Mainstream Weekly

Quit India Movement in Lohia

Prem Singh — 2025-08-09T12:08:01Z

The Quit India Movement followed Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia even in the years after independence. After playing an underground role in the Quit India Movement for 21 months, Lohia was arrested in Bombay on 10 May 1944. He was imprisoned first in Lahore Fort and then in Agra. After being imprisoned for two years, Lohia was released in June 1946. Meanwhile, his father passes away, but Lohia did not accept coming out of jail on parole to perform his last-rites.
Lohia writes on the 25th anniversary (…)

- 2025

Indian Politics: Towards communal consensus? | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2025-02-08T16:33:10Z

While outrightly opposing the hard-line Hindutva of the RSS/BJP, scholars of the secular camp refer to the soft Hindutva of secular parties, as if the use of soft Hindutva to grab political power is a constitutional secular practice. They, without hesitation, place their bets on the soft Hindutva political parties/leaders who, in their view, can prevent the hard-line Hindutva RSS/BJP from coming into power in the elections. It seems not to matter even if that party/leader is a part of the (…)

- 2025

Delhi Assembly Elections: Change or status quo? | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2025-01-25T23:13:44Z

The search for any ideological content in the Delhi Assembly elections scheduled to be held on 5 February 2025 would be like shuffling in a haystack for a needle.
But this ideological void does not appear to create any serious worry to people in the country's capital and the centre of power. This is despite the fact that Delhi/NCR is home to a great number of important citizens: serving and retired government bureaucrats/officials, jurists/legislators, intellectuals, journalists, (…)

- 2025

Fifty days of Dallewal

Prem Singh — 2025-01-18T20:36:22Z

It is a good development that the Samyuykt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has indicated a supportive attitude towards the farmers' resistance movement being carried out under the joint aegis of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha at Khanauri and Shambhu borders. The talks among the leadership are going on in a positive atmosphere. One can hope that by learning from past experiences and forgetting the differences, if any, all farmers' organizations in the country will unite (…)

- 2025

2024 Lok Sabha Election Results: Message for the Future | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-06-07T22:02:30Z

After the first phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections, which were conducted in seven phases, it was already indicated that a large part of the country's population had decided to contest the elections against the present government. A large number of unemployed youth and already agitating farmers played a major role in this act of protest. On one hand, this phenomenon encouraged the opposition in the next phases of elections, while Prime Minister Modi started using the weapon of Hindu (…)

- 2024

Weak but sensible voices should be listened to in the path of democracy | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-06-01T02:30:24Z

I have been living in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh, for the past one month. In my general conversations with many people living in Shimla from different parts of Himachal Pradesh, there has been some discussion about the Lok Sabha elections also. The election is to be held in the last phase on four Lok Sabha seats here. One day five-six BJP workers came to my house in Summerhill. As soon as I opened the door, a senior worker among them said, 'We have come for Modiji . . .' I (…)

- 2024

1857: The idea of nationality in the 'Flag Salute Song' | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-05-11T02:26:46Z

On the occasion of the 167th anniversary of the Rebellion of 1857
British rulers, historians, scholars, writers, and folklorists have referred to the Rebellion of 1857 that started from Meerut on 10 May 1857 by different names. This diversity of nomenclature reflects people's different attitudes towards the Rebellion. In the War of the nomenclature, the Rebellion has been described with derogatory terms such as 'Ghadar' by the Britishers on the one hand and 'India's First War of (…)

- 2024

Farmers' Movement: Bar Association president's letter denotes the fall of civil society | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-02-17T04:00:06Z

Have we ceased to be a wakeful and sensitive civil society and instead have become the horns of parties, leaders and governments? Whatever profession we are in, have we lost all respect for our responsibility and dignity? It is understandable that a pro-corporate government should launch a campaign to defame the farmers from the very first day of its agitation against the government's apathy to their long-pending demands. Because it considers the people of the country, especially the (…)

- 2024

Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur: Appropriating icons for political end | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-02-09T21:28:53Z

On the occasion of the birth centenary of Karpoori Thakur (24 January 1924–17 February 1988), several programs have been organized at different parts of the country from January 2023 till now. But the coverage of those programs in the mainstream media was negligible. Information about those programs was available only on social media. Articles and comments discussing Karpoori Thakur's personality, politics and ideology were also published on social media and in a few small magazines. As soon (…)

- 2024

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: A Perspective for Opposition Unity | Prem Singh

Prem Singh — 2024-01-12T05:36:56Z

This article is the sequel to my three previous articles on this subject namely – ‘Relevance of the Third Front' (May 2014), Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A Perspective for Opposition Unity – One' (June 2018), ‘Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A Perspective for Opposition Unity – Two' (April 2019). Apart from these, the article ‘Opposition alliance's knots and Muslims' (October 2018) can also be seen in this regard. Links to all the articles are given at the end.
I was of the opinion that there (…)

- 2024