Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Communalism in Contemporary India: A brief review of Bhagat Singh’s Perspective | Gurjeet Kaur and Prabhjot Kaur

  14 May 2022

  by Gurjeet Kaur and Prabhjot Kaur *
  Intensified conflicts between religious communities have shaken the country. We have been listening to news of communal violence from many places of the country like Jahangirpuri in Delhi, Karauli and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Gujarat, Karnataka. Now the communal flames have also spread to Punjab, where two groups, Shiv Sena and Khalistani supporters, clashed. Communal violence is not a recent phenomenon in Indian (…)

• Production of Saffron Pedagogy and Its Implications | Vidyasagar Sharma

  14 May 2022

  The ongoing structural attacks through pedagogical changes will be catastrophic to the secular model of the Indian educational system. Recently, selected verses argues that “if the attempt had succeeded, we would have seen the fragility of the state-centered policy of decision-making in the curriculum. Indeed, this fragility can surface anytime, and the day may not be so far off if Hindu revivalism comes to dominate the state apparatus of education.”
  Kumar’s prediction about Hindu (…)

• Food for consumption or food for power assertion? Lessons from Hindu philosophical tradition | Garima Mani Tripathi

  14 May 2022

  by Garima Mani Tripathi
  Food is the basic necessity for human survival. However, at times, it does migrate from an individual-cultural choice to socio-political platform, plagued by controversies and divisive opinions. The recent clashes over serving of non-vegetarian food on popular Hindu festival day in a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) hostel is a terse reminder as to how even a basic necessity like food can metamorphose into an ideological agenda. However, many scholars who are (…)

• Allahabad Diary | Ather Farouqui

  14 May 2022, by Ather Farouqui

  (For Abhishek Tandon)
  Allahabad, officially renamed Prayagraj in 2019, houses one of the oldest and largest High Courts of the country, retaining the city’s earlier name, just as does the Bombay High Court. The city of sangam was the last internal port of the country, and is known to many for the Kumbh Mela, a major Hindu pilgrimage. While talking of the city, the University of Allahabad merits special mention. Established in 1887, the fourth oldest modern university in India at one time (…)

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  PUCL Statement about Supreme Court of India Interim Order on Sedition Law (May 12, 2022)

  14 May 2022

  PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES (PUCL)
  The PUCL welcomes the initial step towards the complete repeal of the colonial law of Sedition
  Press Note
  12th May, 2022
  The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties welcomes the order of the Supreme Court dated 11.05.22 in the petition filed by Army veteran Major-General SG Vombatkere (Retired) as well as PUCL and a range of other petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. In its petition, (…)

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  Statement by MASUM on Supreme Court’s view on sedition law

  14 May 2022

  Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM)
  “The notion of sedition bears reference to a less enlightened time, when citizens and the press had little liberty to question the conduct of public authorities” –- International Federation of Journalists
  MASUM welcomes the interim order, with caution, by the three-judges Bench of the Supreme Court presided by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana on putting a pause to the use of sedition law until further notice. This law has often been misused as a tool (…)

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  CPI Welcomes SC Stay on Sedition Law (May 11, 2022)

  14 May 2022

  New Delhi,
  May 11, 2022
  Press Release
  The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on May 11, 2022) welcoming the apex court’s stay on the sedition law:
  The National secretariat of the Communist Party of India welcomes the historic verdict by the Supreme Court on May 11, 2022, putting a stay on the sedition law. The Party proudly reiterates its demand to scrap the law as such and claims that the Party’s consistent position in this (…)

• Indeed We live In Wonderful Times | Murzban Jal

  14 May 2022

  Indeed We live In Wonderful Times, (Apologies to Bertolt Brecht)
  Indeed we live in wonderful times, When absurdity is celebrated, And when reciting poetry is deemed a national crime, And speaking of poets frowned on. Indeed we live in wonderful times, When to speak to cows is not a crime, Indeed we live in wonderful times, When wonder showers eternal happiness. Indeed now in wondrous times, the sun never sets And when the rising of the crescent moon is banned, Indeed wonderful and happy (…)

• The Mothers’ Hour | Sagari Chhabra

  14 May 2022, by Sagari Chhabra

  Just for an hour I want the whole world to stop, put an end to big business and geo-politics; I want all the men in power: bearded, moustached and clean-shaven to get into a shuttle and encircle space. Into this haven, from the shadows will emerge, only mothers, who will at once call out to their children! And the children petrified and terrified, will at first tiptoe across, then fling into the arms of waiting mothers. There will be a terrible wailing, a flood of tears, as they cling onto (…)

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  Cartoon: Divided People Unite In Sri Lanka | Alok

  14 May 2022