Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Floods in Kerala or Nature’s Fury

  28 October 2018

  by K. Saradamoni
  The floods in Kerala just before the State’s widely known festival of Onam appear to have subsided. But the havoc these caused will take a long time to be resolved. The government and people, including young adults, responded with concern and determination. Both money and materials, including food, medicines and other essential articles, poured in.The Chief Minister’s Relief Fund received generous support from many sources outside the State and also the country. The (…)

• Water Audit of Liquor Industry is Badly Needed

  28 October 2018

  COMMUNICATION
  There have been several reports in recent times that the serious situation of drinking water scarcity is being aggravated in many areas due to the liquor industry.
  A report in India Today (October 15, 2010) by Kiran Tare on the serious water scarcity in Marathwada region says: “Indiscriminate release of water for sugarcane cultivation and alcohol production has depleted the (water) reservoirs. There are some 200 distilleries in Aurangabad, which use enormous quantities of (…)

• M.J. Akbar, Minister and Former Editor, Sexually Harassed and Molested Me

  28 October 2018

  by Ghazala Wahab
  The following is the article that appeared in The Wire giving details of the experiences of a young journalist, Ghazala Wahab, who worked in the New Delhi office of The Asian Age (1994-97) when M.J. Akbar was the editor of the publication. Several women journalists working under Akbar had penned their similar experiences; however, Ghazala’s was the most detailed account of what she experienced there. It could not be used last week due to space constraints. Akbar’s (…)

• What’s in a Name? A Lot!

  28 October 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Frustrated lot, the rulers of the day can do no better than to go hacking names of our cities and villages and roads! Plucking off the traditional names. Planting new names to further the chaos unleashed by third-class governance tactics.
  Re-naming Allahabad to Prayagraj could just be the start. News reports bare the future disasters awaiting to unfold. Political perverts’ narrow-mindedness peaking to such an extent that they do not wish to hear or see or even glance at any of (…)

• Oh No, Not I

  28 October 2018

  by Pandurang Vombatkere
  We roamed this earth once wild and free,
  We lived on fruits and wild honey
  And meat and nuts and roots and leaves;
  We prospered from Nature’s bounty.
  Then we grew clever and used our hands,
  No more wandering in forest lands;
  We grew our crops and reared our beasts —
  This was the end of our nomadic bands.
  In time we created wondrous things,
  To ease our lives and swell our stores,
  And as we grew there began a strife
  That became for us a way of (…)

• 

  Oscillating between Hope and Despair

  19 October 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  As we go to press news has just come that Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar—who went on an overdrive on his return to India (following a prolonged trip to Africa) on Sunday (October 14) to attack the women journalists who had levelled serious charges on him of sexual assault, file a defamation case against one of them as he remained completely unconcerned over the scores of women journalists coming out with their sordid experiences of working under the celebrated (…)

• Sabarimala Shrine and Women’s Entry

  19 October 2018

  by Ram Puniyani
  We live in a democratic society where all of us are supposed to be equal. In pre-industrial society the inequality was very much there and it was based on birth. In Indian society this inequality, the one based on birth, pertained to caste and gender. Leftovers of this inequality are very much there even in today’s society. One aspect of this has been pertaining to entry of women in places of worship. In most of the mosques, it’s predominantly men who pray to the Allah. In (…)

• Listen, Why Don’t We Look Right?

  19 October 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  With the recent arrests of members of the Right-wing outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, allegedly involved in murders of progressive rationalist liberals, I have been sitting introspecting on the very basic—why have we taken so very long to look Right! This, when it’s a known fact that Right-wing terror is on and ongoing in our country and also in the West.
  In 2011, 92 persons were killed by a 32-year old Right-wing man in Oslo. The facts that emerged from the Oslo killings seemed not just (…)

• Good Bye, Gandhi!

  19 October 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  It was the best day for Gandhi, it was the worst day for Gandhi. The President, Prime Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers paid tributes to Gandhi’s memory, some Hindu nationalists took to social media to pay tributes to Gandhi’s killer, thousands garlanded Gandhi’s statues, a few saffron-clad Hindus garlanded his killer’s statue, the world celebrated Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2 as Nonviolence Day, some countries marking the day by violent thoughts and deeds. (…)

• Municipal Polls in Kashmir

  19 October 2018, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The four-phase process of election of representatives in 79 municipal bodies in Jammu and Kashmir has started after a gap of thirteen years, with some alarming signals. The two dominant political parties of the State, the National Conference and PDP, announced their decision not to participate in the municipal polls. Reportedly, “of the 598 seats in the Valley, at least 236 will be uncontested. Another 184 have received no nominations.” Barely a day to go before the first phase of polls, it (…)