Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• 2019 Protests in Hong Kong and China’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’

  23 September 2019

  by Bihu Chamadia
  Abstract
  The ongoing protests in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China began in June 2019 as an agitation against the Extradition Bill. By August it took the shape of a pro-democracy movement. This paper tries to analyse the reasons why the protests have taken the shape of a pro-democracy movement. While comparing the 2019 protests with other previously held protests, it also analyses the differences regarding the 2019 protests.
  Introduction (…)

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  US, Taliban, l’affaire Chinmayanand

  15 September 2019, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Eighteen years have passed since 9/11—the attack on New York’s twin towers by the Taliban of Afghanistan just to demonstrate their power against the world’s most powerful country, the USA. And now 18 years since that fateful day The Times of India published a brilliant editorial page article yesterday pointing to an irony: “America stands ready to restore to power the very forces that gave rise to 9/11”.
  The article by the Washington correspondent of the TOI highlights the (…)

• Quagmire of Bust Installation at University of Delhi

  15 September 2019

  by Prem Singh
  One important inference that can be drawn from the speeches of the August 30, 2019 rally of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is that the recent bust controversy will be a pivotal issue in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections scheduled to be held on September 12. The dispute will not cease with the announcement of election results. In the late night of August 20-21, 2019, the DUSU President of the ABVP installed the ‘Trimurti’ (three busts) of (…)

• Icons and Ideology of Religious Nationalism

  15 September 2019

  by Ram Puniyani
  The nationalism, which was at the root of the freedom movement and which is based on inclusive pluralism, is currently under severe strain with the ascendance of the politics of the RSS combine. All the wings of the RSS are actively infiltrating and dominating most of the fields of our social and political life. Running parallel to this is the attempt to create a narrative, which shows the continuum of Hindu nationalism from times immemorial. In constructing this ideology (…)

• The Latest Escalation in the US-China Trade War

  15 September 2019

  by Monaem Sarker
  The US-China trade war unexpectedly escalated recently when President Trump announced a 15 per cent tariff on $ 300 billion of Chinese imports that had thus far largely avoided becoming tangled up in the trade dispute. In its countermoves, China suspended purchases of US agricultural products and weakened the Chinese currency to make its exports more competitive. Financial markets sold off worldwide after China devalued the yuan. Emerging-market currencies plunged, equity (…)

• On Migration from Goa

  15 September 2019, by Eduardo Faleiro

  Sometime ago, I visited several villages and towns in the neighbouring districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka to meet people of Goan origin settled there. During the 16th and 17th centuries thousands of Goans, both Hindus and Christians, left Goa to escape religious and cultural persecution. In Goa, during that period, all possible obstacles were imposed on the practice of the local religions. Moreover, converts to Christianity could not easily change their deep-rooted Indian way of life. (…)

• The 17th Lok Sabha Polls (2019) in Kerala: A Decisive Political Vote

  15 September 2019

  by M.R. Biju and M.R.B. Anantha Padmanabha
  Abstract
  For the Left parties in Kerala it is the time for a clear introspection. Unless they adopt stringent corrective measures, they may soon be on the road to elimination. Arrogance of some topmost leaders of the Left parties and violence promoted by a section are primarily responsible for their decline in the State. While the Kannur model of violence practised by party workers across the State has had a drastic impact, even other factors (…)

• In the Aftermath of Abrogation of Article 370

  15 September 2019

  by Ishfaq Majid and Varinder Singh
  In 1949, a special provision was added to India’s Constitution providing autonomy to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Article was allowing the State to have its own constitution, a separate flag, and independence over all matters except foreign affairs, defence, and communications. Another provision later added under Article 370 was Article 35A that gives special privileges to permanent residents, including State Government jobs and the exclusive right (…)

• Remembering Jatindra Nath Das on his 90th Death Anniversary

  15 September 2019

  COMMUNICATION
  Tt was 90 years ago, on September 13, 1929, that Jatindra Nath Das, one of the most courageous and committed freedom fighters of India, breathed his last at Lahore Central Jail after a 63-day fast. This fast was taken up in the company of Shahid Bhagat Singh and other imprisoned revolutionary freedom fighters for ending many-sided injustices to freedom fighters. In the history of the freedom movement of India this fast is remembered for the courage and nobility with which (…)

• Why Naxalism?

  15 September 2019, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  This article was written by N.C. fortynine years ago as ‘Observer’ in the Political Notebook of Mainstream (May 2, 1970) during the first wave of the Naxalite movement.
  The spate of terrorist violence in West Bengal has pin-pointed public attention on what has come to be known as the Naxalite problem. Many so-called specialists on communism have aired very profound views on the nature of this phenomenon and have not hesitated to deliver homilies on how to deal with (…)