Mainstream Weekly

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• 

  Table of Contents - Mainstream, VOL 60 No 52, Dec 17, 2022

  16 December 2022

  * Tribute to Gita Ramaswamy | Anand Chakravarti
  * Results of 2022 Assembly Elections in Gujarat & Himachal | P Jayaramu
  * Crony Capitalism System Perfected | Sandeep Pandey
  * How the brain tunes in to unfamiliar voices during sleep | Jakke Tamminen

• Census: What’s the delay?

  16 December 2022, by Faraz Ahmad

  GUEST EDITORIAL
  One thing one can safely say about Narendra Modi without fearing any contradiction from any quarter is that he despises the past. Not just his past, about which this is not the proper forum to discuss but the Indian nation’s past and I am not talking about the medieval/Mughal past, which no graduate from his alma mater the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) make any bones about acknowledging. But the past of modern India, or rather independent India. And so he is determined (…)

• A Personal Tribute to Gita Ramaswamy Based on Reading Her Book, ’Land Guns Caste Woman: The Memoir of a Lapsed Revolutionary’ | Anand Chakravarti

  16 December 2022, by Anand Chakravarti

  by Anand Chakravarti
  Introduction: Why Am I Writing This Piece?
  Fundamentally, it is an exercise in self-criticism because it charts the politics of a person who devoted a part of her life to serving the marginalized — which I also aspired to do, but failed. Gita Ramaswamy’s book, by presenting a model of selfless work and the inherent challenges, shows that it requires exceptional commitment to bridge the gulf that separates noble aspirations from the practise of a mode of existence (…)

• Why Are Government Schools Dwindling in Haryana? | SS Sangwan

  16 December 2022

  by SS Sangwan *
  November 24, 2022
  Introduction to the Problem
  It has been brought out by various surveys and studies that the students of private school have higher test scores than those of government school (UNESCO, 2022; Goyal S., 2009; Fench and Kingdon, 2010; Murlidharan, 2013; Singh, 2015 and Kumar and Kumar, 2021). Besides, private schools provide better environment of security, co-curricular activities, programmes for admission in higher institutions and job placement. Hence, (…)

• Between Livelihood and Development: Protest against the Vizhinjam Port Project in Kerala | John S Moolakkattu & Jos Chathukulam

  16 December 2022, by John S. Moolakkattu, Jos Chathukulam

  Abstract
  This paper analyses the agitation of fishers in the Vizhinjam port area in Kerala to understand the context, issues, and nature of the protest and how it can be seen as a part of the livelihood protection movement by the fishers based on a critique of the neoliberal model of big development. It also discusses the leadership role of the Latin Catholic church and the metaphors and symbolisms used to legitimate and garner support for the agitation. The paper ends by proposing the (…)

• Questions raised by India’s Supreme Court over GM Mustard and Genetic Contamination: two articles | Bharat Dogra

  16 December 2022, by Bharat Dogra

  I
  Supreme Court Raises Extremely Important Questions on GM Mustard
  Bharat Dogra
  On December 1, in the on-going case relating to objections raised against the introduction of the first GM (genetically modified) food crop in the form of GM Mustard in India, the Supreme Court raised some important questions. As reported in The Times of India (December 2, 2022), “A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and BV Nagarathna told Attorney General R.Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, that (…)

• Reflections on the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election results | P S Jayaramu

  16 December 2022

  by P. S. Jayaramu
  12th December, 2022
  The much-awaited Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly election results were out a few days ago. It is time to reflect on the results as a whole.
  Let me take up the Gujarat polls first. As part of its missionary zeal to win elections, the the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got into the election mode nearly an year ago, with the Party President J P Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi making periodic visits to the State to prepare the ground for (…)

• How Democracy Works in India | Arup Kumar Sen

  16 December 2022, by Arup Kumar Sen

  In her seminal book, Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia (Cambridge University Press, 1995), Ayesha Jalal warned us: “Far from representing a neat and sharp dichotomy, democracy and authoritarianism are reflective of ongoing struggles between dominance and resistance. Without blurring the distinction between them it is important to acknowledge that they may frequently overlap irrespective of the formal designation of polities and states as democratic or authoritarian.”
  Very (…)

• 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid was a blow to the Idea of India | Humra Quraishi

  16 December 2022, by Humra Quraishi

  6 December 2022
  I’m writing this column as 6th December fades into another day. I’m reminded of this day of 1992, when thirty years back the Babri Masjid was destroyed by political villains. A painful day…unleashing turbulence, divides,violence and much more along the strain.
  As the well- known historian, Professor Irfan Habib — former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research and former Professor of History at the Centre for Advanced Study in History at AMU — had told me, (…)

• Ambedkar and Savarkar: Opposite Poles of Indian Political Spectrum | Ram Puniyani

  16 December 2022, by Ram Puniyani

  by Ram Puniyani
  Ram Madhav, the RSS leader in his article “Know your History” (I.E. December 3, 2022) argues that Rahul Gandhi (RG) does not understand about Ambedkar and Savarkar. He was criticizing R G’s statement in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, birth place of Dr. Ambedkar. As per Madhav, contrary to RG’s saying that RSS is showing fake sympathy for Babasaheb Ambedkar and is stabbing him in the back; it is Congress which has ‘front stabbed’ Ambedkar. To prove his point he gives half quotes from (…)