Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Pandemic and the Absurdity of ‘Online Teaching’

  23 May 2020, by Avijit Pathak

  What saddens me is that as teachers and educationists we have failed miserably at this crucial juncture when the coronavirus has shattered the ‘taken-for-granted’ world, and caused widespread psychic anxiety and existential uncertainty. Instead of rethinking the meaning and purpose of education at this puzzling moment, we seem to be concerned only with the technical question: how to use the appropriate apps for ‘online teaching’, and conquer the barriers of ‘social distancing’. It is like (…)

• Beyond show and symbolism: why the real must prevail over superficial?

  23 May 2020

  by Dr Garima Mani Tripathi
  Have we ever bothered why many state actions are coloured with symbolic and superficial activities? Why politics of symbolism actually arouse sentiments without substantive actions? Perhaps no, since such superficial things often masquerade as ‘real’ and we identify with them without even probing the substance. In one such case, the armed forces recently organised a series of nationwide activities on May 3 to showcase their support for doctors, para medics and (…)

• The ‘Naga’ Contestation, Ethnicity and Christianity

  23 May 2020

  by Bhawesh Pant
  Amidst the processes of Independence of India, there existed the Naga Movement for self-determination or Independence. The inception of this interaction from the Naga populace was initiated in June 1947 through an agreement between the Naga National Council (NNC) and Governor of Assam. The agreement was unable to stretch to the expected end, thereafter Naga National Council voiced for independence and made a claim for plebiscite in the region. This strong demand for (…)

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  Table of Contents - Lockdown Edition no8

  17 May 2020

  [fond vert clair]MAINSTREAM, VOL LVIII NO 22, NEW DELHI, MAY 16, 2020 - TABLE OF CONTENTSfond vert clair] • Letter to Readers - May 16, 2020 – Lockdown Edition no8 by The Editor • Azim Premji: The interests of workers, businesses are deeply aligned, especially in these times of crisis • When People Know Govts Couldn’t Care Less ....... Who Can Stop People From Walking? by Aparna • US leverages Delhi-Kabul nexus. But what’s in it for India? by M K Bhadrakumar • Andrey Kortunov : About (…)

• Letter to Readers - May 16, 2020 – Lockdown Edition no8

  17 May 2020

  While the fourth tranche of economic relief package has been announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Capital today, a day after her announcement of the thirdd tranche focusing on agriculture and allied activities, the Supreme Court of India declined to entertain a PIL seeking directions that district magistrates (DMs) identify, shelter, feed the migrant workers and provide free transport to them, as well as for those on the move among them, asserting that it was for the (…)

• Azim Premji: The interests of workers, businesses are deeply aligned, especially in these times of crisis

  17 May 2020

  By Azim Premji
  Sixteen young men were mowed down by a train. The details are still being investigated. But we do know the basic truth. Like millions of others who lost their livelihood, they were starving. So, they decided to walk a few hundred kilometres to their homes and slept on the tracks assuming no trains would run, since it was the lockdown. Some kind of a lockdown was necessary to tackle the pandemic, but these deaths are an unforgiveable tragedy.
  I don’t use the word (…)

• When People Know Govts Couldn’t Care Less ....... Who Can Stop People From Walking?

  17 May 2020

  Is it a few hours, days or maybe a week into the harshest lockdown in the world? No, it is 50 days. The tide of workers which started walking home from day one, fully sure that it would not count for govts, fully sure that sure starvation and penury was guaranteed in the days ahead, has turned into a torrent and goes on and on. How is that? Considering that the highest Court was assured that Govt had provided food and shelter, considering that govts are considerably providing transport, why (…)

• US leverages Delhi-Kabul nexus. But what’s in it for India?

  17 May 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  May 10, 2020
  The two-hour stopover in Delhi on May 7 by the US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, accompanied by the White House official in charge of South Asia Lisa Curtis, raises eyebrows. The Indian media reported that Khalilzad came all the way to render the advice that India should get involved in the “internal processes” in Afghanistan, and, secondly, directly engage with the Taliban. The American side has not issued any statement on Khalilzad’s mission. A (…)

• Andrey Kortunov : About the Wise Monkey Who Came Down from the Mountain

  17 May 2020

  by Andrey Kortunov
  Mao Zedong once summed up his philosophy on foreign policy with the following metaphor, "a wise monkey sitting on top of the mountain to watch the two tigers fight in the valley below.” The tigers in the Great Helmsman’s formulation were, of course, Moscow and Washington, and Beijing was the wise monkey. And China was able to play the role of “wise monkey” in its foreign affairs quite successfully for a number of years, skillfully manoeuvring in the background of the (…)

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  Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal Remembrance

  17 May 2020, by Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

  It was May, 1995, exactly 25 years ago. Hari Vasudevan (Calcutta University), Purabi Roy (Jadavpur University) and I myself (Calcutta University) were in Moscow for two months, working as a team sent by The Asiatic Society, Calcutta in connection with a project of collection of documents from the newly opened Soviet archives on Indo-Russian Relations : 1917-1947. This project was the result of a Protocol signed between The Asiatic Society, Calcutta and Moscow’s Institute of Oriental (…)