This page will be perpetually in construction.
Who Are We?
We are an internationalist reading, writing, research, analysis, and discussion circle for multi-tendency socialist theory.
Originally founded in Bombay on 28th January 2020, our circle has now grown to include members from across the globe weighing in on discussions both remotely and in many cities. Since socialist theory is our primary area of interest we read writers from across the political spectrum to better our understanding of Socialism.
Though we started in Bombay but currently in a process of creating a federation of city based chapters.
Timeline and notes
- 28-01-2020
- 31-01-2020
- 16-02-2020
- 22-02-2020
- 08-03-2020
- 14-03-2020 and 15-03-2020
- 05-04-2020
- 17-04-2020
- 10-05-2020
- 22-05-2020
- 13-06-2020
- 20-06-2020
- 27-06-2020
- 19-07-2020
- 25-07-2020
- 16-08-2020
- 23-08-2020
- 30-08-2020
- 13-09-2020
- 27-09-2020
- 11-10-2020
- 25-10-2020
- 15-11-2020
- 29-11-2020
- 13-12-2020
- 20-12-2020
- 17-01-2021
- 21-02-2021
- 28-02-2021
- 14-03-2021
- 28-03-2021
- 11-04-2021
- 25-04-2021
- 16-05-2021
- 30-05-2021
- 13-06-2021
- 27-06-2021
- 18-07-2021
- 25-07-2021
- 08-08-2021
- 15-08-2021
- 29-08-2021
- 12-09-2021
- 26-09-2021
- 17-10-2021
- 31-10-2021
- 14-11-2021
- 28-11-2021
- 19-12-2021
- 26-12-2021
- 16-01-2022
- 30-01-2022
- 13-02-2022
- 27-02-2022
- 13-03-2022
- 27-03-2022
- 10-04-2022
- 24-04-2022
- 15-05-2022
- 29-05-2022
- 12-06-2022
- 26-06-2022
- 17-07-2022
- 31-07-2022
- 14-08-2022
- 28-08-2022
- 18-09-2022
- 02-10-2022
- 16-10-2022
- 30-10-2022
- 13-11-2022
- 27-11-2022
- 11-12-2022
- 25-12-2022
- 22-01-2023 (2023 theory class 1)
- 12-02-2023 (2023 theory class 2)
- 25-02-2023
- 19-03-2023 (2023 theory class 3)
- 01-04-2023
- 16-04-2023 (2023 theory class 4)
- 29-04-2023
- 14-05-2023 (2023 theory class 5)
- 28-05-2023
- 18-06-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 1)
- 16-07-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 2)
- 30-07-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 3)
- 13-08-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 4)
- 27-08-2023
- 17-09-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 5)
- 08-10-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 6)
- 22-10-2023
- 19-11-2023 (capital vol 1 meet 7)
- 26-11-2023 (capital vol 1 meet8)
- 17-12-2023
- 14-01-2024
- 28-01-2024
- 18-02-2024
- 24-02-2024 (2024 theory class 1)
- 03-03-2024
- 09-03-2024 (2024 theory class 2)
- 17-03-2024
- 23-03-2024 (2024 theory class 3)
- 31-03-2024
- 06-04-2024 (2024 theory class 4)
- 14-04-2024
- 20-04-2024 (2024 theory class 5)
- 28-04-2024
- 12-05-2024
- 18-05-2024 (2024 theory class 6)
- 01-06-2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 1)
- 09-06-2024
- 15-06-2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 2)
- 23-06-2024
- 29-06-2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 3)
- 07-07-2024
- 13-07-2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 4)
- 21-07-2024
- 03-08-2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 5)
- 11-08-2024
- 17-08-2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 1)
- 25-08-2024
- 31-08-2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 2)
- 08-09-2024
Readings covered till now
(Note: Please don’t read uncritically and without context. The point is not to agree with everything anyone writes. The meeting notes above will help)
January ’20
1. An excerpt from the graphic novel Red Rosa
2. What is fascism and how to fight it: a collection of writings from Leon Trotsky
February ’20
3. The Manifesto of the Communist Party *Read this with the 1872 preface
March ’20
4. Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
5. Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband
April ’20
6. Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India
7. The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg
8. The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg
9. The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin
10. Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9
11. Selected articles on Assam and NRC (from Suraj Gogoi’s reading list)
* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece * https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed
May ’20
12. Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx
13. Science and Freedom: D D Kosambi’s Exasperating Essays
14. Anatomy of an AI System by Kate Crawford
15. Notes from the Grundrisse (pages 690-698) on Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine: Karl Marx
17. Lying Eyes, The Victorian roots of facial recognition by Richard Woodall
18. Artificial Scapegoat by Anupam Guha
19. Capitalism’s New Clothes by Evgeny Morozov
20. A tale of two AI cities by Melissa Hellmann
21. (We)Work is a Scam by Eliza Levinson
June ’20
