Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Populism, Electoral Realignments and the Politics of Belonging in Assam | Pallavi Devi

  23 August 2025

  Assam is heading into another high-stakes election season, and the air is thick with anticipation and unease. The Legislative Assembly Elections in March

• Judicial Outreach or Political Activism of Judges? Unmasking Political and Ideological Bias in India | Bhabani Shankar Nayak

  23 August 2025

  From the courtrooms to legal campaigns for public good, the tradition of judicial activism and legal outreach by the courts in India is well documented. The Supreme Court, High Courts, and even lower courts have earned public respect for their integrity and independence in delivering justice and implementing the law in both letter and spirit, despite the limitations of evidence-based empirical legal practice. This public trust in the judiciary enables the Indian state and its legal systems (…)

• One Way of Reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Arup Kumar Sen

  23 August 2025, by Arup Kumar Sen

  There are multiple and diverse ways of reading an author

• Remembering those Great Efforts of Saving Himalayan Forests in Tehri Garhwal | Bharat Dogra

  23 August 2025, by Bharat Dogra

  One of the most inspiring efforts that I have covered in my nearly five decades of development journalism is that of the saving of Himalayan forests in Tehri Garhwal district approximately during the period of 1977-80.
  I was fresh out of college with unlimited enthusiasm for reporting such initiatives. The most valuable gift I received from this coverage was in the form of friendships with activists as well as villagers which have continued at our family level for decades.
  When I first (…)

• Public Hygiene, State Obligation, and the Vacuum in Sanitation Provision | Justine George, Kevin Jacob

  23 August 2025

  The Kerala High Court verdict interim order (Petroleum Traders Welfare and Legal Service Society & Ors. v. State of Kerala & Ors., WP(C) No. 9329/2025) on 18th June which restricting public access to toilet facilities in petrol pumps has precipitated a significant public outcry in Kerala. However, the verdict is legally sound in upholding the private property rights against uncompensated burdens due to the public access. This reaction, while understandable, misdirects the critique (…)

• NCERT Textbook Modules Distort History of India

  23 August 2025, by Ram Puniyani

  NCERT, which prepares the school texts for the CBSE Board, is on a speedy journey to change the school texts and supplementary reading materials. Mostly it is modifying and changing the contents to suit the agenda of the ruling party. BJP is pursuing the agenda of Hindu nationalism. It is constructing the past through these books to ensure that the new generation thinks in a way to support BJP-RSS

• Tractor owner farmers, and new challenges & Policy concerns | Rajan Kshirasagar

  23 August 2025, by Rajan Kshirsagar

  The tractor emerged as a symbol of farmers’ resistance in the historic movement held at Delhi’s "veshi" (marketplace or locality). Against the backdrop of the Green Revolution, the use of tractors increased across the country. Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain pairs of bullocks. Once upon a time, a beautiful pair of bullocks was considered a sign of prosperity. Gradually, the tractor took the place of these bullocks. Due to rising fodder costs, labor needed for (…)

• Green Fiscal Strategies for Sustainable Rural Development in India: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Insights | Rashpal Singh

  23 August 2025

  Abstract: India

• Report of Independent Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur | PUCL

  23 August 2025

• On The Summer Strikes in Poland, 1980 | Echanges et mouvement

  23 August 2025

  [ Note from the Editor of Mainstream: The post 1968 left circles in Western Europe played a valuable role in defending and amplifying the leading voices of Polish left opposition like Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron, who were among the co-founders of KOR (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow) - a committee for social defence of workers & their families facing repression. Posted below is a summary of discussions 45 years ago on the strikes in communist Poland in the pages of Echanges, a bulletin of a (…)