We, at LeftWord Books, are very sad about the sudden death of our friend and comrade Biswamoy Pati. Pati taught history at Delhi University, where he is widely regarded as a generous teacher and colleague. His scholarly work was wide-ranging, from immensely important closely researched work on the history of his native Odisha to his ground-breaking edited books on colonial medicine, Tilak and the 1857 rebellion. His first book - Resisting Domination: Peasants, Tribals and the National Movement i[...]
Dear Book Club member,
Greetings from LeftWord!
Over the years, you've been our staunchest supporter. You've responded to our books with comments and feedback. You've promoted our books on social media, in educational institutions and libraries, and through word of mouth. You've also been a source of tremendous financial support for us, by buying directly from us, rather than through a bookseller. For all this, and more, we are truly grateful.
Many of you have expressed a desire for t[...]
Dear Comrades and Friends,
We are now in the midst of 2017 – the centenary year of the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union, which was built after the Revolution, lasted a mere seventy years. This is far too short a time in the span of human history to make any kind of judgment about either socialism or communism. Great strides were made, certainly, but there were also grievous wrongs. Two of our new books offer a sense of the Revolution and of the USSR:
Cecilia Bobrovskaya’s Rank and [...]
On May 1, the May Day Bookstore (run by LeftWord Books) completed five years.
Over these five years, the May Day event at the bookstore has become an important annual punctual point in Delhi’s political/cultural calendar. This is no mean feat, considering the location of the store — in West Delhi, in a neighbourhood with a large concentration of working people and migrants. NDTV covered the event in their 'Art Matters' section and here's a report about our unique vibrant community space:
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In 1999, LeftWord Books – only a few months old – decided that one of our early titles must be from Fidel Castro. Castro had delivered two speeches that year, one at the University of Venezuela and the other at a conference on culture and development in Havana. These were incredible speeches – vintage Castro – laying out his assessment of the world through the experiences of Cuba and through the emergence of what he called ‘imperialist globalisation’. One of the key elements of Castr[...]