Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Modi in Trouble

  15 September 2018, by Mahendra Ved

  Indians are generally shy of statistics. No election is won or lost on the basis of figures. But, figures are crowding into the otherwise personalities-based discourse as the country prepares for general elections.
  Many of these figures are unflattering, and should worry the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he has just won the mandate to lead his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) into these polls.
  For, long after he stormed to (…)

• Insanity Enthroned

  15 September 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  After forty years of the foundation of our independent republic, the Frankenstein has appeared again

• Flood Fury in Kerala and UP, Recalling the Kashmir Floods of 2014

  15 September 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  There is something or everything so very bizarre and frightfully horrific about last week’s arrest and detention of the country’s well-known activists and academics who have been raising their voice and concerns for the tribals and minorities, and also for the atrocities taking place in the conflict zones of the country, and this includes the Kashmir Valley.
  Instead of paying heed to their concerns, we see the establishment of the day lock them up. If not in prisons, in their (…)

• A State that Fears the Constitution

  15 September 2018, by Badri Raina

  Look as far back as you will, all the way to the Garden of Eden, and you will find that the chief source of the power of ruling establish-ments has been the generation and possession of knowledge.
  Thus Adam and Eve were thrown out of Paradise for the sin of getting to acquire knowledge of good and evil. Prometheus was enchained by Zeus for stealing the knowledge of fire. Socrates was obliged to drink hemlock for sharing knowledge with the generation next. Vedic mantras were forbidden entry (…)

• The Norman Dixon Syndrome

  15 September 2018, by S G Vombatkere

  The matter of 400 serving soldiers (the term

• Of Article 35-A and Looming Crisis in Kashmir

  15 September 2018

  by Abid Ahmad Shah
  India is the confluence of 29 States and seven Union Territories, with a distinct demography, language, culture, lifestyle, etc. Jammu and Kashmir forms a part of the northern portion of the country with the privilege of being special status State among a whole gamut of States. The Constitution, as the basic guide of principles, gives rights to all the people of the country, common and special.
  The Indian Constitution is the sum total of Articles, Schedules, rights, (…)

• Why Karunanidhi Was Important

  15 September 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  With M. Karunanidhi’s death, a chapter turns in history. That is rare because most political leaders constitute mere footnotes in history, let alone a page. Karunanidhi was more a cultural reformer than a politician, a recognition that led people to confer on him the popular title of Kalaignar, a man of the arts and letters. He was an ideas man alongside Periyar and C.N. Annadurai. The Trimurtis nurtured a previously unarticulated Dravida civilisational value-system, thereby (…)

• The Identity Question of the Assamese Muslims

  15 September 2018

  by Swabana Mamtaz
  This article was sent to us quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  I. Introduction
  While the Muslims all over the world have a common religious identity, there is also extensive diversity among them relating to their socio-economic-cultural and political spheres. This creates their different social identities with the common feature, their religion. Therefore, it appears that the folk-cultural life of the indigenous Muslims of (…)

• Of NC, Farooq Abdullah and the Politics of Appropriation

  15 September 2018

  by Mohammad Ashraf Khwaja
  During the heydays of European colonialism,

• Caspian Sea: Long-awaited Agreement Reached

  15 September 2018

  by R.G. Gidadhubli
  On August 12, 2018 a meeting was held in the Central Asia’s port city of Aqtau in Kazakhstan when all the five states of the Caspian signed a new convention on its (Cospian’s) legal status. There are multiple factors which makes this event of global significance.
  Firstly, this is an important geopolitical development considering the fact that the Caspian is surrounded by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The Caspian has also geographical (…)