Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Taboo or Not Taboo?

  3 March 2019

  by Aishwarya Bhuta
  Being a woman and demanding entry into a temple is taboo.
  Being landless and demanding land rights is taboo.
  Being Adivasi and demanding forest rights is taboo.
  Being Dalit and demanding reservations is taboo.
  Being a farmer and demanding loan waivers is taboo.
  Being a labourer and demanding minimum wages is taboo.
  Being a journalist and doing your job right is taboo.
  Being an activist and mobilizing the masses is taboo.
  Right to speech and expression is (…)

• Democracy, Freedom and Seventieth Year of the Republic

  3 March 2019, by Kobad Ghandy

  [After a one-and-a-half year gap we are carrying an article by the well-known Marxist-Maoist thinker, Kobad Ghandy. In the past, we have carried several of his articles that he sent us from whichever jail he was lodged in. The last was a two-part article on India and the Evolving New World Order that was published in two parts on September 16 and 23, 2017 in this journal. He could not send any piece subsequently as his health condition did not permit him to write. In a covering note with (…)

• They

  3 March 2019

  [ February 21 is the International Mother Tongue Day as declared by the United Nations in recognition of the martyrs of the language movement who fell to the Pakistani police’s bullets on that day in 1952 in Dhaka while demanding that their mother tongue, Bangla, be made the official language of East Pakistan. Remembering the February 21 martyrs on the sixtyseventh anniversary of the language movement, we are publishing the following poem by a distinguished Bangladeshi personality. This was (…)

• Resolve Venezuelan Crisis before it is Too Late

  3 March 2019, by Bharat Dogra

  The crisis situation in Venezuela is getting more and more serious. It is clear that while the economic problems of the people of Venezuela in recent times have increased greatly, it is also true that left to itself the Maduro Government could have reduced these to a significant extent but the problems were accentuated due to the aggressive intervention of the USA. Matters came to a head when due to the support and prompting of the USA Juan Guaido declared himself the ‘interim President’. (…)

• Assam Rifles in the Role of the Police

  3 March 2019

  by Gautam Sen
  The Government of India has issued a notification on February 21, 2019 empowering the Assam Rifles (AR), presently a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and de-facto the oldest para-military force of the country, having the historically embellished appellation of “Sentinels of the East“, with extensive police powers. The powers bestowed are from personnel of the lowest rank of AR, under sub-section (1) of section 41 and sections 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 149, 150, 151 and 152 of (…)

• Namvar Singh

  3 March 2019

  LITERARY TRIBUTE
  by Priyadarshan
  With the death of Namvar Singh, 92, an era of Hindi literature has come to an end. It is an understatement that he was a great critic, for his contribution goes much further. He may well be considered as one of the architects of the modern Hindi sensibility. For almost seven decades, Singh’s charismatic presence had a great influence on the Hindi literary and intellectual sphere. He gave new meanings to
  the old forms of writing, and he liberated the (…)

• Common Cause

  3 March 2019, by Badri Raina

  We die for ours; Our deaths are propitiated Like those of star-crossed lovers.
  They kill us, We kill them; They win some, We win some.
  Thus we shun the cowardice Of a pusillanimous peace; Heroes do not fold their arms— They die in bloodied grace.
  There are those who would conclude Our dance of kindred hate In some petty, effeminate truce That belittles our heroic fate;
  Thus our respective national pride Is our adrenaline feeder; We die so our petty lives may have Some value for our (…)

• A Centennial Tribute - Subhas Mukhopadhyay

  3 March 2019

  The birth centenary of the eminent Bengali poet, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (February 12, 1919-July 8, 2003), was held recently with a three-day function (February 13-16, 2019) in Kolkata. It was organised by the Bengali periodical, Saptaha; Subhas Mukhopadhyay happened to be the Chairman of the weekly’s Editorial Board. While remembering him and offering our sincere homage to his abiding memory on this occasion, we are reproducing the tribute to Subhas Mukhopadhyay that was published in the (…)

• 

  Probing Queries, Outrageous Outburst

  24 February 2019

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  An element of uncertainty hovers over the country as one writes these lines. A week has passed since the horrific terror strike in Pulwama, J&K. That happened on February 14. Today is February 21. The entire country stood by the Union Government soon after the terror attack, the worst in the border State that resulted in the deaths of as many as 40 CRPF jawans. Today on the seventh day after the attack the Opposition parties have come out with probing questions on (…)

• Pulwama Attack: PIPFPD Calls for Peace

  24 February 2019

  The following is the statement issued by the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) on the February 14, 2019 terror attack at Pulwama, J&K. The statement was in the form of a press release issued on February 15, 2019.
  ‘How many Deaths will it take till we know
  That too many people have died?’
  The PIPFPD is shocked and saddened by the loss of lives of 44 CRPF personnel in a militant attack in Lethapora, Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. The gruesome manner in (…)