Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The New Gen Z versus the Old Gen Z: A Showdown is Foreordained | Partha S. Ghosh

  8 September, by Partha S Ghosh

  It is a strange coincidence that in July 2026, when an essentially secular-liberal youth rally at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar ground was in full steam, another set of youth in some other parts of north India, all of them Hindu, was preparing itself for its annual Kanwar Yatra. The event is held every Shravan of the Hindu calendar which this year corresponded to July 30-August 11.
  We are prefacing our essay with this event to tell the larger story about the Gen Z of the Hindu right. If (…)

• Sanghi Hypocrisy | Faraz Ahmad

  8 September, by Faraz Ahmad

  Sri Ram College of Commerce is one of the most prestigious colleges of Commerce and Economics in India and no less in the Delhi University campus. Now they call it North campus. But in our times that was the only university campus. Late Arun Jaitley, one time Delhi University students’ union president, and ABVP leader, also a solid pillar of support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi till he lived, an alumnus of this college, chose his alma mater to introduce the BJP’s prospective PM candidate (…)

• The Roof That Crushed Them: India’s Student Housing Crisis | Rajan Kshirsagar

  8 September, by Rajan Kshirsagar

  Delhi University houses one student in a hundred. JNU houses two in three. Seven students died in Satya Niketan because the state chose the first number.
  On a quiet Sunday afternoon in September 2026, a five-storey building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan collapsed like a house of cards. Inside, dozens of students were studying, sleeping, living. When the dust settled, at least seven were dead. The building was 50 years old, with walls just four inches thick and no pillars for support, and it was (…)

• Recollecting the Forgotten History of State Violence | Arup Kumar Sen

  8 September, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Recent state violence on the CJP activists/supporters in New Delhi is fresh in our memory. However, the violence unleashed by the Indian State on the student activists in different universities in recent years has faded out in public memory. It is ironical that a student activist, Nehal Ahmed, published a monograph titled – Nothing Will be Forgotten: From Jamia to Shaheen Bagh (LeftWord Books, 2022), documenting incidents of State violence in and around the Jamia Millia Islamia University (…)

• Urgent Steps Needed for Protection of Chairman of Pakistan Based Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation | Prof Jagmohan Singh and Bharat Dogra

  8 September, by Bharat Dogra

  Shahid (Martyr) Bhagat Singh is one of the most inspiring freedom fighters of the liberation struggles of countries which fought against colonial rule for centuries. Over 95 years after he sacrificed his life together with other valiant freedom fighters of India like Sukhdev and Rajguru, his inspirational role extends much beyond his country India.
  So it is not at all surprising that several people dedicated to justice in the neighboring country of Pakistan are also among those who regard (…)

• Telangana’s Future Will Be Decided in Its Government Schools: An Open Letter to the Chief Minister of Telangana

  8 September, by Adama Srinivas Reddy

  Hon’ble Chief Minister,
  Since assuming office as Chief Minister, you have repeatedly emphasised the need to place education at the centre of Telangana’s development. The establishment of an Education Commission, the breakfast programme in government schools, study visits to countries such as Finland, Japan, Germany and Vietnam, your decision to provide study leave to teachers to pursue higher education abroad, and your recent initiative to seek suggestions from teachers on educational (…)

• AI Is Changing the Clock of Academia | Disha

  8 September, by Disha

  Picture two doctoral scholars sitting in the same university library. One spends three weeks meticulously sifting through journal archives, cross-referencing footnotes by hand, and slowly wrestling with dense arguments. The other feeds a handful of prompts into tools such as ChatGPT, Elicit, or Connected Papers and walks away with a structured, visual map of the entire field before lunchtime. On paper, both produce an identical literature review. In reality, the academic clock has split in (…)

• The Invisible Price Tag: Why Destroying Nature Makes GDP Look Good | Saanvi Maheshwari

  8 September

  Imagine a homeowner burning down their living room walls to keep the fireplace going through winter. For a few hours, the house is warm. Measured strictly by room temperature, the strategy succeeds. But once the fire dies, the house is uninhabitable. The owner destroyed their primary asset for a few hours of fleeting comfort.
  This is precisely how modern national accounting treats planet Earth.
  For nearly a century, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the total monetary value of all finished (…)

• Need is Intergenerational Solidarity, Not Generational Exceptionalism | Rasni Bai & L T Om Prakash

  8 September

  The recent protests in Jantar Mantar and across the country, spearheaded by students, put the spotlight on Gen Z and their distinctive style of activism. The protest has changed the public’s perception of youth from passive digital natives to active participants in democracy. Although critics raise concerns about ad hoc activism, emotional rhetoric, and the protesters’ viral symbolism, a widespread narrative holds that Gen Z is fundamentally different from earlier generations, and the (…)

• The Toto Paradox of West Bengal: Moving People, Stalling Aspirations | Abhijit Ghosh

  8 September

  Across West Bengal, today, mobility has a new sound—the soft, electric hum of the e-rickshaws, popularly known as “toto”. The toto has become one of the most visible signs of technological change in everyday transport. Carrying passengers from villages to markets, railway stations and schools, it has expanded mobility at relatively low cost. Yet behind this transformation lies a less visible question: does the rise of the toto represent economic progress, or does it reflect an economy (…)