22. Don’t Mention the War – Mike Beggs
23. What Do Bosses Do? – Stephen Marglin
24. The Origin of Capitalism – Ellen Meiksins Wood (pp 1-37)
25. The Keynesian Counterrevolution – Mike Beggs
26. The Left in A Foxhole – Geoff Mann
27. Introduction in Simon Clarke’s Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (pg 1-20)
July ’20
28. Anti delinking: Fantasies of Secession – Jamie Merchant
29. Pro delinking: Socialize Finance – J W Mason
30. Pro delinking: A Cautious Case for Economic Nationalism – J W Mason
31. Marxist Theories of Imperialism The chapters: Introduction, Luxemburg, Lenin, Dependency Theory
June/July recommended readings
State of Development Economics – Stephen Resnick
Introduction – Perlman, F. in Rubin’s Essays in Marx’s Theory of Value
The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour
Chapter 4 – Commerce or Capitalism in The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood
August ’20
32. The Variety of Feminisms and their Contributions to Gender Equality, Judith Lorber
33. The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism, Heidi Hartmann
34. Feminism for the 99%, Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya
35. Pages 67-77 (or Part V of Chapter 2), Michelle Barrett, Women’s Oppression Today
36. Capitalism and the Gay Identity, John D’Emilio
37. Transition and Abolition, Jules Joanne Gleeson
38. “Minding Their Business: The unfinished battle for sex workers’ rights” by Siddharth Dube
39. The Combahee River Collective Statement
40. Kinderkommunismus by K.D. Griffiths and J.J. Gleeson
September ’20
42. The Mirage of a Caste-less Society
43. Competing Narratives of Caste in the 21st Century
44. Kosambi & The Question of Caste
45. David Mosse’s paper on The Modernity of Caste
46. Introduction from the Ants Among Elephants
47. Bridging the Unholy Rift by Anand Teltumbde
48. Ambedkar, Ambedkarites, Ambedkarism by Anand Teltumbde
49. Caste, Class, and Women’s Liberation by Gail Omvedt
50. Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others
Recommended readings September
Does Untouchability exist among Muslims?
Sumit Guha’s The Birth of Caste
Dumont, Guha, and The Danger of Stereotyping India
Dalit & Naxalite Movements in Andhra Pradesh
Introduction to Caste, Gender, and Indian Feminism by Anupama Rao
Caste, Class, and Property Relations by B.T. Ranadive
October ’20
52. Chapter 6 and 7 of The Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild
53. Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure by Arlie Hochschild
54. Chapter 3 and 4 of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
55. Women mental health in India by Indira Sharma and Abhishek Pathak
57. Good for nothing
58. Stop making sense by Paeder O’Grady
59. A Future with No Future: Depression, the Left, and the Politics of Mental Health by Mikkel Krause
60. How capitalism foments mental illness and discourages mental well-being
61. A history of drug advertising by Julie Donohue
62. Capitalism and mental health
63. A theory of mental health and monopoly capitalism
65. The Employment of people with mental illness by Geoffery Waghorn, Chris Lloyd
66. Disorder: Contemporary Fascism and the Crisis in Mental Health by Emma Dane York 67. The Impact of Decades of Political Violence on Palestinian Children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Thabet
Also listen to these
Policing and racial trauma with Angela Davis
Recommended extra readings for October
The concept creep of emotional labour by by Arlie Hochschild
Where social justice meets mental health
The Second Shift by Arlie Hochschild
Impact of advertising psychiatric drugs
Antidepressants and advertising by Nathan Greenslit, Ted Kaptchuk
The prevalence of ptsd and depression among Gaza children by Hamza, Elsantil, et al
Mapping children’s play and violence in Kashmir by Aatina Nasir Malik
Kashmir: Through the eyes of a Grand-daughter by Khadeeja Raina
I’m a dalit woman, and my mental health matters by Christina Dhanraj
November ’20
69. on Dadabhai Naoroji by Inderjeet Parmar
70. MPT Acharya: Reminiscences of a Revolutionary also, a clean transcription of this by Kosambi Circle people also, as the material is not the full story (we could not find the book) here is what happened to MPT after Morocco
71. The Indian Sociologist by A M Shah
72. History of the Anushilan Samiti
73. Virendranath Chattopadhyay
75. Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (H.S.R.A.) by Ram Chandra
76. a. Formation of the CPI version 1920
76. b. Formation of the CPI version 1925
79. Cellular Jail: Stories of Clemency and Betrayal by Zubair Ahmed (approximately covering 1930 to 1970)
80. The United Socialist Front: The CSP and the CPI by Vineet Kaitan D’mello
81. CPI and its mass Organizations – 1936-1947 by Arindam Datta
