Lead Article

Political Trends in Contemporary West Bengal

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 An essay on the contemporary politics in West Bengal that accounts for the political character of Trinamool Congress, analyzes the dynamics of a declining Left and points out the signs of new political trends in the state.

TPC’s Murder: Questions that Remain after One Year

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RMP leader Comrade T.P Chandrashekharan was brutally murdered near Onchiyam, in Kozhikode district of Kerala on May 4, 2012. His first death anniversary is being observed across the state by progressive and democratic minded people. Questions raised by TPC’s murder continue to remain unanswered by the CPI(M) leadership.

National

Small Savings Schemes in India and the Saradha Scam

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One of the features of the current Saradha scam which is distinct from other such scams like the Sanchayita, in West Bengal, is that majority of the people who deposited money in Saradha are rural poor people. Why did rural poor people keep their money in fraudulent companies like Saradha and not in small savings schemes of the government? This is a very important question which needs to be looked at to pin point the role of the central government and state governments in facilitating the activities of companies like Saradha.

Sexual Assaults against Children: When will this Brutality End?

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There are no words to describe the utter horror evoked by the sadistic rape of a 5 year old girl in Gandhi Nagar, Delhi. A chilling reminder of the brutal gang-rape in December, the feeling does not appear to be going away anytime soon, since we seem to be producing sadists and perverts with consistency. Held captive and raped over a couple of days by a neighbour and a possible accomplice, the little girl was brutalized vaginally, anally and orally. The badly bruised and scarred child was strangulated and left for dead.

A Tale of Two Elections

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The magnificent victory of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in Tripura - winning 50 out of the 60 seats – and the success of the LF candidate in the Nalhati by-election in West Bengal has been interpreted as a “re-emergence” of the Left parties by a senior CPI(M) leader. This does not seem to be a rigorous assessment. 

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International

"Class Struggle is not Waged in only One Way; We want to Learn by Doing"

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Aasim Sajjad Akhtar is a renowned left intellectual and currently the general secretary of the Punjab section of the newly formed Awami Workers Party (AWP). The new party was formed last month after a merger of three progressive and left forces, the Awami Party Pakistan, the Labour Party and the Workers Party and vowed to "build a new programme of socialism for 21st century Pakistan". Com. Sajjad speaks about the challenges before the AWP, it's goals and its immediate aims to Pragoti Edit Group Convenor, Srinivasan Ramani in this interview (via email). 

Hugo Chavez's victory: Strengthening the Bolivarian project in Venezuela

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President Hugo Chavez's recent victory in Venezuela's presidential elections is another step in making the path to socialism irreversible in that country. Whether Chavez will manage to heed some of his leftist critics and allies and evolve further reforms that broaden the scope of the socialist project remains to be seen, but the signs are promising.   

The Age of Eric J. Hobsbawm

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Pragoti Editorial Team member Dhananjay Rai pays tributes to the great Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who passed away recently.

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Editorials

Pragoti salutes the nameless and the ordinary

Pragoti salutes the nameless and the ordinary whose valiance and courage in life and death will not be headlines in the chronicles of the Mumbai carnage. The immediate appeals to jingoistic nationalism and communalism by the hard and soft Hindu right, and the proposals to launch war and pass draconian laws, dished out by the mainstream media, is an attempt to ensure that the people are put through more of such terror. We stand committed to the struggles of the ordinary and the nameless people of India to fight terrorism and all political harbingers of terror.

Support the General Strike on August 20, 2008

The general strike on August 20 will be a landmark in the struggle of the workers and peasants of India against the Manmohan Singh government that is bent on proving its loyalty to the big bourgeoisie in India and its allegiance to international finance capital and by extension US imperialism. A PRAGOTI Editorial

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Pragoti Interviews

Interview with Noam Chomsky

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In this wide ranging interview, Noam Chomsky talks about his new book "Hopes and Prospects" and dwells on the issues of Haiti, the US economy and polity, the growth processes in India and China and the current political state of Latin America. We are grateful to Keane Bhatt for making this interview available to us.

"Rahul Gandhi does not understand why the rich are rich and the poor are poor"

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CPI(M) Research Unit Convenor, Prasenjit Bose interviewed by Vima Naukara (Insurance Employee), the monthly journal of insurance employees association in Karnataka published from Bangalore. The text of the interview recorded in September 2010 is reproduced here. 

