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
Tag: ideology
Scholar GN Devy asks whether India risks becoming an anti-knowledge nation
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
Biblical Archaeology and the Judeo-Christian legends / The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho
This article, The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho; is an abridged version of The Bible: No Evidence on the Ground; by Zeev Herzog, Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University. He participated extensively in collaboration with other archaeologists in excavations at ancient sites relevant to Biblical legends.… Read More Biblical Archaeology and the Judeo-Christian legends / The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho
Spain: Emerging from the Labyrinth / I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past
María Ramírez Franco’s Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936 – by Jeremy Treglown Reviewed by Jeremy Adelman On August 19, 1936, militiamen loyal to General Francisco Franco murdered Spain’s famous poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. Afterward, one of the killers, the Falangist Juan Trecastro, burst into a local bar and said, “We’ve just… Read More Spain: Emerging from the Labyrinth / I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past
India’s Conservative Revolution
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
The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans
NB: The phrase ‘the fundamental racism of their editorial line’, sums up what it feels to be the perennial object of dehumanisation by the Western establishments and a sizeable part of their populations. Lina Mounzer has said something very important here, and it has lessons not only for the West and Israel, but also for… Read More The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans
We Have Talked Enough About Ourselves
How the marriage of American exceptionalism and liberal Zionism led to genocide NB: The USA is founded upon genocide and slavery. Ten million Native Americans were reduced to 300,00 by the year 1900. Slavery is another story. Until the American population and the rest of the world confront this bloody history of the only power… Read More We Have Talked Enough About Ourselves
Chris Hedges: The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, cancels my talk on our betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
October 4, 2025 I was scheduled to give a talk at the National Press Club of Australia on October 20 called “The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists.” It was to focus on the amplification of Israeli lies in the press, which most reporters know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel. But,… Read More Chris Hedges: The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, cancels my talk on our betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
The Demise of the Two-State Solution: The Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte
Until recently, the West has pledged in the name of a two-state model in the partitioned Israel/ Palestine. But it has been replaced by a unitary state that is decreasingly secular and democratic. In retrospect, the two-state solution died in Jerusalem on September 17, 1948. See a documentary history of Count Bernadotte Dr. Dan Steinbock… Read More The Demise of the Two-State Solution: The Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte
How serial war became the American way of life (2009)
By David Bromwich Here’s part of the way that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently defended his decision to stop production of the F-22 Raptor, the U.S. Air Force’s giant boondoggle of a fighter jet. “Consider,” the secretary of defense said, “that by 2020, the United States is projected to have nearly 2,500 manned combat aircraft of all kinds. Of… Read More How serial war became the American way of life (2009)
After the truth-shower 