How India’s Election Commission’s algorithmic chaos hit crores of voters

The Reporter’s Collective The ECI used an untested software running on dubious algorithms and unreliable data from two decades ago to brand existing voters as suspicious. In just two of the 12 states we investigated we found 3.66 crore voters had been red flagged. That accounts for a quarter of the two states’ combined voting… Read More How India’s Election Commission’s algorithmic chaos hit crores of voters

South African activist Ela Gandhi asks world to condemn the US attack on Venezuela / Wall Street Goons Look To STEAL Venezuelan Oil

“Can the world stand by and allow such aggression to continue?” Southasia Peace (Sapan) and Sapan News BOSTON: Invoking her grandfather Mahatma Gandhi‘s words “I want world sympathy in this battle of right against might,” Ela Gandhi in South Africa has issued a statement on the U.S. attack on Venezuela, in her capacity as Chairperson Gandhi Development… Read More South African activist Ela Gandhi asks world to condemn the US attack on Venezuela / Wall Street Goons Look To STEAL Venezuelan Oil

They Questioned India–Israel Ties. Now the trolls want to destroy their lives

NB: In India today, a section of opinion considers any criticism of Israel to be equivalent to ‘anti-nationalism’. This is similar to what has taken place in the USA; where even academic rersearch on Palestinan history is censored. It’s ridiculous that criticism of another country should be seen as betrayal of my country. Why? What… Read More They Questioned India–Israel Ties. Now the trolls want to destroy their lives

‘Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times (2016)

Memory produces hope in the same way that amnesia produces despair,” the theologian Walter Brueggemann noted. It is an extraordinary statement, one that reminds us that though hope is about the future, grounds for hope lie in the records and recollections of the past. We can tell of a past that was nothing but defeats, cruelties and… Read More ‘Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times (2016)

‘India’s First Radicals’ argues for a generous assessment of 19th-century Indian intellectual life

NB: Those who bang on about Macaulay’s Minute on education (1835) should acquaint themselves with this early Indian patriot, whose work in education inspired a generation and who preceded Macaulay by many years. DS The men of Young Bengal emerge not as pale imitations of British liberals, but as creative political thinkers who addressed India’s… Read More ‘India’s First Radicals’ argues for a generous assessment of 19th-century Indian intellectual life

Mainstream, Dec 6, 2025

++++++Readers outside of India can donate hereto support Mainstream Weeklyhttps://tinyurl.com/2rsy4ss6++++++ In this issue DOCUMENTS: BOOKS IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: Books of Note

Zohran’s run

The enduring lesson of Zohran Mamdani’s victory is that the moderate Centre is invariably the respectable front for right-wing prejudice. The voices of the liberal Centre, the political ‘moderates’, the newspapers and the magazines responded to Mamdani’s candidacy in a way that was indistinguishable from Donald Trump’s denunciations Mukul Kesavan New York’s mayoral race was… Read More Zohran’s run