Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Situating the National War Memorial

  7 April 2019

  by Arup Kumar Sen
  A scholar of Museum Studies, Andrew Whitmarsh, made some seminal observations regarding war memorials: “...museums of war act as memorials to those who were killed or served in war...War museums have often been accused of sanitising or glamorising war...War is a controversial subject, not only because of the death, destruction and suffering involved. Memory of war often forms part of a nation’s self-image. Taking a critical attitude towards past wars may therefore provoke (…)

• CNDP Statement on the ASAT Test

  7 April 2019

  The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) takes serious note of the dramatic declaration of the Indian Prime Minister, on March 27, early afternoon, claiming, in a nationally televised address, successful testing of an ASAT missile by way of destroying an Indian military Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite at an altitude of almost 300 kms, over the Bay of Bengal.
  Whatever be the actual military significance of the claimed successful test, it definitely makes the current regional (…)

• Remembering Lohia

  7 April 2019

  Dr Rammanohar Lohia’s 109th birth anniversary fell on March 23 this year. Since his birthday coincided with the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, Lohiaji never wanted his followers to observe or celebrate his birthday. However, we remember him and offer tributes to the abiding memory of that stormy petrel of the Indian socialist movement on this occasion by reproducing the following article. Written by a veteram journalist (the first editor of Mainstream who later became (…)

• Gender Discrimination and Violence against Women: Connecting the Dots of Declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in India

  7 April 2019

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Bijayalaxmi Nanda, Nupur Ray, Ritwika Mukherjee, Richa Jairaj
  The following study is a part of an ongoing research project, “Declining Child Sex Ratio and Violence against Women: Examining Girl Child Discrimination in India”, under the Centre for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Bijayalaxmi Nanda, the Project Director, is an Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Miranda House, (…)

• Bangsamoro Referendum: A Lesson for Solving the Kashmir Problem

  7 April 2019

  by Anwar Ali Tsarpa
  On February 14 a horrific suicide attack in Pulwama, Kashmir on security personnel killed 40 CRPF jawans. The terror attack, conducted by a local Kashmiri militant, Adil Dar, triggered an uproar across the country heightening the feeling that the new generation in Kashmir is more radicalised than its predecessors.
  A few weeks before the attack in Kashmir, more than two million Filipinos in the Philippines chose to form a Bangsamoro (meaning Moro nation), a new (…)

• Kashmir: Setting the Priorities

  7 April 2019, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In 1967, that is, more than fifty years ago, N.C. visited the Kashmir Valley for a few days and held detailed discussions with a wide cross-section of opinion-makers and political personalities of all shades there. On his return he wrote a series of pieces on Kashmir in Mainstream. The following is the fourth and last instalment of the series ‘Special Report on Kashmir’ and was published in this journal’s November 18, 1967 issue. It is being reproduced now that Kashmir (…)

• Populism and the Future of Democracy in India

  7 April 2019

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Muzamil Yaqoob
  India After Modi Populism and the Right by Ajay Gudavarthy; Delhi: Bloomsbury India; 2019; pages: xxx+236; Rs 599.
  “Even nationalism demands a dialogue, Love for the nation has to be nurtured, not shoved down throats. Diversity has to be acknowledged, not merely by recognising various social identities, but the ideas that come with them.”
  At a time when the domestic politics of many well-established democracies is reeling under Right-wing populism (…)

• 

  Scientists’ Major Feat in Space Odyssey

  31 March 2019, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Yesterday’s development is a major achievement for which fulsome praise must legitimately go to our scientists, especially those in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The DRDO scientists had developed a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Interceptor, similar to the ones which intercept and destroy incoming missiles, and this was fired from the Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island launch complex, off the coast of Odisha, south of Balasore before it struck an Indian (…)

• Why Christchurch Attack is a Wake-up Call

  31 March 2019

  by Zulafqar Ahmed
  Politics around the world has been changing dramatically. The extreme Right has risen to power throughout the globe from Donald Trump of the US (2016) to Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines (2016) and from Victor Orban of Hungary (2010) to Jair Bolsanaro of Brazil (2019). The rise of the extreme Right is posing a severe threat to the democratic values like Liberty, Equality, Justice, Plurality, Inclusiveness and Tolerance, and with the emergence of the extreme Right (…)

• Indian Republic @ 70: Democracy at Crossroads

  31 March 2019, by Nayakara Veeresha

  by Nayakara Veeresha
  The decline in global peace has largely been driven by changes in measures related to safety and security. (Global Peace Index, 2014) The Fragile States Index 2018 indicated that internal and external pressures affect the world’s richest and most developed nations too. Accordingly, Qatar, Spain, the United States of America and United Kingdom experienced social and political instabilities in the year 2017. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index (EIUDI), 2017 (…)