Blog

Murder in Mudukulathur

The killing of Immanuel Sekaran in September 1957 became a major flashpoint in Tamil Nadu politics. Memories of the Mudukulathur riots have been moulded to perpetuate and intensify caste conflict in the region ever since. Prof K.A. Manikumar’s Murder in Mudukulathur: Caste and Electoral Politics in Tamil Nadu (2017) helps set the record straight. Below is the preface to his monograph. Terrible caste violence broke out in 1957 in eastern Ramanathapuram district (Tamil Nadu). The reasons for [...]

A Blue Sky with a Red Sun: Remembering Comrade R.B. More

The 11th of May is an important day for us. It is the death anniversary of Comrade R.B. More who was one of the the most unusual, most amazing, courageous members of the Communist Party of India, when it was a united party and, later on, he also joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist). But what made him exceptional was that he himself and his work were links between the Dalit movement in the Konkan, in Maharashtra – links between Phule, Shahu Ji Maharaj, Dr Ambedkar – and the left move[...]

Yeltsin’s Restoration of Capitalism

The 9th of May was celebrated in the Soviet Union, as it still is in the Russian Federation, as Victory Day – victory against the Germans in the Second World War, that is. It was indeed one of the most important events in modern history. Who knows what the world would have looked like otherwise! The collapse of the USSR – the nation that sacrificed 27 million of its own to liberate the rest – nearly 45 years later has been thought of as inevitable. But was it? Carlos Martinez traces the h[...]

Children of Darkness

The lockdown is slowly being lifted. For many among us it was a semi-sabbatical, albeit with a mild feeling of being held in captivity. Perhaps a good time to reflect on another lockdown that hides in plain sight. Mythily Sivaraman, a fierce fighter for equality, between the sexes as well communities, writes with feeling of the despair that casteism generates for the mass of the people. Taken from Haunted by Fire: Essays on Caste, Class, Exploitation and Emancipation (LeftWord, 2013; also availa[...]

Remembering Comrade Rebati Barman

Comrade Rebatimohan Barman (1903/05 – 6 May 1952) was a full-time organiser of the undivided Communist Party of India and a communist intellectual. Comrade Barman was born in a family of legal practitioners and died from leprosy, a disease of the poor, contracted in prison. Comrade Barman’s political life had begun in the revolutionary nationalist fold. The mass upsurges from below made him recognise and reject the proprietor class positions embodied within anti-colonial nationalism. He con[...]