Mainstream Weekly

Table of Contents, Mainstream, Aug 15, 2026

2026-08-15T09:18:37Z

* Targeting Muslim Protesters as Anti-Nationals | Arup Kumar Sen
* PM Bhargava the scientist with a spine — Excerpts from his biography
* Learning from the past of India's forests | Dinesh C Sharma
* Diagnoses of the Dance | Emanuel Eisenberg (1934)

- 2026

Targeting Muslim Protesters as Anti-Nationals | Arup Kumar Sen

Arup Kumar Sen — 2026-08-15T09:18:03Z

Othering of Muslims is a recurring strategy pursued by Hindutva politics in contemporary India. This was manifested in the recent protests in Kolkata against police atrocities on the students/young protesters in New Delhi. It was reported in Altnews: “From the assembly to press briefings, Suvendu Adhikari repeatedly invoked communal tropes while defending the arrests made over the alleged violence during the July 24 Kolkata solidarity protest. Sixteen people arrested in the case – 15 of them (…)

- 2026

Jantar Mantar Notes —Togetherness during protests forging a bond for the future | Radhakanta Barik

Radhakanta Barik — 2026-08-15T09:17:57Z

What happened to the crowd in Jantar Mantar? There were different groups from Ambedkarites to liberals and Marxists, but all lived in a small place in the rain and in a hot day and night without a fan except a hand fan. Visiting the place, one felt that there were another group sitting on dais popularly known as CJP leaders and in the evening, Sonam, while on hunger strike, gave a small talk for ten minutes, where he praised Modi, which disappointed me, but for his sacrifice as a hunger (…)

- 2026

District In-Charge Ministers and the Contradictions of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala: A Critical Examination | Jos Chathukulam & A. M. Jose

A. M. Jose, Jos Chathukulam — 2026-08-15T09:17:47Z

Abstract
Kerala has long been celebrated as one of the most advanced experiments in democratic decentralization in India. The state's decentralization reforms, particularly following the implementation of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments and the People's Plan Campaign of 1996, transferred substantial functions, funds, and functionaries to Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs). District Panchayats, Block Panchayats, Gram Panchayats, Municipalities and District Planning (…)

- 2026

Development Without Justice: Hasdeo Arand and the Continuing Marginalization of India's Adivasis | Anirban Mukherjee

2026-08-15T09:17:17Z

I
Introduction: The Hasdeo Arand Conflict in Context
India's constitutional democracy recognizes Adivasi or tribal communities as distinct social formations having special rights over land and forests. Ironically, some of the country's richest tribal landscapes continue to be viewed as repositories of mineral wealth. Whenever coal, bauxite, iron ore, or other natural resources are discovered beneath forests inhabited by Scheduled Tribes, the language of development takes precedence over (…)

- 2026

The struggle between the Fourth International and the bureaucratic caste from the perspective of the 21st century

2026-08-15T09:16:50Z

by Sindhunil Barman Roy
I. Introduction: The Phantom in the Totalitarian Apparatus
When Leon Trotsky formulated his criticism of the Soviet state in the 1930s, he was dealing with a political phenomenon that was not foreseen by standard Marxist theory. The Soviet Union had not gone back to capitalism, but it was clearly not a workers' democracy. Instead, it had been taken over by what Trotsky called a bureaucratic caste, a parasitic layer of administrators, planners, and party (…)

- 2026

The Weaponisation of Supply Chains: Lessons for India | Anusreeta Dutta

2026-08-15T09:15:52Z

The first principle of the global economy was simple: economic interdependence would reduce violence. As countries became more integrated through trade, manufacturing and technology, supply chains were meant to provide stability, not competition. That assumption is increasingly falling apart at the seams. Today, supply chains are weapons of geopolitical competition, and strategic considerations, not market efficiency, determine access to critical technology, critical minerals, energy (…)

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When Jyoti Basu Addressed an RSS-Backed Forum: Revisiting a Forgotten Encounter | Sufal Bepari

2026-08-15T09:15:50Z

Headlines of the two-part report on Jyoti Basu's lecture published in Swastika on 25 July and 1 August 1977.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, Hindu nationalists' long-cherished dream of winning over Bengal has finally materialised. Significant in many ways, this political development will undoubtedly invite rigorous scrutiny and, in attempting to make sense of it, looking back at the past remains indispensable. As Jawaharlal Nehru (…)

- 2026

Film Review: Sutlej —scattered notes | Chaman Lal

Chaman Lal — 2026-08-15T09:15:14Z

Satluj is a 2026 film in Punjabi directed by Honey Trehan and starring Diljit Dosanjh
It is a story based on events in in Punjab in 1995; that was its first title also! Strangely, I was living close to the events while teaching in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and staying with my journalist friend, the late Harbir Singh Bhanwar. Every evening on return from the University, we would talk days events. The GNDU library has on its staff literary friend, the late Punjabi poet Sheharyaar, (…)

- 2026

Tamils seek Europe's Help as War Crime Haunts Sri Lanka | M.R. Narayan Swamy

M R Narayan Swamy — 2026-08-15T09:15:12Z

In a country where thousands of Tamils were killed in the war against the Tamil Tigers, the horrific rape and murder of a school student way back in 1986 is still haunting Sri Lanka. Now, it threatens to pit liberal Europe against Colombo. Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was sexually assaulted and done to death by soldiers in Jaffna at a time when Sri Lanka was waging what looked like an unwinnable war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
When her mother and brother, worried where (…)

- 2026

Diagnoses of the Dance | Emanuel Eisenberg (1934)

