bandyopadhyay

  6 September 2025

  The strategic confluence of Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Rakhine (Myanmar) provinces has catapulted this region into the vortex of global geopolitics, with major powers like the US, China, and India converging on this critical juncture. Bangladesh

• USSR: G. T. Myasnikov’s 1921 memo to the Central Committee | Jairus Banaji

  6 September 2025, by Jairus Banaji

  G. T. Myasnikov ( 1889

• USSR: 1980 KGB Memo Regarding the Planning of a Demonstration in Memory of John Lennon

  6 September 2025

  20 December 1980. Confidential.
  To the Central Committee.
  The KGB has learned that in many of Moscow’s establishments of higher education ([Moscow State] University, Institute of History and Archives, Radiotechnical Institute...) anonymous posters have appeared calling for all interested persons to take part on 21 December at 11:00, on the esplanade of the university, in a demonstration organized in memory of the English singer, John Lennon, composer and founder of the "Beatles." The (…)

• The Himalayan Blunder that Began in the 1960s

  6 September 2025

  As Forest Policies changed and religious tourism increased in northern India, felling of forests, building activities and road constructions too increased with the commercialisation of the revered Himalayan