82. Tebhaga Movement in Bengal: A Retrospect by D. Bandyopadhyay
83. The Great Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946 by Iqbal Javed
85. State and the Making of Communist Politics in India, 1947-57 by J Alam
87. Communism in Kerala by Jitendra Singh
Recommended extra readings for November
The Bomb in Bengal by Peter Heehs
An Early Communist Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913–1929 by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
The Swing Back, a critique of the 40s CPI by the RSP and CPM’s own telling of that era
Telengana’s People’s Struggles and Its Lessons by P Sundarayya
Amar Bari Tomar Bari NaxalBari by Sumit Kumar
The Left in India’s Freedom Movement and in Free India by E. M. S. Namboodiripad Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women’s Movement by Kavita Punjabi The Story of an Aborted Revolution: Communist Insurgency in Post independence West Bengal, 1948–50 by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
India’s Simmering Revolution by Sumanta Banerjee
From Popular Movements to Rebellion, Bengal in the 50s and the 60s by Ranabir Samaddar
December ’20
89. Chapter 1 of The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2017 Ed), “The Private Life of Power” 90.Bad Romance by Lisa Featherstone (Content warning: there is mention of sexual violence in this)
91. Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship by Daniel J. Hruschka
92. Make way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth by Alexandra Kollontai
95. Chapter 6 of Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value by David Graeber, “Marcel Mauss Revisited”
January ’21
96. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings, 1916-1935, Edited by David Forgacs
97. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky
98. Mythologies by Roland Barthes
99. Fascinating Fascism by Susan Sontag
References
For reading more on Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci by Quentin Hoare
February ’21
100. The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer
101. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
102. The Slow Cancellation of the Future by Mark Fisher (this is an essay in Chapter 00 of the book Ghosts of my Life)
103. Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction by M Madhava Prasad
104. Cine Politics: On the Political Significance of Cinema in South India by M Madhava Prasad
March ’21
105. Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer
Chapter 8, 9, 10,11 (do the other chapters if you have time and want to learn the historical context)
(*we did this last year in July as well, also focus on the chapters on contemporary theories)
106. Empire of Capital by Ellen Woods Chapter 1, 6, 7 (do the other chapters if you have time)
107. Critical Theory and the Critique of Anti-Imperialism by Marcel Stoetzler
April ’21
108. On the conditions of possibility for worker organizing in platform-based gig economies by Neils van Doorn
109. Algorithmic Management, Employment, and the Self in Gig Work by Julia Tomassetti. This is Chapter 6 of Beyond the Algorithm
110. Turkopticon by Lilly Irani et al
112. Left Populism and Platform Capitalism by Nick Dyer-Witheford
113. Chapters 8 and 9 of Platform Capitalism in India
114. Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek
May ’21
115. Extractivism by Jeff Diamanti
116. Once Again on So-called “Extractivism” by Álvaro García Linera
117. Between the Devil and the Green New Deal by Jasper Bernes
118. Phantasmagorias of Energy: Toward a Critical Theory of Energy and Economy
119. Inside Out by Francis Tseng
120. Chapter 1 and 2 of Resource Radicals by Thea Riofrancos
121. Chapter 3 of Planetary Mine by Martin Arboleda
122. Resource geography II: What makes resources political? by Matt Huber
June ’21
123. IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 7)
124. IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 5)
125. Oceans that Keep Capitalism Afloat by Katy Fox-Hodess
126. Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation by Arturo Escobar
127. Chapter 1 and 2 of Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom
128. Marx and Nature by McKenzie Wark
129. Why Dalits dislike environmentalists by Gail Omvedt
130. The Incorporation of Mountain Ecosystems into the Capitalist World by Wilma A Dunaway
131. The Socialist Case for Nuclear Energy
132. Nuclear scare stories are a gift to the truly lethal coal industry by George Monbiot
133. Western Ghats A Lifescape by Madhav Gadgil
July ’21
134. Karl Marx and Religion by Cyril Smith
135. Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Karl Marx
136. Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
137. Marxism and Ancient Indian Culture by D D Kosambi
138. a) League of Militant Atheists,
b) Cultural Revolution in the Soviet Union,
