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Frankenstein and the Monster

The note we share today was written by Aijaz Ahmad as an added preface to his Iraq, Afghanistan and The Imperialism of Our Time (LeftWord, 2004). Saddam Hussein’s capture was touted as a big win for the forces of freedom by the international press. The author, however, advises caution. The trial by an Iraqi court was going to be, as it did turn out to be, a sham. And though Hussein was a mass murderer himself, there was an even bigger monster than him. Saddam in US Captivity On 14 December[...]

Emergence of Left Forces in Madras

For anyone seeking to understand the early years of the labour movement in India, D. Veeraraghavan’s The Making of the Madras Working Class (2013) is an indispensable book. In the chapter ‘Emergence of Left Forces, 1933–1937’ he discusses at length the role of the socialists and communists. In the extract below, one can get an idea of their militant interventions for the protection of workers’ rights in that period in Madras. While acknowledging the active participation of the Congress[...]

For Comrade Lenin on his 150th Birth Anniversary

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870–1924) was known by his pseudonym—Lenin. He was, like his siblings, a revolutionary, which in the context of tsarist Russia meant that he spent long years in prison and in exile. Lenin helped build the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party both by his intellectual and his organizational work. Lenin’s writings are not only his own words, but the summation of the activity and thoughts of the thousands of militants whose paths crossed his own. It was Lenin’s re[...]

Was Shivaji anti-Muslim?

Shivaji appears in the popular imagination as a ‘Hindu’ king, among the many who resisted Muslim rule in India. Govind Pansare’s Shivaji Kon Hota? interrogates the legend to separate fact from fiction. In this extract from his introduction to the English translation (Who was Shivaji?, LeftWord, 2015), historian Anirudh Deshpande, while discussing the merits of Pansare’s book, questions the anti-Muslim aspect of the Shivaji myth. […] In Pansare’s terse and admirable book, readers [...]

वर्ग से मुलाकात

बाबासाहेब डॉक्टर आंबेडकर की भारत और साम्यवाद (लेफ्टवर्ड, 2019) के लिए लिखी गई आनंद तेलतुम्बडे की भूमिका का एक हिस्सा : वर्ग से मुलाकात यह दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है कि आंबेडकरवादियों ने मार्क्सवाद के प[...]