I am accused of romanticizing the working class: Anand Patwardhan

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 Anand Patwardhan's documentary film "War and Peace (Jung aur Aman)" was screened at IIT Bombay on 30th August 2009. During and after the discussion session of the documentary film, our editorial team member Anirban Ghatak took a short interview of Anand. Anand answered the questions with equal determination and conviction which we are pretty used to see in his films. Here we present the interview. 

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Theory and Praxis

21st century socialism and issues - a debate

A debate on 21st century socialism hosted on Pragoti featuring articles by Rohit & Srinivasan Ramani, a riposte by Arjun Sengupta and a response by Rohit & Srinivasan Ramani again. 

The Indian radical grapples with globalisation

There has been a major transformation in India over the last two decades – economic, political, social and cultural. Some of this has been a result of the liberalisation of the economy, a significant part of which has been the opening up to global capital. The Left in India, across organisations and ideologies, has viewed globalisation as a disaster for India. However, even a cursory glance at the actual history of globalisation in India will show that it has been as much about India reaching out to the world as the world coming to India.

On Democratic Centralism

 In the recent period, alongwith a number of critical discussions on the electoral set-back suffered by the CPI (M) and the Left in last Lok Sabha elections, there have been some questions raised about the practice of democratic centralism as the organizational principle of the Communist Party. Such critiques have come from persons who are intellectuals associated with the Left or the CPI (M). 

Since such views are being voiced by comrades and persons who are not hostile to the Party, or, consider themselves as belonging to the Left, we should address the issues raised by them and respond. This is all the more necessary since the CPI (M) considers the issue of democratic centralism to be a basic and vital one for a party of the working class.
 
Instead of dealing with each of the critiques separately, we are categorising below the various objections and criticisms made.Though, it must be stated that it is not necessary that each of them hold all the views expressed by the others. But the common refrain is that democratic centralism should not serve as the organizational principle of the Communist Party or that it should be modified.
 
Read More in The Marxist. The article is also attached as PDF.
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Political Economy

Contemporary Imperialism and the Socialist Alternative

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The anti-people character of the neoliberal regime and the bankruptcy of its free market ideology are getting thoroughly exposed with the deepening economic crisis and the irrational, vested-interest-driven actions of the bourgeois governments. With the weakening hegemony of neoliberal ideas, debates over alternatives to globalised capitalism are emerging, along with a revival of interest in Marxism and socialist ideas across the world. Attempts are also underway to better understand and analyze the contemporary world from a Marxist standpoint.

21st century socialism and its discontents – a response to a response

The authors, Rohit and Srinivasan Ramani, of the original introductory piece - "What Does 21st Century Socialism Mean" respond to Arjun Sengupta's critique of it. 

The Debate on 21st Century Socialism: A Response

The article by Srinivasan Ramani and Rohit titled “What does 21st Century Socialism mean?” evoked multiple responses. Arjun Sengupta raises a few further questions in the ongoing debate.

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Reviews

Deconstructing the Libyan war

Stanly Johny reviews Vijay Prashad's book, "Arab Spring, Libyan Winter". 

Aarakshan : Much ado about nothing

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The film barely offers an honest debate on caste-based reservation; instead the plot merely promotes private education, mixed with an unhealthy dose of charity, individual morality and traditionalism, writes SAQIB KHAN

Images and Politics in Peepli Live

"Peepli Live can be accused of the same crime that it accuses the media of – just scratching the surface of all issues it could in an hour and a half without really trying to push the envelope of discourse on any front, neither the role of media, nor agrarian crisis or indeed the crisis of Indian politics itself", says Tejal Kanitkar in a review of the movie in this post.

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Commemoration

The Continuing Relevance of Karl Marx

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Nearly a hundred and thirty years after his death and 190 years after his birth on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx continues to exert enormous intellectual and practical influence across the world. The socialist future he so confidently predicted has not yet become the global reality that many had hoped it would. The capitalist mode of production that he diagnosed as crisis-prone and doomed to extinction in the course of further historical development dominates the contemporary world. The early attempts at establishing a socialist society have faced exceptionally difficult problems in a predominantly capitalist/imperialist world. Yet, none of these facts can be seen as rendering Marx irrelevant or as diminishing the power and vitality of his theory and vision. Why?

