NB: This heinous incident is one of many such, that have been visible in India and the countries of South Asia for many years. It indicates nothing less than the blatant encouragement and deployment of mob rule by the ruling classes of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. Pakistan is now not just a… Read More Nawada lynching mocks ‘The rule of law’ / Bangladesh Lynching Condemned
Protestors near Dhaka’s famous Shahbagh intersection has called for the formation of a “revolutionary government”. Bharat Bhushan The political situation in Bangladesh is increasingly unpredictable as some are using the violence following the assassination of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi as an argument to stall the general election due in February 2026. Protestors near Dhaka’s famous Shahbagh… Read More Bangladesh Unravels, Even as Indian Diplomacy Continues to Falter
NB: The idea of collective guilt or collective punishment is sheer poison. Everyone, especially the ruling establishments of various countries I need not name, should be aware of the inhumanity of this idea. You cannot defeat darkness with more darkness; violence with more violwence. For all its technological progress, global society seems not to have… Read More ‘We are all human beings first’: Jews and Muslims embrace at vigils for those killed in Bondi beach terror attack
Where the postcolonial Left meets the Hindu Right NB: This is an interesting overview, although I cannot agree with some of the author’s arguments. For instance, I think it is true that Hindutva marks an attempt to recast Sanatan Dharma as an Abrahamic-style faith; the main objective being homogeneity and subjugation of an entire population… Read More India’s Conservative Revolution
NB: In the period October 31 till November 2, 1984, mass violence in Delhi following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs resident of Delhi. The official figures were just under 3000; but many believe this to be an understatement. In the links beneath this article, there is… Read More Justice still eludes 1984 victims, only 39 convictions in 650 cases / Forty-one years on: 13 murder convictions, 253 acquittals
The faintest of all human passions is the love of truth: A. E. Housman (1859-1936) Protestors in Amritsar with photographs of relatives who were killed in the 1984 riots. | Narinder Nanu/AFP NB: Today is the forty-first anniversary of the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi and the beginning of the massacre of innocent Sikh residents of… Read More How far would I have gone to get away? Mukul Kesavan remembers the 1984 violence against Sikhs
Narendra Modi’s decade in power has seen an erosion of democracy alongside soaring inequality. While religious nationalism diverts public attention, the super-rich add to their wealth. Economic performance remains lacklustre, welfare spending stagnant, and authoritarian tactics silence dissent. Atul Kohli; Kanta Murali —Growing economic inequalities under Congress governments after 1991 fractured the party’s voter base,… Read More India Under Modi: Shrinking Democracy, Growing Inequalities
The RSS’ intellectual stagnation and myth-based narratives risk alienating it from India’s knowledge-driven society Bharat Bhushan One hundred years ago, on Vijayadashami Day, September 27, 1925, the men who gathered at the residence of Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur could have hardly imagined how powerful the organisation they were founding would become. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a… Read More RSS’ success also has seeds of destruction
Readers outside of India can donate here to support Mainstream Weeklyhttps://tinyurl.com/2rsy4ss6++++++ In this issue DOCUMENTS BOOKS IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: Books of Note: * (Cover page artwork credits: Franciska Clausen, Cercle et carre 1929) https://mainstreamweekly.net/article16172.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Supposedly irrefutable evidence of division is said to lie in the Muslims over the last 1,000 years having victimised the Hindus, treating them as enslaved. Romila Thapar explains why historians question this theory The following is the text of the C.D. Deshmukh Lecture delivered by Romila Thapar on January 14, 2023, at the India International… Read More What History Really Tells Us About Hindu-Muslim Relations
After the truth-shower 