and c) Hujum
139. Girl-Brides and Socio-Legal Change: Age of Consent Bill (1891) Controversy by Meera Kosambi
140. Remembering Tilak: ‘The Father of India’s Revolution’ (this piece is hagiography, do not read uncritically)
141. Harichand Thakur’s Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal by K K Thakur
142. Across borders, the turbulent journey of South Asia’s Matua community
143. Celebrating the ‘essence of Hinduism’: How 19th century Brahmo Samaj altered Bengali society
144. The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
145. Navayana Buddhism and the Spread of Buddha Vihara in Maharashtra (this piece is badly edited, read with care)
146. This is why Dalit women are singing Tathagata Buddha songs in UP
148. Aligarh’s “Notre Eminent Contemporain”: Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan’s Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan
August ’21
149. Part 1 and Part 2 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
150. Hindutva by V. D. Savarkar
151. India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right by Aijaz Ahmed
152. Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s by Marzia Casolari
153. Swami Vivekananda’s Construction of Hinduism by Tapan Raychaudhuri, this is the first chapter of Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism
154. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
September ’21
155. “Exercise of Law” and “The Rule of Law” from Whigs and Hunters by E. P. Thompson (page 245-269)
156. “The Oral Shape of the Law” in The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories by Alessandro Portelli
157. “Defining Right as Wrong: Reflections on Associational Freedom and Free Speech” in The Wages of Impunity by K.G. Kannabiran
158. Progressive and Conservative Constitutionalism by Robin West (page 642-651)
159. Law and Political Economy: Towards a Manifesto
160. On the Human Rights Question by Paul O’Connell
161. The Right to Medicines in the Age of Neoliberalism (full symposium):
a) Article
b) Responses
October ’21
162. Against the Logic of the Guillotine
163. Chapter 1, 2, and 7 of the Technique of Revolution by Curzio Malaparte
164. Bankruptcy of Individual Terrorism by Leon Trotsky
165. Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Terrorism and Communism by Leon Trotsky
166. The Russian Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
167. Trotsky Protests Too much by Emma Goldman
168. The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act? by Noam Chomsky
169. War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
170. Noam Chomsky on institutional violence
171. Chapter 1, 6, 7, and 8 of The Production of Hindu Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul Brass
172. Chapter 1, 2, and 6 of Rebels from the Mud Houses by George Kunnath
173. Worker Politics, Trade Unions and the Shiv Sena’s Rise in Central Bombay by J Shaikh
174. Violent and Non-Violent Political Islam in a Global Context
175. Caste and Gender: Understanding Dynamics of Power and Violence
176. Chapter 10 of Direct Action: an Ethnography by David Graeber
November ’21
177. First 3 chapters of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
179. First 3 chapters of What is to be Done? by V. I. Lenin
180. Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
181. The April Theses by V. I. Lenin
182. Chapters 4 to 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
183. The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
184. Kronstatd
e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd
185. Worker’s Opposition
a) Workers’ Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai
b) 10th Party Congress resolutions
ii) On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation
c) Emma Goldman on Trade Unions in 1920
d) Trotsky on Trade Unions in 1922
186. Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin (read page 10 to 105)
187. Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
188. The Fundamentals of Revolutionary Communism by Bordiga
189. Workers Control by Mattick
190. Council Communism by Mark Shipway
December ’21
191. Logic and Ontology
192. Epistemology
193. Doing Philosophy: From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning by Williamson
Reread readings 135 and 136
Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Marx
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
194. Think by Simon Blackburn
195. Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha
196. Theory of Mind
Video
Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx
From 2022 new readings are numbered while repeats are mentioned
January ’22 and February ’22
(revision) The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx
(revision) Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
