NB: Justice in India today: no trial, no conviction, no bail; jail for 5 years. Sometimes we are punished not for what we did but for who we are. DS The young scholar’s work, though not without its flaws, is one of one of the most accomplished doctoral dissertations by an Indian that I have… Read More Ramachandra Guha: In praise of Dr Umar Khalid, from one historian to another
A new film by Nan Goldin: WATCH THE VIDEO: Gaza → For over five decades, the photographer Nan Goldin has been creating unforgettable images that traffic in the poetics of the personal. Friends, lovers and ambiguous others star in her intimate and yet operatic diaries of love, loss and longing. More than any other artist of her stature,… Read More Gaza: Scenes from the destruction of a people
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
The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant & regular employment of violence: Adolf Hitler NB: This is what is happening in India. A concerted assault on simple human decency. It is not aided by the ruling establishment, it is the policy of the ruling establishment – regardless of partisan affiliation. There is… Read More “Freedom Of Worship Being Attacked”: Shashi Tharoor On Christmas Vandalism / Hindu extremists try to shut down Christmas in India
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
Attack brings total number of Palestinians killed by Israel to 401 since October ceasefire took effect William Christou The Israeli military killed six Palestinians, including a baby, who were in a school that sheltered displaced people in Gaza City on Friday, hospital officials have said. The attack brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israel to 401 since… Read More Israeli troops kill six Palestinians sheltering in Gaza school, say hospital chiefs
++++++Readers outside of India can donate hereto support Mainstream Weeklyhttps://tinyurl.com/2rsy4ss6++++++ In this issue: DOCUMENTS IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: * (Coverpage artwork: Stuff, Photo by Harsh Kapoor Dec 25, 2025) https://mainstreamweekly.net/article16441.html
NB: A blurb for a book of philosophical essays asks if ours is the era of ‘faint-hearted’ philosophy, because we were/are not ‘able to bear the greatness, the immensity of the claims made by the human spirit.’ The ongoing ideological assault on the mind and the very soul of humanity point to the widespread failures… Read More Natalia Ginzburg: Our Monstrous Ideas
Iranian security forces have “violently arrested” Nobel Peace Prize winner and women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, her foundation has said. The Narges Foundation said Ms Mohammadi, 53, was detained in the eastern city of Mashhad, along with other activists. The Nobel Committee said it was “deeply concerned by today’s brutal arrest of Narges Mohammadi” and… Read More Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran
Dr Rebecca Reich examines politics, culture and reality in the Soviet Union “Dissenters in the USSR responded by making literary use of psychiatric discourse to both validate themselves and challenge the authority of the state. “The impact of their essays, transcripts, poems and works of fiction may have seemed limited within the isolation and silence… Read More State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent After Stalin
After the truth-shower 