Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Fascism and the Phantasmagorical Character of Capitalist Universal Education

  19 April 2017

  by Murzban Jal
  What idea lies behind these words? Is it believed that in present-day society (and it is only with this one has to deal) education can be equal for all classes? Or is it demanded that the upper classes also should be compulsorily reduced to the modicum of education—the elementary school—that alone is compatible with the economic system not only for wage-workers but of the peasants as well?
  —Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme
  Of late, the Social-Democratic (…)

• Kandhamal: Whither Justice for Violence Victims?

  19 April 2017

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Ram Puniyani
  Kandhalmal: Introspection for Initiative for Justice 2007-2015 by Vrinda Grover and Saumya Uma; Media House and United Christian Forum Delhi; 2017.
  Violence is the bane of the Indian society and a manifest agenda of the communal forces which thrive on divisive politics and polarisation. This is part of their political agenda. While Hindu-Muslim violence during the British period had a particular beginning and characteristics, the same violence became (…)

• Education as a Tool of Empowering Differently Abled Persons in India

  19 April 2017

  by Duryodhan Nahak
  Education is being increasingly viewed as a significant tool of empowering the weaker sections of the population including differently abled persons. Education as a discipline of social science not only helps in transmitting cultural and civilisational values from one generation to another, but it plays a vital role in helping physically challenged persons like their other counterparts to live with dignity and honour, confidence and independence. Physically handicapped, (…)

• For a Durable and Strong Opposition

  19 April 2017

  COMMUNICATION
  With the BJP gaining strength by hook or by crook almost all over India and forming more and more State governments, the question of mobilising a strong and durable democratic Opposition is becoming more and more important. Some Opposition leaders are thinking in terms of a very broad mobilisation of various Opposition parties and groups. This is sometimes referred to as a mahagathbandhan.
  The mobilisation of such a mahagathbandhan had proved effective in defeating the BJP (…)

• Most Ominous

  9 April 2017, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  On April 3, that is, last Monday, chiefs of missions of 43 African countries based in India sharply reacted to the brutal assaults on four Nigerian students at a Greater Noida mall sometime back and charac-terised such an attack—one in a series of similar incidents—as “xenophobic and racial in nature” while lamenting that the Government of India took no “known, sufficient and visible” deterrent action.
  The External Affairs Minister, herself a highly conscious personality (…)

• Supreme Court Should Decide Ayodhya Case — No Scope for Mutual Settlement

  9 April 2017, by Rajindar Sachar

  The suggestion of the Chief Justice of India to even act as a mediator in the pending Babri Masjid demolition case, showed his concern but it was a little odd considering that it came at the instance of an inter-meddler, and without the parties involved being before the Court— that is why it caused amongst the parties a certain concern. In my view, the Babri Masjid demolition case is not a matter for compromise. This case raises the deep concern regarding our Constitution which clearly says (…)

• What Need to be Banned are Private Schools and Hospitals

  9 April 2017, by Sandeep Pandey

  Among the first decisions of the Yogi Aditya-nath Government in Uttar Pradesh were the ones to ban abattoirs and form anti-Romeo squads. First it was said that all slaughterhouses will be closed but later the government retracted and it was clarified that only illegally operating ones will be closed. But the atmosphere created due to this arbitrary order was that even ordinary meat shops were closed. This included other kinds of meat as well—mutton, chicken, etc. A large number of people, (…)

• Danger Signal from Bombay

  9 April 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The time has come when we have to seriously ask ourselves if we are really serious about preserving in one piece this Republic of India. Many in our country think that to talk about disintegration of the Indian Union is just a fantasy with an over-dose of panic. They can’t take it that we may have taken the road to Bosnia.
  Three months ago, this impression was wide-spread. It can’t happen here—was the average Indian reaction when the mighty USSR fell apart without a (…)

• The 2017 Namasudra History Congress, Kolkata

  9 April 2017, by A K Biswas

  The first ever Namasudra History Congress, held on February 18-19, 2017 at Calcutta, was a novel event for the academic and cultural calendar of the Bengalis. Attended by Nama-sudra scholars, researchers, educationists and activists from various parts of India, the Congress attracted participants from Bangladesh too. The Namasudra Thinkers and Activists Forum organised the two-day symposium. Their objectives and purposes were outlined by Dr Atul Krishna Biswas, a retied IAS and former (…)

• Another arrested revolution in the East

  9 April 2017

  by L.K. Sharma
  This article was written much before the results of the recently held State Assembly elections came out.
  Fidel Castro is dead but a leader determined to unleash a cultural revolution has risen in democratic India. On one dramatic night, an elected Prime Minister announces his decision to purge India of financial corruption and people the nation with honest citizens. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one fell swoop, killed 86 per cent of the currency notes in circulation as (…)