2026-08-15T09:15:08Z

From New Theatre, Vol. 1 No. 8. July-August, 1934
In reviewing the Workers' Dance League's 1934 competition, Emanuel Eisenberg sees, with exceptions, the new revolutionary dance too much about, and not enough of, what it seeks to represent in the art form. REVOLUTIONARY art is obviously not art which either announces, or depicts soberly in advance, the revolution; the completely automatic recording machine can do that just as well, and bourgeois artists are as slick at the game as any, if (…)

- 2026

International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences 15 August 2026

2026-08-15T09:15:00Z

We, the undersigned international legal and human rights experts, drawn together from many regions of the world by our shared commitment to the human rights of women and girls, issue the following International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences, Recalling that, in accordance with the United Nations (UN) Charter; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and (…)

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Unity Statement of RCPI and Radical Socialist, adopted after discussion on 9 and 10 August 2026

2026-08-15T09:14:06Z

Revolutionary Communist Party of India (RCPI) was formed during the India freedom struggle from a split in the then Stalinist and class collaborationist CPI in 1934 initially as Communist League and subsequently changed into RCPI when it became a party. The central leader of the RCPI was Saumyendranath Tagore, an Indian delegate to the 6th Congress of the Communist International, who was to gradually question the Colonial Thesis, the decision to expel Trotsky and the sectarian line during (…)

- 2026

CPI Condoles the Demise of MP Parameswaran | Aug 12, 2026

2026-08-15T09:13:40Z

Communist Party of India
August 12, 2026
Press Release
The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (August 12, 2026):
The Communist Party of India expresses its deep sorrow at the demise of Comrade M. P. Parameswaran, renowned nuclear scientist, Marxist thinker and one of the foremost proponents of the people's science movement in India. He passed away at the age of 92, leaving behind a rich legacy of scientific work, social (…)

- 2026

PM Bhargava the scientist with a spine — Excerpts from his biography

2026-08-15T09:13:18Z

The Man and The Making of Modern Biology in India by Chandana Chakrabarti SouthSide Books . . . a set of episodes that cut across institutions and disciplines . . . when Prof PM Bhargava (PMB) chose to intervene rather than stay silent.
Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme
PMB did not suffer from the usual afflictions that scientists often acquire along the way: the ivory-tower syndrome, cultivated social detachment, policy indifference, fear of taking positions, or a belief that engagement (…)

- 2026

Learning from the past of India's forests | Dinesh C Sharma

2026-08-15T09:12:54Z

BOOK REVIEW India's Forests: Revisiting Nature and History Arupjyoti Saikia & Mahesh Rangarajan (Editors) Vintage 343 pages Price 999 Forests have been at the centre of human life since ancient times. They are part of history, archaeology, myths, culture, livelihoods, politics, commerce, and much more. Forests are closely inter-linked with all activities in the modern era – food, fuel, water, energy, development, transportation, human health, recreation and so on. Their extent, quality (…)

- 2026 / Book Review

God's shadow over Mizoram peace | M.R. Narayan Swamy

M R Narayan Swamy — 2026-08-15T09:12:49Z

BOOK REVIEW
From Guerrilla Fighter to Chief Minister: A Memoir by Zoramthanga
Penguin/Eight; Pages: xvi + 443; Price: Rs 599 In an age when politicians take credit for everything they do even while spending the tax payers' money, it is heartening to see a guerrilla-turned-political leader give full marks to God for turning Mizoram from one of the most disturbed regions into India's most peaceful state.
Zoramthanga, a pioneer of the once feared Mizo National Front (MNF) who was later (…)

- 2026 / Book Review

Arun Shourie Tears Apart ‘Veer' Savarkar and his Myths | M.R. Narayan Swamy

2026-08-15T09:12:29Z

BOOK REVIEW The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts by Arun Shourie
Penguin/Viking Pages: xviii + 543; Price: Rs 999 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar bragged, exaggerated and even lied. When the Congress battled the British, he did not mind collaborating with the colonial masters. He was adept in spewing hate. Scholar and veteran journalist Arun Shourie says one has to in fact search hard for revolutionary acts that can be traced back to Savarkar. It is such a man who got the sobriquet ‘Veer' (Brave) (…)

- 2026 / Book Review

The Plumber Farooq's bicycle at Mrs Mangaliks' garden in Lucknow (July 10, 2026) | Photo by Pooja Thakur

2026-08-15T09:11:57Z

- Visuals / Art Work

Video: Prof. Prabhu Mohapatra speaks on Dr. Umar Khalid's Book "Fractured Communities" at Press Club

2026-08-15T08:58:46Z

Play
Prof. Prabhu Mohapatra speaks on Dr. Umar Khalid's Book "Fractured Communities" at Press Club by Samim Asgor Ali JNU https://youtu.be/HCnr92TWZbE?si=IG3-XMnZOVebi4oN

- Video / Audio

Video: From Law Reform to Legal Practice: Where are We on Women's Inheritance Claims? by Prof. Bina Agarwal

2026-08-15T08:58:42Z

Play
From Law Reform to Legal Practice: Where are We on Women's Inheritance Claims? by Prof. Bina Agarwal by Debates BA https://youtu.be/VFxYi639XQA?si=5CkFHsJZSdWcnRZZ

- Video / Audio

Music: Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski - Casse-noisette, 1892 | Dir. Peter Wohlert Berlin Symphony Orchestra

2026-08-15T08:57:53Z

The Nutcracker Suite Full Album Play
The Nutcracker Suite Full Album: Tchaikovsky by Geographic Mapping Technologies, LLC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mis0O8CZk90

- Video / Audio / Audio / Video