Mainstream Weekly

Table of Contents - Mainstream, Dec 23 & Dec 30, 2023

2023-12-23T02:33:26Z

* Randipua Ananta: an Ethnographic text | Radhakanta Barik
* Hazards of Toxic Tides in Sukinda Valley | S N Tripathy
* The role of unions in the era of gig work | Anjali Chauhan
* As Modi's man, Arif opportunity to settle old scores with SFI | Faraz Ahmad
* Twenty-First Century Socialism | Harriet Fraad, Richard D. Wolff

- 2023

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Dec 23 & 30, 2003

2023-12-23T02:33:01Z

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Dec 23 & Dec 30, 2023 (Double issue)
The BJP government of Narendra Modi has commanded a solid majority in India's parliament since 2014 and has been brazenly using its numbers in an authoritarian fashion undermining the traditions of Parliamentary Democracy. Opposition political parties and their representatives have been targeted pretty systematically by Government departments, Income Tax officials, the Enforcement Directorate or other agencies. (…)

- 2023

Reflections on Indian Politics | P. S. Jayaramu

2023-12-23T02:32:10Z

21st December 2023
Indian Politics never ceases to attract attention of the academic analysts. But, it is extremely unfortunate that opinions and attitudes about the course and directions of politics have been polarised among both the politicians and analysts. Let me try to reflect on the broad features of Indian Politics from the Nehruvian times to the present.
Post-independent Indian politics was largely guided by the Congress Party which occupied the seat of power, much against (…)

- 2023

Randipua Ananta: an Ethnographic text | Radhakanta Barik

Radhakanta Barik — 2023-12-23T02:26:12Z

It is a powerful story of Fakirmohan Senapati by bringing marginal communities into his literary world. Here the Golla Caste is a marginal community in rural Odisha. He has created an epic hero out of this story. Ananta being a fatherless child grew into a good natured human being. He turns into a self less being and works for the welfare of people. When flood enters into the village by making a breach in the embankment he turns into hero by sacrificing himself by not allowing through his (…)

- 2023

Hazards of Toxic Tides in Sukinda Valley | S N Tripathy

S N Tripathy — 2023-12-23T02:25:44Z

Odisha, India, holds a prominent status as the leading global producer of Chromite Ore, accounting for nearly 98 % of the world's supply, with most of its reserves concentrated in Keonjhar, Cuttack, and Dhenkanal. Moreover, the state is celebrated for its extensive mineral resources, including coal, iron ore, manganese ore, and bauxite.
Chromite, a pivotal industrial mineral, plays a vital role in stainless steel production due to its high melting point. Its exceptional properties, (…)

- 2023

The role of unions in the era of gig work | Anjali Chauhan

2023-12-23T02:24:51Z

The loopholes in labour laws will need to be plugged if gig workers are ever to get a fair deal.
In September 2022, the highly anticipated Hindi-language film 'Zwigato' debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, shedding light on the lives of food delivery workers in India. Directed by Nandita Das and co-written by Samir Patil, the movie gained attention for delving into the darker aspects of India's gig economy.
It narrates the story of Manas Singh Mahto, a fictional delivery (…)

- 2023

As Modi's man, Arif opportunity to settle old scores with SFI | Faraz Ahmad

Faraz Ahmad — 2023-12-23T02:24:18Z

It was the year 1972 and the Aligarh Muslim University was on a boil over the ‘AMU Bill', the proposed legislation in Parliament (since AMU has all along been a Central university) seeking to pronounce AMU as a ‘Minority Institution' led by none other than the then AMU Students' Union president Arif Mohammad Khan.
Now there is a subtle difference between the Government recognising a minority character' of an institution and pronouncing an institution as a minority institution. While the (…)

- 2023

Ehtesab - The bogey of accountability | Faraz Ahmad

Faraz Ahmad — 2023-12-23T02:24:00Z

December 30, 2023
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the first and only Pakistan Prime Minister duly elected under a proper Constitution, the 1973 Constitution in early 1977, virtually coinciding with the victory of Janata Paty in India. The 1973 Constitution was suspended later by General Mohammad Ziaul Haq and After him partially restored with considerable mutilation.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) almost swept those National Assembly elections with nearly 60 per cent votes and 155 out (…)

- 2023

UID/Aadhaar and the politics of digital totalitarianism - an Interview with Gopal Krishna

Gopal Krishna — 2023-12-23T02:23:29Z

The below interview with Gopal Krishna was conducted by Boerries Nehe, a sociology researcher and the coordinator of the International Research Group on Authoritarianism & Counter-Strategies (IRGAC), Berlin. It was submitted for publication by the interviewee in understanding with IRGAC
1. Your research focuses on “data mining”, especially in the Indian context. What exactly do you refer to with this notion?
Answer: Data mining or analysis is a clumsy exercise in defining. Data and (…)

- 2023

Notes on the Dismissal of an Office Clerk in Late Colonial Malabar | Sreejith K

2023-12-23T02:22:36Z

Abstract
Lying in the lower rungs of what constituted the middle class, the clerks, though inhabiting a slightly different cultural milieu, in sheer economic terms, were not far removed from the world of the labouring classes. And like the latter, they too did not leave behind any writings, except, ironically, when, following transgressions, they would be called upon to respond to show-cause notices. By examining the records available at the Kozhikode Regional Archives of one such case, (…)

- 2023