communist histories
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04JanCommunist Histories
We are – with 2017 – a hundred years away from the Russian Revolution, whose audacity brought the workers and peasants of that vast region of Eurasia to power. The USSR lasted only seven decades, and – without doubt – there will be much made this year about its achievements and its failures. One can guarantee that more will be said of the latter than the former. What will be overshadowed is the achievement of the revolution itself – the fact that ordinary people could overthrow the anc[...] -
Letter from the Editors, November 2016
3 November 2016 Dear LeftWord Community, As you read this letter, you should know that across India kisans are on the march. Organised by the All-India Kisan Sabha, they are part of an immense Jatha that will descend on Delhi on 24 November for a large rally. At our LeftWord Blog, there is a short note on the Kisan Sangharsh Jatha. We hope you will go and read it. The blog post on the rally is only our most recent offering. At our LeftWord Books Blog, you will find posts on the work of our a[...] -
21OctEarly Indian Communists and their Historian: An Interview with Suchetana Chattopadhyay
Suchetana Chattopadhyay, who teaches at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, has been producing some of the most important work on early Communist history. Her first book – An Early Communist: Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913-1929 (Tulika, 2011), traces not only the early life of Kakababu but also the world of colonial and radical Calcutta. The book was reviewed when it came out by Vijay Prashad in Frontline. Most recently, Chattopadhyay has contributed an essay for our own new volume – Communi[...] -
18Aug“Exiles From the Future”: Why Communist Histories
[courtesy counterpunch.org] Prof. Vijay Prashad is one of the most impressive scholars today. His recent anthology Communist Histories Volume 1 gathers together a series of essays by historians from across the globe that creates a new vision of Indian history and a Communist Party that was simultaneously aligned with the Soviet Union and a populist mass movement. I sat down for an interview with Prof. Prashad wherein we discussed this new volume and what it can teach activists today. The audi[...]