Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Signs of Hope, Mushirul Hasan

  23 December 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  The latest election results have brought about such a relief! These results are enough to relay that the fascist forces have been somewhat halted in their destructive moves and that we can hope for better days to come... Needless to add that these results have been along the expected strain because in the last over four years, we Indians have gone through the worst forms of deceit, abuse, killings and communal divides. There has been complete anarchy. After all, it was no (…)

• Tribute to Mushirul Hasan

  23 December 2018

  TRIBUTE
  Prof Mushirul Hasan is no more. The renowned historian—whose comprehension, according to fellow-historians, of Islam, Muslims and the Partition of India was indeed matchless—breathed his last in his sleep in the Capital on Monday, December 10, 2018, four years after he suffered serious injuries on account of a major car accident in November 2014 that severely impaired his functioning and activities. This accident happened soon after his latest book, When Stone Walls Cry: The Nehrus (…)

• The Way to Understand Kancha Ilaiah’s Works

  23 December 2018

  by Bheenaveni Ram Shepherd
  The meeting of the Delhi University Standing Committee for Academic Affairs was held on October 24, 2018 and it has recommended dropping edification of three books at the post-graduate level. And, those books have been in the MA Political Science’s syllabi for the past few years. The three books are: Why I am not a Hindu?—A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy; God as Political Philosopher: Buddha’s Challenge to Brahmanism; and (…)

• Simultaneous Elections: How Practicable ?

  23 December 2018

  by Saumitra Mohan
  With the next parliamentary elections due in 2019, preparations for the same have already commenced. While the timing of the ensuing elections is subject to the consideration of multiple factors including relevant constitutional stipulations by the Election Commission of India (ECI), another important electoral issue has lately been engaging the attention of the policy-makers and political observers. This relates to the conduct of simultaneous elections (SE) for the Lok (…)

• 

  India in Peril

  9 December 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Today is December 6, 2018. On this day twentysix years ago “to build a temple to mark the birthplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit”, as the founder of this publication wrote on December 19, 1992, thirteen days after the Babri Masjid was razed at Ayodhya, highlighting the false assurances given before the nation by the BJP leaders that the mosque would not be harmed. Indeed the Parliament, nation and people at large were deceived as the plan to pull down the mosque was (…)

• Gap between Growth and Unemployment Widening

  9 December 2018

  by A.V.V.S.K. Rao and M. Ramulu
  “Employment and well placed labour produce in a country general prosperity, content and cheerfulness”. —Daniel Weber
  Introduction
  India is facing severe crises of employment and livelihood. Economic growth since 2012 failed to generate secure, regular and decent incomes for a vast majority, particularly in the unorganised and informal sector.
  As per official records, the growth rate in India between July 2012-2016, was impressive. However, the (…)

• Elections Diminish Democracy!

  9 December 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  Large hoardings in Jaipur, the capital of one of the five poll-bound States in India, call upon the voters to celebrate the democracy “festival” —tyohar, the Hindi word for a religious festival. The Election Commission’s messages are not needed because the poll-related celebrations are in full swing. Campaigners hired on daily wages go around waving party flags and shouting slogans. The festive spirit is reflected in the viral videos of drunken men unable to hold the party (…)

• Politics of Globalisation defining the Mode of Farmers’ Agitation

  9 December 2018

  by Arun Srivastava
  After many years India is witnessing the emergence of a farmers’ movement albeit not in the classical form of the earlier farmers’ move-ments or peasant movements of the seventies. But at some level it heralds the message that the farmers are no more ready to be carried away by video-clipped success stories of the capitalist agrarian economy.
  It is really a matter of concern that no serious effort was made in recent years to find the reasons for discontent and (…)

• Indian Constitutional Courts and Secularism—II

  9 December 2018

  by Irfan Engineer
  The first part of this two-part article appeared in last week’s Mainstream (December 1, 2018). This is the second and concluding part.
  In the previous issue of Mainstream (December 1, 2018) we briefly outlined the tension between rights of denominations or any sections thereof under Article 26 of the Constitution to manage their own affairs in matters of religion, and to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purpose on one hand and rights of (…)

• Human Rights: Basic Issues / Not Sorrow but Atonement

  9 December 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Human Rights Day is observed on December 10 every year commemorating the day, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark the occasion we are reproducing the following article N.C. wrote twentysix years ago.
  Human Rights: Basic Issues
  The government’s decision to set up a National Human Rights Commission is a significant indication of its being able to read the signs of the times. The Prime Minister has (…)