Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Dr. Gunvantrai Ganpatlal Parikh : A Tribute | Anil Nauriya

  20 September, by Anil Nauriya

  [October 2 is the death anniversary of GG Parikh a leading figure in the India’s socialist movement] Sometimes it is more difficult to write about an individual, the longer one has known him.
  My first contact with Dr G G Parikh (“G.G.” as he was affectionately known) was in 1971-1972 when I started writing for Janata, the voice of India’s Socialist Movement. It has now been more than half a century since then. By the time he passed away, he had crossed a full century and more in age. I (…)

• Chandsi: A house, a belonging, an emotion | Tarun Basu

  20 September

  My house in Delhi is called Chandsi Villa. The name itself is something of a misnomer, as the once garden house is now a four-storey apartment building, far removed from a villa that the name evokes. And it is named after a village in Bangladesh which no one in this building has ever visited, not even perhaps its original owners, our parents.
  Omniscient Google describes Chandsi as "a historically significant village located in the Gournadi Upazila of the Barisal District in south-central (…)

• We are Apolitical: Simple Truths of a Clever Politics
 | Sanjay Kumar

  20 September, by Sanjay Kumar

  What are the moral arguments and consequences of being political, or apolitical in contemporary India? While the two terms, political and apolitical, are semantically opposite, in practice they occur deeply entwined. The recent youth led Jantar Mantar protests in India are a good example. If the single issue protest against an examination leak morphed into widespread ridicule and opposition to the ruling dispensation, claims of being apolitical in the same protests turned out to be an under (…)

• Thompson and the Decomposition of Abstract Time : Clock time and life-time saving | John Holloway

  20 September

  ”The clock, not the steam engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age.” — Lewis Mumford
  “During the Paris commune, in all corners of the city ... there were people shooting at the clocks ...” — Walter Benjamin
  Just like the clocks, the debate about clock-time is going forward and back, forward and back. See this report here about proposal that Britain moves to Central European Time. Why does no-one ever suggest that we all work an hour a day less during the winter months? (…)

• Sri Lankans rally to save Tamil facing death in Saudi Arabia | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  20 September

  September 23, 2026
  Setting aside decades of ethnic bitterness and fratricide, Sri Lankans of all hues are joining hands in a desperate attempt to save a 27-year-old Tamil youth who faces execution in Saudi Arabia over a derogatory post on Prophet Mohammad.
  The government has engaged a pricey lawyer in the Gulf kingdom while political and religious leaders are demanding that Sivarasa Anojan be spared the capital punishment and, if possible, returned to Sri Lanka.
  Knowing Colombo’s (…)

• A tale of two unconstitutional legislations and apocalypse in journalism: India’s First Metadata case — Part 16

  20 September, by Gopal Krishna

  जानामि धर्मं न च मे प्रवृत्तिः, (I know what is right conduct but I am not inclined towards it) जानाम्यधर्मं न च मे निवृत्तिः। (I know what is wrong conduct but I am not free from it) (Duryodhana cited in Garg Samhita, Verse 36, Chapter 50)
  "Delighted at the passage of The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha with such phenomenal support. I thank MPs across Party lines who voted in support of this Bill. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a (…)

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  Letter to Minister of Labour & Employment over lack of trade union representation in Notification S.O. 3985(E) | AITUC

  20 September

  Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, The Minister for Labour and Employment Government of India, Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001
  Sub: Request to withdraw the Notification S.O. 3985(E) dated 21 July 2026 and reconstitute the Central Advisory Board under Section 42 of the Code on Wages, 2019.
  Dr Mansukh Mandaviya ji,
  The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) places on record its opposition against the notification S.O.3985(E) dated 21st July 2026, issued by the Ministry of Labour and (…)

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  Oppose the Maharashtra Ban on ‘Radical’ Literature | PUDR, Aug 23, 2026

  20 September

  PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS (PUDR)
  Aug 23, 2026
  On August 6, 2026, the Home Department of the Maharashtra Government notified ‘forfeiture’ of 114 publications under S 98 of the BNSS (Power to Declare Certain Publications as Forfeited). The publications are shown as linked to terror organizations (IS/ISIS, ISKP, Hizb–ul-Mujahideen Pir Panjal Regiment, Al Qaeda) proscribed under the First Schedule of the UAPA, and as literature which attract provisions of the BNS (S. 152, 196, (…)

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  Indo-Palestine Solidarity Network letter to BRICS summit 2026

  20 September, by John Dayal

  Indo-Palestine Solidarity Network Address – 505 Link Apartments, 18 IP Extension, Delhi – 110092 Contact – john.dayal[at]gmail.com
  11 September 2026
  To,
  Their Excellencies, the Heads of State and Government of the Member Countries of BRICS
  Eighteenth BRICS Summit, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi
  Through Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India and Chair of BRICS 2026 Subject: The responsibility of BRICS towards Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and the peoples of West Asia
  Excellencies, (…)

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  Solidarity with CGT and the Workers at the Eiffel Tower - Statement from NTUI

  20 September

  New Trade Union Initiative
  [Press Statement]
  September 19, 2026
  The New Trade Union Initiative extends its solidarity to our comrades at the CGT and the workers at the Eiffel Tower who staged a spontaneous strike to protect the dignity, equality and rights of women workers.
  The courage of the workers in refusing to accept the humiliation and invisibilising of their women colleagues is a testimony of what trade unionism is all about. There is no room in the workplace to negotiate away (…)