Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Is 135 Workdays a Viable Guarantee or a Smokescreen? | Amal Mandal

  1 May

  An unanticipated increase in the guaranteed workdays from 100 to 125 for the willing rural households is one pivot of the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (GRAMG). However, the absence of explicit intent or rationale raises apprehension about whether the expanded perimeter is a dynamic commitment, a viable pledge, rhetoric, a deflecting tactic or a smokescreen.
  The 125 days of work seems one standalone guarantee in the sense that the preceding (…)

• Ambedkar Jayanti and the Republic at the Sewer

  1 May

  Every year on 14 April, the Indian Republic pays homage to Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, a fierce opponent of caste oppression and a lifelong champion of social justice. The rituals are by now well established: floral tributes, commemorative speeches, and repeated affirmations of equality, dignity, and justice. But Ambedkar

• From Citizens to Consumers: Market Logics in Telangana

  1 May

  The Telangana Education Commission (TEC), chaired by former IAS officer, Akunuri Murali, has recently submitted its report, now referred to as the Telangana Education Policy (TEP). Framed as a blueprint for

• Do these SIR hampered elections denote Democracy | Faraz Ahmad

  1 May, by Faraz Ahmad

  Whatever be the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections, where the last round of polling completed on Wednesday, 29 April, under the menacing eyes of an

• Why Is a Tractor Taxed Like a Luxury Car?

  1 May, by Rajan Kshirsagar

  Imagine

• Algebra of Revolution Revisited: From Newtonian Stasis to Quantum Emergence | Sindhunil Barman Roy

  1 May

  For over a century, the Algebra of Revolution

• How ideologies harm freedom | Sukumaran C.V.

  1 May, by Sukumaran C.V.

  When I recently finished reading Leor Zmigrod’s book: The Ideological Brain: How Rigid Beliefs Harm our Minds & Bodies and Why it Matters, the book helped me to see the harms I have incurred myself due to my blind adherence to an ideology. I have already realised the damages ideologies do both to the society and the individuals who hold the ideologies, and discarded all kinds of ideologies long ago. But it is Smigrod’s book that helped me to see the pernicious damages the ideologies do (…)

• Manipur Year 4: Guns Without Justice | John Dayal

  1 May, by John Dayal

  April 26, 2026
  Three years into the worst episode of ethnic violence, marked by grave allegations of state failure and complicity, in post-independence India, the Central government is preparing to deploy around 100 battalions of paramilitary forces to the north-east, principally into Nagaland and ravaged Manipur.
  Declaring on 31 March 2026 that the Maoist insurgency in central India had been defeated after six decades, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the redeployment of (…)

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  Remembering Andre Beteille: Some Reflections on Caste in India Today | Srinivasulu Karli

  1 May, by Karli Srinivasulu

  With the passing of Andre Beteille, a scholar who shaped generations of students and devoted more than five decades to research in Indian sociology, we witness the close of a remarkable legacy that was distinguished by an exceptional synthesis of theoretical depth and experiential understanding, firmly grounded in rigorous fieldwork. Beteille

• Great Power Politics and the Erosion of Institutional Authority: The United Nations Security Council in the Context of the Iran

  1 May

  Abstract
  This paper examines the crisis of institutional authority in global governance through the lens of the 2026 Iran