Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• International Scholars Decry Attack on Freedom of Speech in India

  11 March 2019

  International scholars, including Noam Chomsky, James Petras, Angela Davis, Fredric Jameson, Bruno Latour, Ilan Pappe, Judith Butler amongst others, have signed a statement castigating the Modi-led government for creating an environment of fear through arrests, intimidation and violence. Under the aegis of Fresh Perspectives, USA, the academics from mostly the US and UK have expressed deep concern about the current environment in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the “alarming (…)

• Imran thanks Modi, and eyes Joint Nobel Peace Prize

  11 March 2019

  by L.K. SHARMA
  The following piece appeared in Open Democracy in October 2018. It is being reproduced, with due acknowledgement, as its contents have become highly topical at present.
  “India led by you would never think of undoing the Partition. Your party depends on Pakistan for its existence.” A secret letter accessed by the author.
  Dear Modiji,
  Jai Sri Ram!
  Since this letter is for your eyes only, I can greet you in the name of Lord Ram. This is called blasphemy in Pakistan.
  I (…)

• Climate Refugees and Human Rights: Caught in the Tide of Time

  11 March 2019

  by Shubhra Seth and Govind Singh
  Introduction
  The feeling of returning home gives a sense of settlement and belongingness to many people. But how does one feel when the home does not give a sense of belonging and it is just a mere cemented structure or a tin box that one returns to every day, for the simple reason that, what was once upon a time their home, today no longer welcomes them. The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) live with this dilemma every day. Living in relief colonies (…)

• Reading State Power in Our Troubled Times

  11 March 2019, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Michel Foucault’s seminal lectures delivered in College De France (1977-78) were published with the title Security, Territory and Population. (Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2007) While introducing the theme, Foucault argued: “...what is involved in this analysis of mechanisms of power is the politics of truth”. He observed in this connection: “There is an increasingly huge set of legislative measures, decrees, regulations, and circulars that permit the deployment of these mechanisms of (…)

• Imran Khan Breaks Silence on Pulwama

  11 March 2019, by M K Bhadrakumar

  If Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s televised address in the afternoon of February 19, breaking his silence on the fedayeen attack in Pulwama, is to be succinctly captured in a single pithy sentence, it is that he has thrown the gauntlet down at PM Narendra Modi.
  The real political thrust of the speech lies in taunting, challenging and threatening Modi in turn. It is a call to political duel where Imran Khan is confident that he holds the advantage. Imran Khan failed to condemn the (…)

• Christian Colonial Impacts and Sustainable Reparations

  11 March 2019

  by Ava Sturm
  Colonialist exploits have existed for centuries. Despite this, the awareness of the impacts of recent exploits have increased and their impacts continue with the globalised capitalistic system. This paper explores the spiritual roots of the Christian capitalistic colonial exploits which have provided the foundation for the knowledge system under which these systems have been perpetuated, and the subsequent spiritual disenfranchisement experienced by indigenous peoples of both (…)

• Imparting Creative Dimension to Marxist Criticism: The Role of Namvar Singh

  11 March 2019

  TRIBUTE
  by Prem Singh
  Professor Namvar Singh is no more. After battling with a prolonged illness, he drew his last breath on February 19 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. In the tributes which immediately followed his demise, it was rightly noted that his death has brought an era to an end. His absence has generated an irreplaceable void in the literary world from which it will never recover. Namvar Singh was a tall figure in the world of Hindi literature and it (…)

• Hanoi Summit on North Korea’s Nuclear Issue: Implications and Opportunities

  11 March 2019

  by Sudhakar Vaddi
  As far as the Korean Peninsula is concerned, one can declare war overnight but can’t declare peace and it can only be built through the gradual process of mutual trust among the parties. The second summit at Hanoi (Vietnam) on February 28, 2019 between the United States (US) and North Korea [officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)] not surprisingly falls under this category. At the summit, though US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim (…)

• For Lalleshwari - Kashmiri Poet (1320 - 1397)

  11 March 2019

  Go, fetch water from the river!’
  She commanded,
  But you resolutely rowed the ferry
  Further downstream.
  The pot balanced carefully on your head
  You returned, to your mother in-law screaming,
  Accusing you of infidelity;
  Then she hit you with a stick.
  The pot broke,
  The weeping waters fell to your feet,
  Turning riverwards;
  But your poetry is where the water
  Still flows, Lal Ded.
  Naked, you wandered,
  Searching and searching,
  Discarding all codes;
  While we armed (…)

• 

  Twin Tasks at Crucial Hour

  3 March 2019

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  As these lines are being written, India-Pakistan relations are deteriorating fast and a war-like situation has developed. The shooting down of an F-16 Pakistani aircraft by India and the downing of a Mirage 21 aircraft by Pakistan and capturing its pilot has greatly escalated tensions between the two neighbouring countries.
  The nationwide euphoria following the successful attack of the Indian Air Force on the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the demolition of its training camps in (…)