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I visited Goa and did not party

I visited Goa and did not party. While one could agree with those who might feel sorry for me, the conference-cum-workshop I went there to attend was worth it. The world of independent publishing can appear to be a small one. The word ‘cozy’ came up several times to describe the conference. Most people who’re in it know each other. The ones who didn’t, do now. Far from making them homogeneous, however, it makes them a unified group of diverse individuals. What makes them unified? This[...]

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Deepak Borgave outlines the process of transmitting into English the polemical text, which draws from a range of historical references to present an incisive critique of RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar's Bunch of Thoughts.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[...]

लेफ़्टवर्ड बुक्स के संपादकों की ओर से

-अंग्रेज़ी में पढ़ें- प्यारे दोस्तो, भारत में इन दिनों भीड़ द्वारा ह्त्या (लिंचिंग) जैसी क्रूर और दिल दहला देने वाली घटना एक सामान्य सी बात बन कर रह गई है। आए दिन पागल भीड़ किसी न किसी बहाने से मासूम�[...]

Letter from the Editors of LeftWord Books

-Read in Hindi- Dear Friends, The BJP government has decided that it is time to turn its attention to the epidemic of lynching that engulfs India. It has asked Amit Shah, the Home Minister, to turn his languid eye towards these fires that are burning from Dadri (where Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched in 2015) to Dhatkidih (where Tabrez Ansari was lynched in 2019). If you look carefully at the record of the BJP central and state governments, it would be foolish to assume that they will be seized of [...]

'The criticism of religion is the premise of all criticism': Raosaheb Kasbe

When Raosaheb Kasbe's Zot was published in Marathi, in 1978, RSS cadres made a public bonfire of it at the Janata Party convention in Pune that year. The book presented an incisive critique of M.S. Golwalkar's Bunch of Thoughts, the main ideological treatise of the RSS. Kasbe traced the historical roots of cultural nationalism as outlined by Golwalkar, and exposed its authoritarianism. His study of the functioning of the RSS revealed its communal blueprint, its anti-modern views and anti-democra[...]