The tragic fate of the Indian Statistical Institute G S Seda (cut and pasted from his Facebook page) Just as the BJP government, and its apologists, were gloating over 8.2% GDP growth during Q2, the IMF’s verdict came in quietly but landed like a thud: India’s economic data downgraded to Category C—the second-worst grade, reserved… Read More Mahalanobis Built It. Modi Broke It
Readers outside of India can donate hereto support Mainstream Weeklyhttps://tinyurl.com/2rsy4ss6++++++ In this issue IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: Books of Note https://mainstreamweekly.net/article16391.html
NB: Anyone with the faintest idea of what is happening to Indian education will understand the importance of this book by this esteemed and highly accomplished scholar. The policies of our rulers can be described as nothing less than assault on education. Government enthusiasts could ask themselves why every year, hundreds of thousands of Indian… Read More Scholar GN Devy asks whether India risks becoming an anti-knowledge nation
Praveen Swami Elegantly dressed in an impeccably draped sari, a brilliant diamond tiara discreetly placed on her head, Crown Princess Sarvath El Hassan flitted from New York soirees to diplomatic dinners. The daughter of the eminent Kolkata-born Pakistani diplomat Muhammad Ikramullah and his wife, writer Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, the Crown Princess had never played down… Read More Rajnath Singh is discovering India-Pakistan civilisational ties
Over a decade ago, a young IAS officer deployed in Bastar told this reporter that as much as they wanted Bastar to be freed from the Naxals, their ouster from the jungle would immediately lead to it being taken over by mining companies. Ashutosh Bhardwaj As the Maoist insurgency reaches its fag end with the… Read More As Naxalism Fades, Adivasi Futures Still Stand on Precarious Ground
In this issue DOCUMENTS BOOKS IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: Coverpage artwork credits: Drawing from photo of Saint Exupery station in Lyon from Nov 2025 by Harsh Kapoor) https://mainstreamweekly.net/article16390.html
Far from hospitals, nomadic Gujjar women routinely go into labour – and die – on their herder communities’ long seasonal treks Arsalan Bukhari Dawn had just broken across the trail through the Pir Panjal mountains when Fatima Deader felt the first labour pains. She and her family had almost reached the midway point of their… Read More Born in the forest: the women giving birth alone in the Kashmiri mountains
The Red Fort attack has punctured the Modi government’s claims of national security dominance, of instituting peace and progress after the revocation of Article 370 and counter-terrorism preparedness Bharat Bhushan It took the Union government 48 hours to describe the Red Fort bomb attack as ‘terrorism’. For two days, the Narendra Modi government was dancing… Read More Red Fort terror attack pokes holes in India’s security narrative
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
Since 2014, this has been the RSS–BJP’s consistent strategy: criminalize dissent, discredit activists, and rewrite constitutional morality. They know that a large-scale civil war is impossible in a subcontinent as vast and diverse as India. What they fear are small, localized movements, like Ladakh’s, that cannot be militarily conquered, but only silenced with force. The assault… Read More The Unmaking of Ladakh: RSS, Corporate Power, and the War on India’s Plural Soul
After the truth-shower 