Mainstream Weekly

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  Table of Contents - Mainstream, Vol 63 No 36, Sept 6, 2025

  6 September 2025

  * Earthquake in Afghanistan: When Customs Kill More Than the Quake | S N Tripathy
  * Dadabhai Naoroji at 200: The Grand Old Man . . . | Santhosh Mathew
  * Trump

• Earthquake in Afghanistan: When Customs Kill More Than the Quake | S N Tripathy

  6 September 2025, by S N Tripathy

  The recent earthquake in Afghanistan was merciless. A 6.6-magnitude tremor, followed by powerful aftershocks, reduced villages to rubble, killing at least 2,200 people and injuring more than 3,600. Yet while the seismic waves destroyed homes, it is centuries-old customs and rigid gender restrictions that have deepened the tragedy. Women, already the most oppressed under Taliban rule, were left among the last to be rescued-or not rescued at all-as Taliban rules barred unrelated men from (…)

• Trump

  6 September 2025, by Arun Kumar

  The contrast is stark in the way US is negotiating with China and India. For India, a penal duty of 25% has kicked in for trade with Russia. This will be on top of the higher than expected tariff of 25%. But for China another 90 days extension was announced for negotiating a deal. The irony is that China imports much more energy from Russia than India does. Further, US wants to stall China

• Contradictions of Current American Capitalism - A Marxist Perspective | Soma Marla

  6 September 2025, by Soma S. Marla

  Imposition of high tariffs by United States on imported merchandise goods from India and other world nations has perturbed the world trade. President Trump

• The Spectre of Crisis in Moradabad | Arup Kumar Sen

  6 September 2025, by Arup Kumar Sen

  We seldom keep track of the micro impact of macro-economic shocks. The recent example of such a shock is imposition of tariffs on Indian exports by US at exorbitant rates. This aggressive tariff policy of the Trump administration has posed a big threat to the survival of many Indian export-based industries and shattered the livelihoods of many people.
  A fieldwork-based report on brass industry in Moradabad by Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, carried in The Telegraph (August 25, 2025), has documented (…)

• Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 - Disowning the Constitutional Duty — A Framework of Calculated Abdication | Rajan Kshirsagar

  6 September 2025, by Rajan Kshirsagar

  The Narendra Modi-led BJP government has forcefully passed the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 & brought India’s disaster management policy, on the surface, appears to be modernising. The recent revision of norms for the State and National Disaster Response Funds (SDRF/NDRF) for 2022-23 to 2025-26, communicated by the Ministry of Home Affairs in July 2023, presents itself as a blueprint for a robust response.
  However, a critical examination reveals that these developments are (…)

• For the state, Umar Khalid and others are worse then heinous criminals | Faraz Ahmad

  6 September 2025, by Faraz Ahmad

  Heinous crimes, as described in the Indian jurisprudence, are those offences for which the punishment under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or any other Indian law for the time being in force, is imprisonment for seven years or more.
  These crimes are described as crimes against humanity, such as murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, rape, and persecution. Other examples, or crimes with a similar severe nature, might include genocide, terrorism, and large-scale human trafficking, as (…)

• Devolution to Panchayats in the States: Experiences of Three Decades | Mahi Pal

  6 September 2025

  Abstract: Constitution of India envisages Panchayats as Institution of Self-Governments meaning thereby, they are expected to not only enjoy benefits of the implementation of the mandatory provisions like setting up State Finance Commission, State Election Commission and District Planning Committees, but also be empowered to plan for economic development with social justice integrating the 29 subjects listed in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution. These are also expected to be capable (…)

• Dadabhai Naoroji at 200: The Grand Old Man Who Exposed an Empire

  6 September 2025

• Regulating AI in Indian Social Science Research, Teaching and Publications: Balancing Innovation and Ethics | Adfer Rashid Shah

  6 September 2025

  Integrating AI into academic research though inevitable in India has simultaneously evolved as a major concern given the ethical, methodological, pedagogical and quality concerns. For publishers or editors today there are serious questions on the permissible AI content limit amid the emerging humanizing tools and websites that claim even AI written content cannot be detected by plagiarism detection tools. This has created a confusing situation be it the conduct of teaching and research in (…)