Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to The Readers - Mainstream, Sept 19 | Lockdown Edition no. 26

  18 September 2020

  Mainstream weekly has had a long journey. Its first issue in print appeared on September 1, 1962. It has appeared week after week non-stop ever since except for short period during the Emergency of 1975-77. It was closed for a brief period at the end of 1976 and it reappeared once the elections were announced in 1977.
  It crafted a space on the national scene as an independent progressive magazine among the thinking people of India and was available at major public libraries across the (…)

• The marginal & the Mainstream | Rrishi Raote - Business Standard

  18 September 2020

  the career of Mainstream, the weekly news journal started by intrepid journalist Nikhil Chakravartty, on the occasion of its 50th year

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  Raghuvansh Babu: A committed socialist in times of neo-liberalism | Prem Singh

  18 September 2020, by Prem Singh

  TRIBUTE
  It is an undeniable fact that today’s corporate India is intoxicated with the idea the digital. It is constantly on the fast-track to transform all into the digital, and as quickly as possible. In such an environment, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, popularly called as Raghuvansh Babu in friendly circles, sent his hand-written resignation addressed to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on September 10, on plain paper. Lalu Yadav too wrote the answer on plain paper, by (…)

• Realities Beyond The Peacock Moment | TJS George

  18 September 2020, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS No prime minister has imprinted himself on Indian history as effectively as Narendra Modi has done. Such has been his dominance that when history comes to be written, his years in power will be known as the Modi Period, not the BJP Period.
  One reason he will outshine his party is the importance he has always attached to projecting himself as a leader unlike any other. Self-projection always runs the risk of over-doing. Fortunately for Modi, he has no rival in (…)

• Impunity isn’t exactly popularity | Jawed Naqvi

  18 September 2020, by Jawed Naqvi

  September 15, 2020
  IT’S a common error of perception to confuse political impunity with popularity. The distinction makes a big difference in understanding the core features of fascism, which have mostly eluded South Asia. Ziaul Haq’s recourse to public flogging in Pakistan did strike terror in many hearts but he crucially failed to win over the people. Pakistan acquired all the accoutrements of a fascist state, except the missing popular support. Other Pakistani dictators have been shown (…)

• C Achutha Menon: Communist Aspirations in India | V Raman Kutty

  18 September 2020

  by Dr V Raman Kutty
  August 2, 2020
  A son remembers a life in Indian communism
  Indian communists have a unique distinction that they normally don’t like to acknowledge: among the world’s communist parties, they have had one of the longest experiences of engaging legitimately with an electoral democratic process. I don’t deny that erstwhile communist parties of Western Europe, such as the French and the Italian, had sizeable support among the electorate. However, most of them went into (…)

• Essaying The Muslims: Some Issues In The Indian Freedom Movement And After | Anil Nauriya

  18 September 2020, by Anil Nauriya

  [This year marks the 100th year of the Non-cooperation movement, a landmark moment in India’s Freedom Struggle. The below extended review essay allows us to travel back and reflect on the aspects of history of the non-cooperation movement and after] __5__
  MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY: SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS Mushirul Hasan Manohar Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi, 2003
  I
  Mushirul Hasan has since the late 1970s been an articulate scholar especially of the Muslim-related (…)

• Revisiting Foundations of Welfare State during Current Pandemic Period: A Normative Analysis for India | Manish Sharma, Akhilesh Mishra

  18 September 2020

  by Manish Sharma, Akhilesh Mishra
  When society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live — forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence — (…)

• Crisis of Capitalism | Govind Bhattacharjee

  18 September 2020

  by Govind Bhattacharjee *
  Abstract: Despite its many flaws, capitalism has survived many challenges, showing a remarkable resilience for adaptation. But the current pandemic has thrown it into a crisis that calls for resetting its very premises. The pandemic that has mutilated economies, lives and livelihood across the globe and shows no sign of abetting as yet has also taught us that our needs are actually rather limited and that we do not need elaborate production machinery to produce (…)

• Moment of History | Suranjita Ray

  18 September 2020, by Suranjita Ray

  The nomination of Kamala Harris, the first Asian American woman of colour as the Democratic Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate is historic. It marks a moment of celebration for immigrant communities and the black community in particular across all sections. Increasing pressures on Joe Biden to choose a woman of colour after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020 reveal the upsurge of minority politics. Not only have black voters played a significant role in Harris’s (…)