Mainstream Weekly

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• Book Review: Suralakshmi Villa

  30 May 2020

  BOOK REVIEW:
  by Monmayee Basu
  Book : Suralakshmi Villa Author : Aruna Chakravarti Publisher : Pan Macmillan Publishing India Year of Publication : 2020 ISBN 978-93-89109-39-9
  Suralakshmi Villa by Aruna Chakravarti, the well-known novelist, translator, the Sahitya Academy Award-winner, is another excellent addition to the collection of gems of books written by Indian women writers on issues of women. Extremely thought-provoking, the novel engages the mind of the readers so intensely (…)

• Book Review: Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics: The Case of Kashmir

  30 May 2020

  Book Review:
  by Shah Munnes Muneer*
  Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics: The Case of Kashmir Author: Inshah Malik Pages: 130 ISBN: 9783319953304 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  The book is a collection of different narratives collected and framed mostly through interviews across different perspectives. The author’s thrust is apparently on the subaltern section of the women-folk who according to her had affected much than those who became popular in the peoples history of (…)

• Coronavirus from Wuhan in 2019 Reminds catastrophe plague from Manchuria in 1896 wrought in India

  30 May 2020

  by Dr. Atulkrishna Biswas
  Part-I Widespread plague havoc across India
  Bubonic plague, travelling from Manchuria, China, broke out in Bombay in 1896. The first case was detected at Mandvi in September. By 1917 plague deaths aggregated at 98,41,396 out of total population 31,51,56,396 returned in 1911 census. 1 The deaths represented 3.12% of subcontinental population in little over two decades! Bombay Presidency, the Punjab and United Provinces (now U. P.) together accounted for (…)

• Absolutely Unacceptable: Resumed Nuclear Explosive Testing - Statement of the Annual Meeting of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

  30 May 2020

  Resumption of nuclear explosive testing is absolutely unacceptable. Even discussing nuclear testing again is dangerously destabilizing. Yet according to news reports1 such discussions have recently been held in the Trump White House. US resumption of nuclear testing would lead to testing by other states – possibly China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and DPRK. It would accelerate the emerging nuclear arms race, and damage prospects for nuclear arms control negotiations.

• 

  Denis Goldberg Man of Integrity: South African Freedom Fighter, anti-Zionist Jew and True Mensch | Ronnie Kasrils

  30 May 2020

  One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. - Chinua Achebe by Ronnie Kasrils
  Integrity and defence of the truth, whatever the personal cost, was a choice Denis Goldberg made from a tender age, and stuck to throughout his life. It is said that a life lived with integrity, served in a struggle for freedom and equality of all, is as a light unto the nations. Denis joins that pantheon of stars in the firmament.
  His parents settled in South Africa, from (…)

• Modi government ill-treats the labourers, creators of modern India

  30 May 2020

  by Arun Srivastava
  May Day, the day which symbolises the unity of the workers and their political and economic empowerment has been buried under the debris of the labour reforms carried out by Modi’s saffron government on the plea of fighting coronavirus.
  This year’s May Day has been most excruciating occasion for workers. While this year they could not celebrate this day, Modi and his cohorts used the pandemic to vilify them and moved a step forward in the direction of furthering (…)

• Tale of a Migrant

  30 May 2020

  Far away from his native village,
  deep in the south,
  he was making both ends meet,
  working as a labourer in a factory
  situated at the outskirts of the city.
  Suddenly a killer virus
  came from nowhere,
  spreading its murderous fangs,
  darkening the whole atmosphere,
  causing lockdowns everywhere.
  Jobless, shelterless, he walked
  on sore foot for several days,
  managed to reach home,
  hoping a relief from his miseries.
  But it was short-lived.
  A devastating cyclone as if close
  on (…)

• Right to Privacy versus Technology Based Surveillance

  30 May 2020

  by Sri Hari Mangalam
  INTRODUCTION
  “Privacy is not an entitlement; it is an absolute pre requisite”—Marlon Brando
  The current day and age sees’ an explosion of technological advancements. The rapid growth of the applied sciences industries and new innovations in the communications and developments sectors has significantly changed our daily lives. However, the ever-changing technological set ups have led to various gaps in the legal framework, allowing space for misuse. Various (…)

• 

  Table of Contents Mainstream - Lockdown Edition no9 | May 23, 2020

  23 May 2020

  MAINSTREAM, VOL LVIII NO 23, NEW DELHI, MAY 23, 2020 - Contents: 1. Letter to Readers - Mainstream 23 May 2020 - Lockdown Edition no9 2. Um-Phoon Exposed Man’s Helplessness Before Nature’s Fury | Barun Das Gupta 3. Exodus as resistance | Ajaz Ashraf 4. It’s a Hobson’s choice for labour | C.Raghu 5. Economy Rhyme Cartoon | Ajith 6. Bond | AK Das 7. Mazdoors face tragedy / Conversions to Hinduism / Eid in Nizamuddin | Humra Quraishi 8. Criticism Cannot be Sedition | TJS George 9. Lockdown (…)

• Letter to Readers Mainstream, 23 May 2020 - Lockdown Edition no9

  23 May 2020

  Super-cyclone Amphan of 21 May 2020 has caused serious damage to land and life in Eastern India and Bangladesh. Why the massive devastation in Bengal and Bangladesh after the cyclone has found practically no coverage on national television is quite disturbing. The disaster to the ecologically sensitive zone of the Sundarbans is an international calamity and the state of West Bengal has rightly demanded that given the scale of damage (estimated to be over 10 billion dollars) it should be (…)