Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Belarus: Scramble for heart of Europe | M. K. Bhadrakumar

  7 August 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  August 4, 2020
  The Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration Condoleeza Rice once described Belarus as “the last true remaining dictatorship in the heart of Europe.” She held out the assurance that it was “time for change to come to Belarus.” That was during her visit to next-door Lithuania in April 2005. Fifteen years have passed. Rice’s promise is yet to be realised. Is the Trump administration following up?
  By all indications, change is in the air in Belarus. For good or (…)

• Everyone’s an Antiracist. Now What? Recognizing that Black people deserve dignity isn’t progress | Erin Aubry Kaplan

  7 August 2020

  by Erin Aubry Kaplan
  Recognizing that Black people deserve dignity isn’t progress.
  The new unbridled enthusiasm for the cause of Black lives reminds me of the Dr. Seuss fable “Horton Hears a Who.”
  A kindly elephant named Horton becomes aware of a whole planet of creatures called Whos living on a single speck of dust. Horton can hear the Whos perfectly, and accepts them as friends and equals. Horton’s friends, who can’t see or hear the Whos, denounce him as crazy, and a few set out to (…)

• The Augmentation Of White Supremacist Terrorism | Tejasvini Akhawat

  7 August 2020

  by Tejasvini Akhawat
  Any kind of occurrence that is violent in nature can invariably be classified as a manifestation of terrorism. The minimalism and lack of austerity associated with the white supremacist terrorism cannot be justified on the grounds and sentiments of anti-Semitic, xenophobia, ultra-nationalism, islamophobia, all of which, to hail history, have in one form or the other served as root causes for formation of major terrorist camps and organisations. If this was the case, (…)

• Deeno Daan a poem Rabindranath Tagore

  7 August 2020

  120 years ago, on this very day, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem "Deeno Daan". It was about a temple. Here is an English translation by Sandipto Dasgupta of some of the excerpts.

• Routine! | A.K. Das

  7 August 2020

  Are you missing the routine: a drab, listless word, lidless stare of monotony? Getting ready, rushing to workplace, doing the day’s job, then the sun lengthening its shadows, you return home, tired, its comforting settings, warmth of your dear ones removing fatigue. Now a new reality has set in. You work from home without any fixed seat or cabin. There is no boundary between office and home; it’s blurred into a single space. You gradually get settled to a different work ambience: (…)

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  Video: Ram Kay Naam [In the Name of Rama] - a 1991 documentary film by Anand Patwardhan

  7 August 2020
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  Video: Actor Martin Sheen on Dangers of Climate Change and of Nuclear War

  7 August 2020

  Martin Sheen has recorded a video for World BEYOND War outlining the two biggest dangers the world faces. [Jan 12, 2020]

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  Table of Contents Mainstream - Lockdown Edition no.19 | Aug 1, 2020

  31 July 2020

  Table of Contents - Mainstream, VOL LVIII No 33, New Delhi, August 1, 2020 Letter to the Readers of Mainstream’s Lockdown Edition 19, Aug 1 | The Editor FSDR — The Ghost of FRDI: Rescuing failed banks at whose cost? | S G Vombatkere Lenin 150: Revisiting Lenin’s Understanding of Democracy in post-revolutionary Russia | Sobhanlal Datta Gupta Hagia Sophia: Heritage of Entire Humanity | Irfan Engineer Pandemic 2020: Toxic Leaders, Selfish Nations And An Orphaned World! | RK MIshra Book Review: (…)

• Letter to the Readers of Mainstream’s Lockdown Edition 19 - August 1

  31 July 2020

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, VOL LVIII No 33, New Delhi, August 1, 2020:
  Corona crisis: India is confronting its worst health crisis since independence. The Covid-19 tally is rising sharply and inching towards the 15-lakh mark. For the past weeks now, the country has seen a huge rise in the growth of infections and is just ranked below Brazil and the US. The situation is getting serious by the day and the government keeps denying any trace of community transmission. Foreign experts (…)

• FSDR — The Ghost of FRDI: Rescuing failed banks at whose cost? | S G Vombatkere

  31 July 2020, by S G Vombatkere

  In 2019, media reported that Government was preparing to table a new legislation, the Financial Sector Development & Regulation (Resolution) Bill (FSDR, hereafter). .
  Reportedly FSDR is meant to rescue banks, among other financial sector institutions, from collapse. It replaces the Financial Regulation and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 (FRDI hereafter), which was withdrawn in 2018 following public outcry against a “bail-in” provision, which small depositors did not trust. (…)