Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Rethinking Our Education

  12 August 2018

  by Saumitra Mohan
  There was a time when the Indian students pursued education for learning life-skills and acquiring knowledge. The pursuit of learning then was not about mugging facts and information, but was directed to lead the learners to wisdom thereby enriching the entire society. It was a time when none needed government permission for opening an educational institution and when no formal degrees or diplomas were awarded to students by the renowned Gurus through the once famed (…)

• What happens to those excluded from the NRC?

  12 August 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  What happens to our 40 lakh human beings! In the latest draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens, names of 40 lakh people are not included. That is, 12 per cent of Assam’s population has been left out!
  Though those excluded from the NRC are given a chance to prove their Indian citizenship but this in itself raises pertinent questions—does the government expect socially and economically deprived to have their paperwork all intact and updated? With frequent shifts and (…)

• Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A Perspective for Opposition Unity

  12 August 2018

  by Prem Singh
  Before discussing the complex subject of Opposition unity, it would be appropriate to look at some obvious facts.
  Firstly, there exists no opposition to the neo-liberal policies that has prevailed for the past three decades in the country—none at the level of mainstream political parties, none at the level of intellectuals and ‘thinking’ class. Therefore, the process of selling the country’s resources, labour and public sector enterprises/establish-ments to corporate houses (…)

• Is there a ‘Unique Political Identity’ of the Middle Class?

  12 August 2018

  by Anshu Srivastava
  Definitions of the new middle classes in India, as elsewhere, are problematic and confusing. Middle classes in India have been often defined by economic criteria alone based on annual household income. In the Euro-American world, especially in the USA and in other affluent countries that have experienced fast social transformations, the middle classes seem ubiquitous. What unites the middle class as a social entity everywhere is its ambiguity. (Saavala, 2011) This (…)

• Welcome Addition to the Literature on Sree Narayana Guru

  12 August 2018

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Kadayam Subramanian
  Sree Narayana Guru: The Perfect Union Buddha and Sankara: A Comprehensive Biography by Asokan Vengassery Krishnan; Konark Publishers Pvt Limited, New Delhi, Seattle; pp. 365; Price: Rs 850.
  The author of this book hails from a village in the Kottayam district of Kerala. He took a B.Sc. degree from the University of Kerala and worked in the Education Department of the State. In 1985, however, he went to the US and took an MBA degree. He has worked as (…)

• Pranab Mukherjee at RSS Headquarters

  12 August 2018

  COMMUNICATION
  Our erstwhile President Pranab Mukherjee visited the RSS headquarters at Nagpur on June 7, 2018. He did so at the invitation of the RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat. Bhagwat had visited Rashtrapati Bhavan several times when Pranab was the President (and if press reports are not incorrect, he even spent a night there on one occasion as the guest of our former head of state).
  Much has been written about his visit to Nagpur after he had demitted the office of the President and (…)

• NRC and Beyond

  7 August 2018

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The publication of the draft National Register of Citizens of Assam has thrown the State into turmoil. Naturally, because over four million Indian citizens’ names are just not there in the draft Register. They include Bengali Hindus, Bengali Muslims, Nepalis and Indian citizens from other States like UP, Bihar etc., who have been living in Assam for generations. By no stretch of imagination can they be called foreigners or Bangladeshis. Though Union Home Minister Rajnath (…)

• Mandela on Gandhi and Nehru

  7 August 2018

  The following are excerpts from the letter from prison sent by Nelson Mandela to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations expressing sincere gratitude for the presentation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 1979 to him. We are reproducing the excerpts from the letter as a token of our tribute to him on the occasion of his birth centenary on July 18, 2018.
  Our people cannot but feel humble, at the same time proud, that one of their number has been selected to (…)

• You are the Strength

  7 August 2018

  You are just number 466/64 to them
  sweeping dusty paths,
  tilling and raking the soil of that island.
  But you are the strength,
  the determination
  that flows through the veins of your children
  fighting for you,
  you and all those numbers.
  Yes, with your spade firmly in your hand
  till and rake the soil, Mandela,
  like your brothers, sisters, sons
  and daughters
  who toil and sweat for Africa
  She is ours
  we too shall know no rest
  till she comes back to us.
  Ilva (…)

• On Whose Side Is Imran?

  7 August 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  The Army in Pakistan seems to have devised a way where a particular person is elected even without a valid cause. Imran Khan is a product of such a phenomenon. Long before the elections, his name was tossed around. One can now assume that probably nobody else fitted into the scheme of things which the Army wanted. Nawaz Sharif had been elected in the past but was found wanting in the eyes of the Army. Even the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf was not up to the mark.
  Why then has (…)