Monthly Archives: April 2020

Possible Communism

Those who keep repeating ad nauseum that communism isn’t sustainable, should read Building Alternatives: The Story of India’s Oldest Construction Workers’ Cooperative by T.M. Thomas Isaac and Michelle Williams. Fortunately for us, this possible communism does not believe in sustaining itself through an unending cycle of bloody wars. Here’s Vijay Prashad’s preface to the book: Possible Communism Misery greets the planet. Social inequality has reached unbelievable levels – where f[...]

India’s Tryst with the RSS

The following article is a review and comparison of two books: The RSS: A Menace to India by A.G. Noorani (LeftWord Books, March 2019), and Messengers of Hindu Nationalism: How the RSS Reshaped India by Walter Anderson & Shridhar D. Damle (Hurst & Company, 2019). A shorter version of it first appeared in the London Review of Books (‘Strictly Technical’. vol. 42, no. 6, 19 March 2020). Ψ Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the subject of the two books at hand, is arguably the oldes[...]

Progress Publishers: A Short History

Progress Publishers lived up to its name. It’s hard to look at one’s bookshelf and not find a title brought out by them. But the reason for its existence was greater than what one would refer to as soft power. Vijay Prashad writes in his introduction to The East Was Read: Socialist Culture in the Third World, ‘It was because, as Lenin noted, cultural absorption was a good in itself, and that it would help expand the imagination and create a richer, better world. More learning about differe[...]

What has the October Revolution Done for Women in the West?

Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) was among the leading figures of the Russian Revolution. However, as Parvathi Menon observes, her ‘revolutionary legacy slipped into relative obscurity in the decades following her death’. This is surprising given the fact that not only did she live an extraordinary life, both personal and political, she left behind voluminous writings; some of which you can read in our 2017 volume of her selected essays, The Soviet Woman, edited by Parvathi Menon. We share wi[...]