16 August 2010- A Tribute to Narayan Surve

A poetic tribute to the revolutionary Marathi poet Narayan Surve by Pallavi Chavan. The poem, originally composed in Marathi, has also been translated in English by the poet. Both the versions are included in the post below.

150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore: the Universal Poet

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May 9, 2010 marks the 150 birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest poets and thinkers India has ever produced. In the present day World, riddled with war and violence, his writings on universal humanness and peace are more relevant than ever.
 
The multi-cultural educational efforts carried out by Tagore became an inspiration to educators around the world, and schools following his philosophy of human unity were created in many countries.
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Others

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Diaries

Appeal to make the enquiry report on Com. TPC's killing public

Academics and activists appeal to the CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat to release the report of the internal enquiry within the CPI(M) on TP Chandrasekharan's murder. 

The Manifesto of New Path

For some time now, some activists in a small collective, mostly from backgrounds in social movements and mass organisations, have been discussing how the work of people's struggle and revolutionary transformation can be taken forward in the Indian context. Out of those they have reached the decision to found a new organisation, tentatively called "New Path", whose goal is to further the revolutionary process in India at its current stage. Below is the draft manifesto, which is being circulated for comments, criticism, suggestions and observations from comrades and friends.

TPC Memorial Committee holds Press Conference in Delhi

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Comrade T.P Chadrasekharan, the leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in Kerala, was brutally murdered in Vallikkad near Onchiyam (in Kozhikode district) on 4th May 2012. This was a cold-blooded political assassination committed by a gang of “contract killers”, who followed the orders of their political bosses. One year has passed since the heinous crime was committed.

Chit Fund Scam: Saradha is the Tip of the Iceberg

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The Reply by the Minister of Corporate Affairs to the Lok Sabha STARRED QUESTION NO. 244 on "Frauds by Companies" answered on 14TH MARCH, 2013 is quite informative and revealing. Note what the Minister has to say on Ponzi schemes like Saradha: "There are certain companies which have floated fraudulent investment deposits mobilizing schemes (also called ponzi schemes) under various guises and are liable for action under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. This Act is administered by Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services) through the State Governments and figures of prosecution etc. are not being maintained centrally."

West Bengal: Theatre of the Absurd

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In the “theatre of the absurd” of West Bengal’s politics today, what was a serious case of an unexplained death of a student leader in police custody has now been rendered “small and petty”, and an untoward incident in Delhi which comes much closer to that description, has become an excuse for the ruling party to go on a vengeful rampage across the state. The question before all peace loving and democratic minded people in West Bengal is whether such absurdity should be allowed to prevail? Shouldn’t we demand an end to this disgraceful eye-for-an-eye approach in politics and reassert the voices of reason and sanity?

Statement by Alumni Condemning the Attack on Presidency University, Kolkata

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Ex-students of Presidency University (College) unequivocally condemn the attack on the historic institution.

In Defense of Student Politics

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While many well meaning people in West Bengal, aided by the liberal media, are demanding a ban on student politics and student union elections, the need of the hour is to inculcate a new culture of student politics, which can be done only through mass mobilization of the students.

People’s Ambedkar

B.R. Ambedkar

B.R. Ambedkar carries multiple meanings for multiple constituencies. In this context, Ambedkar’s contribution becomes immensely significant. Numerous forces have attempted to claim Ambedkar due to variety of reasons. In this context, claim over Ambedkar by centrists and rightists (CRs) have to be rejected to accentuate the claim of the people over him.   There could be two types of claims in the context of Ambedkar: negative and positive.

Petition- Justice for Sudipta Gupta

 Readers are requested to sign this petition to the Chief Minister of West Bengal on steps to be taken on Sudipta Gupta's unfortunate death in custody of the Kolkata Police. The petition is hosted at ipetitions.com and is reproduced here. It can be signed at this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/justice-for-sudipto-gupta/ 

The Unbearable Weight of a Brutal Murder

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Sudipto Gupta, a 23 year old bright student, was a leading left student activist of SFI committed to change the society for a better one. He made his choice early in life - to work for the betterment of society. In one of the most horrific incidents in Kolkata, he was beaten to death in police custody after he had courted arrest. What was his fault? He was not demanding anything for himself. He and his comrades were agitating peacefully demanding student union elections in West Bengal, which is a fundamental right of any student. The fact that a student has been beaten to death for demanding student union election shows the abyss that West Bengal has reached with the so called ‘pariborton’ in the state.