“If you are curious and open to the life around you, if you are troubled as to why, how and by whom political power is held and used, if you sense there must be good intellectual reasons for your unease, if your curiosity and openness drive you toward wishing to act with others, to ‘do something,’ you already have much in common with the writers of the three essays in this book.” — Adrienne Rich With a preface by Adrienne Rich, Manifesto presents the radical vision of four famous young rebels: Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto, Rosa Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution and Che Guevara’s Socialism and Humanity.
The Communist Manifesto is among the most widely read and disseminated texts in the world. It has been more influential in the making of the modern world than any other piece of political writing. Rarely has call to arms been phrased in a language of such zest, beauty and purity. One hundred and fifty years after it was written, the Manifesto shows us an image of our own, present-day globalized capitalism with stunning clarity and accuracy.
In the parliamentary system of government, manifestos constitute and represent an important aspect of the democratic electoral politics as statements of a party’s ideology, response and policy. This book offers an examination of election manifestos of different political parties in India at the national level. It explores the manifesto as an input to the policy process and presents a comparative perspective and understanding on the issues and approaches of the national political parties on key affairs. The book traces the evolution of the electoral system, political parties and party manifestos in India as they emerged and developed over time. It looks at the Statutes of 1909, 1919 and 1935 along with the party manifestos and elections until 1945–46. The author further analyses Constituent Assembly debates on the electoral system and the stances of political parties on national reconstruction through documents from parties, including the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Socialist Party, Jana Sangh and the All India Scheduled Castes Federation. Covering manifestos of sixteen Lok Sabha Elections (from the first general election of 1952 to 2014), this book provides a comprehensive overview of how major political parties think on significant social, economic, political, foreign and defence-related issues. It will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, election studies, modern Indian history, public administration, law and governance, sociology, media and journalism as also to legislators and policymakers.
One of the most notorious works of modern times, as well as one of the most influential, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis and generate fresh insights. Arguing that capitalism would create an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership among the leaders of social democratic parties, particularly in Russia and Germany, and ultimately throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the Working Class'.
This book presents a reappraisal of the political economic history of the CPIM/Left Front regime against the backdrop of the Indian reform experience. It examines two distinct areas: the conditions that necessitated the regime to engineer a transition from an erstwhile agricultural-based growth model to a more pro-market economic agenda post-199
The success of Jeremy Corbyn's left-led Labour Party and Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign revived a political idea many had thought dead. But what, exactly, is socialism? And what would a socialist system look like today? In The Socialist Manifesto, Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin magazine, argues that socialism offers the means to achieve economic equality, and also to fight other forms of oppression, including racism and sexism. The ultimate goal is not Soviet-style planning, but to win rights to healthcare, education, and housing and to create new democratic institutions in workplaces and communities. The book both explores socialism's history and presents a realistic vision for its future. A primer on socialism for the 21st century, this is a book for anyone seeking an end to the vast inequities of our age.
The Civil War in France is a pamphlet written by Karl Marx. It presents a convincing declaration of the General Council of the International, pertaining to the character and importance of the struggle of the Communards in the Paris Commune at the time.
“Their real freedom is not within the boundaries of security, but in the highroad of adventures, full of the risk of new experiences.” Nationalism was a popular subject of debate in the pre-Independence era and academics from across the world shared their ideas on the same. Tagore’s idea of nationalism is deep-rooted in his belief that growth has to be all-inclusive – not just for a nation, but also for its people. This book is a collection of Tagore’s lectures on Nationalism in the West, Japan and India. His mastery with expression is further highlighted as he recounts the need of the concept of Nation to benefit its people, and not just exist as an idealistic theory that benefits a few. Nationalism brings to fore Tagore’s deep understanding of contemporary politics and paves a middle path between growth of the people and a nation, and aggressive ways towards modernity.
'Praful Bidwai's analysis and conclusions compel serious engagement both by academics and political leaders.' - K.N. Panikkar 'Bidwai's assessments will undoubtedly trigger further discussion.' - Romila Thapar 'Praful raises the right questions and is scrupulously fair.' - Susan George India still has a significant and relatively powerful communist movement. In spite of the massive setbacks communist parties have suffered in and since the 2014 national elections, and their general decline during the past decade, the Indian Left is a significant component of the political spectrum. It is represented in virtually every state in the form of trade unions, peasant associations, women's organizations and student unions, and in state legislatures, municipal bodies and village councils. The Phoenix Moment seeks to understand how a communist movement, almost unique within the world's capitalist democracies, flourished for so long in India, and what accounts for its initially gradual and then rapid decline. It also asks how far and in what manner the Left has accomplished its goals; whether it could have achieved more and what its future prospects are. Crucially, political analyst Praful Bidwai investigates whether the Left's core agenda of progressive or socialist transformation can yet be reinvented and restored to relevance - either with its own agency or through other forces, formations and initiatives. Given the paucity of analytical literature on the mainstream Left at the national level, Bidwai's timely and deeply insightful book fills a crucial void.
