fascism

The Novel Morona Virus

Long before our lives were disrupted by the novel Coronavirus, there appeared on the scene a much deadlier virus. One that couldn’t be seen with a microscope. Eve Ensler writes in detail about the appearance and spread of this virus. To learn about other strains of this virus, check out Strongmen (LeftWord, 2017). This is the story of what happened in the late time, right before the end time, that later got interrupted and became the new time. In those days there arrived in the land of viol[...]

The Story of a Translation

LeftWord's July release, Decoding the RSS: Its Tradition and Politics, is the translation into English of Raosaheb Kasbe's classic Marathi book, Zot. In this post, translator Deepak Borgave outlines the process of transmitting into English the polemical text, which draws from a range of historical references to present an incisive critique of RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar's Bunch of Thoughts. * * * Why translate, and for whom? Does translation matter? Who is the reader? Is translation necessa[...]

Activist Arrests in India Are Part of a Dangerous Global Trend to Stifle Dissent

On Tuesday morning, the police from the Indian city of Pune (in the state of Maharashtra) raided the homes of lawyers and social activists across India and arrested five of them. Many of them are not household names around the world, since they are people who work silently on behalf of the poor and oppressed in a country where half the population does not eat sufficiently. Their names are Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Varavara Rao. What unites these peop[...]

Is Fascism Imminent?

A few weeks ago, CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat wrote a brief article in the Indian Express that assessed the character of the RSS and the BJP. He argued that the BJP is not capable of fascism because the conditions that would require the ‘terroristic dictatorship of finance capital’ – as the Communist International put it – do not exist. At the Sabrang website, historian Jairus Banaji responded tartly, saying that indeed the BJP-RSS is a fascist ensemble. Joining the debate then was LeftWo[...]

Are we living under fascism already?

Newsletter this Week..   In the latest post on the LeftWord Blog, Vijay Prashad points towards his rejoinder to Jairus Banaji's ad hominem attack on Prakash Karat. Karat makes a distinction between a fascist and an authoritarian regime, and Banaji, rather than engaging with the substance of Karat's argument, makes an ill-toned attack on what he considers 'Stalinism'. In fact, Banaji displays the very sectarianism he asks the Indian Left to shed.Vijay Prashad's rejoinder draws from his[...]