Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Rajput Sodhas suffer due to India-Pakistan visa issues | Beena Sarwar

  7 January 2022

  This is the story of Ganpat Singh from Pakistan’s Sodha Rajput community of less than half a million. Like him, each member of this community has matrimonial linkages across the border in neighbouring Rajasthan, India. This is the only way they can keep their community alive, as they are barred from marrying within their own ‘gotra’. A special dispensation over a decade ago provided them relief with six-month visa extensions – but now those who apply for such extensions are being (…)

• As Kazakhstan burns over inequality, the elite’s wealth is safe and sound in London | Thomas Rowley

  7 January 2022

  by Thomas Rowley
  6 January 2022
  London is home to some £530m in luxury property owned by the country’s ruling class
  Protests in Kazakhstan started quietly this week. A sudden increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas, popular as a secondary fuel for its low cost, sparked public meetings in towns, according to a local police spokesperson.
  Four thousand miles away in London, though, the UK assets of the Kazakhstani ruling class are sitting quietly. The Central Asian state’s (…)

• On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs | David Graeber

  7 January 2022

  by David Graeber
  2013
  In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs (…)

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  Audio: Knowing Nature - conversation with Professor Vinita Damodaran and Professor Harriet Ritvo

  7 January 2022

  History Workshop Podcast · Knowing Nature

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  Ana Monteiro - Manha de Carnaval

  7 January 2022

  Play
  Ana Monteiro - Manha de Carnaval by Jazz Goa https://youtu.be/ee_FjFavq1U
  Ana Monteiro - vocals, Gerard Machado - guitar, Jason Quadros - piano, Colin D’Cruz - bass, Angelo Colasco - drums

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, Jan 1, 2022

  28 December 2021

  * An Archeology of Development | Debal Deb
  * Making Mockery of the Electoral Process | Arun Srivastava
  * Narratives of Female Sex Workers from ’Tawaif Mandi’, Bihar | Baby Kumari
  * Repeal of farm laws: A win to celebrate the power of the people | Geeta Sinha
  * The Irresistible Bell Hooks: A Tribute | Avijit Pathak

• Letter to the readers, Mainstream, Jan 1, 2022

  28 December 2021

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Jan 1, 2022
  Over the past two weeks there have been reports from the state of Punjab of public lynching’s in the name of so-called sacrilege at Sikh places of worship … but leaders of political parties from across the political spectrum have been silent or have refrained from condemning mob justice. Call’s by Punjab’s State Congress chief Navjot Sidhu’s for public execution of the so-called sacrilege accused are extremely shocking. That sort of thing has (…)

• Goodbye 2021. But Welcome To What? | T J S George

  28 December 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Year-end pushes the world into introspection. There is a predictable style in which this is done. The year that is ending is dismissed as a bad one and the new year is welcomed as the harbinger of all things wonderful. To complicate things further, assessment of the year is culture-based. What American culture considers all important may be dismissed as irrelevant by those who follow Indian culture.
  Indian Culture? Can there be such a thing when Narendra Modi’s (…)

• A Death not so humane: Death machine Versus Dignity in Dying | Minakshi Biswas

  28 December 2021

  by Minakshi Biswas *
  Switzerland has recently provided a legal validity to the death machine which has been designed by Dr. Philip Nitschke, popularly known as Dr. Death in the country. Sarco, the death machine which has had two prototypes until now has passed the legal test of being available for usage by prospective people in need of assisted dying by next year. Although assisted death and dying has been made permissible in various countries including Switzerland, the use of a machine (…)

• Making Mockery of the electoral process and turning mandate irrelevant | Arun Srivastava

  28 December 2021

  by Arun Srivastava
  Move to address long-pending electoral reforms like having a common electoral roll for the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and local government bodies (panchayats or municipal) could be appreciated but there is absolutely dearth of justifiable rationale to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar.
  Ever since Narendra Modi has become the prime minister of the country, the RSS has adopted the proactive stance to subvert the executive and constitutional functioning. RSS and Modi have (…)