Blog
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21FebThe Birth of the Communist Manifesto
In 1848, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels published a short pamphlet on behalf of the Communist League. Marx and Engels, both young men at that time, were tasked by the League to produce a document that would define their current situation and propose a communist path forward. This is what they did. Their text - The Communist Manifesto - arrived at a propitious time. Not long after the publication of the Manifesto on February 21, 1848, workers and peasants as well as sections of the middle class[...] -
08Feb"He spoke truth to and about the Power"- P. Sainath on John Reed
We, at LeftWord Books, recently published John Reed's "stirring eyewitness account" of the Russian Revolution, 'Ten Days That Shook the World' with an introduction by one of India's finest journalists and public intellectuals P. Sainath. In Howard Zinn's words, Reed "made history come alive for the readers of popular magazines and impoverished radical monthlies" through his journalistic work in the times preceding and during the First World War when warmongering and binary narratives were the [...] -
Johanna Wallin on the process of creating ‘Rehearsing Freedom’
‘Rehearsing Freedom: The Story of a Theatre in Palestine’ is the outcome of a desire to visually present The Freedom Theatre’s first decade, from our own perspective, with our own voice. Collaborating with LeftWord Books was the obvious choice. It became as much their project as it was ours, thanks to the ingenuity, vision, and dedication of Sherna Dastur, the designer, and The Freedom Theatre’s close friend and LeftWord publisher Sudhanva Deshpande. Both Sherna and Sudhanva invested[...] -
30DecRemembering Safdar: his life and his legacy as a voice of resistance
“So you missed the demolition of the Babri Masjid And the violence and hate that followedYou missed Ramabai and other Dalit massacresYou missed your nation’s love for the atom bombIn 2002, you missed the Gujarat pogromAnd in neighbouring Pakistan you missedThe creation of the Taliban and hereThis year you missed the coronation of killers We who survived you missed none of theseWe missed you.”- Anand Patwardhan 29 years ago, on 1st January 1989, Safdar Hashmi, one of the founding mem[...] -
19DecA spark of hope for India's future in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh
In an alternative world, the BJP would have been routed in both Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. It is the Party of the Rich, the party of corruption and deceit, the party with fangs against minorities - particularly Muslims. Why a party with such fangs can win elections is to be seriously considered. Books - such as Manjari Katju's new Hinduising Democracy - suggest that the rise of the BJP and its Sangh Parivar has virtually overrun not only democratic institutions but also the culture of[...]