Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Video Recording: Making India Work - The Development of Welfare in a Multi-level Democracy | ESCI 2025

  5 July 2025

  Play
  Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-level Democracy | ESCI 2025 by New Political Economy Initiative, IIT Bombay https://youtu.be/jL8V5_oe94g?si=yZHci3r9OKhLSndG

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  Music: Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman (1970) Part 1

  5 July 2025

  Play
  Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman (1970) Part 1 (Full Album) by 54music2 https://youtu.be/mFCCDs7xOkA?si=ycDbJby6sBMipsKQ

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  Table of Contents - Mainstream, Vol 63 No 25-26, June 21 & June 28, 2025 (Double Issue)

  21 June 2025

  * The "Ram"ification of Identity Assertion | Disha
  * Landlessness in Rural India | Soma Marla
  * Reform of Judiciary in India Cannot be in Isolation | Arun Kumar
  * Marxism and Freedom . . . . . . from 1776 until today | Raya Dunayevskaya

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, June 21, June 28, 2025

  21 June 2025

  For those of us who grew up in former colonised countries, we learnt of respect for sovereignty of independent nations, respect for international law & international fora like the United Nations, witnessed emergence of the non-aligned movement, have memories of the anti-apartheid movement, of the movement against USA’s war on Vietnam, have been witnessing the clock turn backwards, a continuous crumbling down of principles and goals of equality for citizens and between nation states. (…)

• Landlessness in Rural India | Soma Marla

  21 June 2025, by Soma S. Marla

  Even 78 years after independence, land ownership in villages is highly skewed. Rich farmers continue to own vast tracts of land while the small farmers possess only a negligible portion. Share of agriculture being mere 16 percent of GDP, eventually 65 percent of rural population are sustaining livelihoods in near poverty. Unless crores of landless get land and democratically participate in production process, it may not be possible to rise agricultural production, productivity and (…)

• Why Israel’s wars and the Middle-East situation so deeply worrying? | Bharat Dogra

  21 June 2025, by Bharat Dogra

  The Israel-Iran war following the Israeli attack on Iran on June 13, 2025 as well as the continuing Israeli genocidal actions in Gaza have become the biggest source of concern for all those who value peace and human life, even though other very troubling conflicts involving Ukraine and Russia, the conflicts in Sudan and elsewhere are also continuing.
  A special feature of the Israeli attacks on Iran is that nuclear facilities including uranium enrichment facilities are particularly (…)

• Digital Panopticon: How Metadata Monitoring is Reshaping India

  21 June 2025

  Abstract
  In recent years, India has witnessed a silent but sweeping expansion of metadata surveillance under the guise of national security and digital governance. With limited judicial oversight and vague regulatory frameworks, metadata collection now poses a profound threat to civil liberties and the health of democratic discourse. This article critically examines the rise of the digital panopticon in India, analysing how metadata surveillance reshapes public participation, erodes (…)

• Terror, Retaliation, and the Erosion of Dissent: Criminalisation of Enquiry after the Pahalgam Attack | Nagender Madavaram

  21 June 2025

  The Indian government’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack [1] and the subsequent Operation Sindoor has provoked significant public scrutiny. These developments, coupled with the global outreach tour by all-party Members of Parliament, have raised fundamental concerns about transparency, strategic coherence, and the instrumentalisation of foreign policy for domestic political gain.
  At the core of the discontent is the government’s admission, during an all-party meeting on April 24, (…)

• Kaleidoscope of the Indian Diaspora: A Bus Journey Through Bihar | Atanu Sengupta & Madhushree Mukherjee

  21 June 2025

  1. Introduction:
  As economists, they generally glean statistics and data. These data are assumed to replace a portion of reality in quantification and non-malleability. Quantification and malleability are the basis of any economic discourse. In these very true points, the social anthropologist shies away from the truths unfolded by economists.
  Long ago, Prof. Pranab Bardhan tried to open up a dialogue among economists and anthropologists (2006). In this book, he attempted to bring out a (…)

• Reform of Judiciary in India Cannot be in Isolation | Arun Kumar

  21 June 2025, by Arun Kumar

  Judiciary in India faces unprecedented challenges. Its functioning is under constant scrutiny. The government is set to launch an impeachment proceeding against Justice Verma in whose outhouse burning cash was found. MPs have initiated a move in the Rajya Sabha to impeach a High Court judge. A judge has been transferred for apparently taking bribes for bail. Perhaps in response to all this, the CJI has talked of ethical concerns. And the previous CJI recently talked of the need to earn the (…)