(revision) Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
197. The Paris Commune from the Civil War in France by Marx
198. Chapter One of Capital vol 1: Commodities
(revision) Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
(revision) Theses on Feuerbach by Marx
(revision) Reform or Revolution by Luxemburg
(revision) Marxism and Politics by Miliband
199. The State and the Revolution by Lenin
200. State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
201. Luxemburg versus Lenin by Mattick
(revision) What is Fascism and How to Fight It by Trotsky
202. Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton
(revision) Chapters 6, 7, 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings 1916-35, edited by David Forgacs
March ’22 and April ’22
(revision) The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg
(revision) The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin
(revision) Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India
203. Chapters 4,5, and 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
(revision) The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg
(revision) Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9
(revision) Selected articles on Assam and NRC (from Suraj Gogoi’s reading list)
* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece
* https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed
204. Part 3 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
(revision) Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
(revision) The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
(revision) Aligarh’s “Notre Eminent Contemporain”: Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan’s Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan
(revision) Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer
(revision) Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
May ’22 and June ’22
205. Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(revision) Caste, Class, and Women’s Liberation by Gail Omvedt
(revision) Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others
(revision) Does Untouchability exist among Muslims?
(revision) Dalit & Naxalite Movements in Andhra Pradesh by Ajay Gudavarthy
(revision) Dumont, Guha, and the Danger of Stereotyping India by Krzysztof Iwanek
206. Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
207. Feminist Philosophy (Parts 1-3) – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
208. Chapter 6 of Seeing Like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon
209. Annihilation of Caste by B. R. Ambedkar
210. Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 of Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present by Sumit Guha
211. Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Domination of Colonial Bengal by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Video
Gender Critical – Contrapoints
212. Caste in Modern India: A Reader by Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar
Read these chapters of this book: Chapters 2, 3, 6, 11, 13 from Volume 1. Chapter 1, 5, 7, 10, 11 from Volume 2
Following authors are covered: Dirks, Bayly, Sumit Guha, Bernard Cohn, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, S J Patel, Nandini Gooptu, Anupama Rao, Sumit Sarkar, Jaffrelot
213. Castes of Mind by Dirks
(revision) Kosambi and the Question of Caste by Kumkum Roy
214. The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Alexandra Kollontai
215. What is Socialist Feminism? by Barbara Ehrenreich
(revision) The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism by Heidi Hartmann
(revision) Capitalism and the Gay Identity by John D’Emilio
(revision) Transition and Abolition by Jules Joanne Gleeson
(revision) Feminism for the 99% by Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya
Recommended extra reading
Read completely the books whose chapters are required readings
Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age by Bayly
July ’22 and August ’22
(revision) on Dadabhai Naoroji by Inderjeet Parmar
(revision) MPT Acharya: Reminiscences of a Revolutionary also, a clean transcription of this by Kosambi Circle people also, as the material is not the full story (we could not find the book) here is what happened to MPT after Morocco
(revision) The Indian Sociologist by A M Shah
(revision) History of the Anushilan Samiti
(revision) Virendranath Chattopadhyay
216. Selected articles on pre 1920 events
- Wiki article on India House
- Wiki article on Bengal Partition
- Wiki article on Guy Aldred
- Wiki article on Madan Lal Dhingra
- More on Madan Lal Dhingra
- Wiki article on the Hindu German Conspiracy
- Wiki article on the Defence of India Act 1915
- Jallianwala and Udham Singh
(revision) Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (H.S.R.A.) by Ram Chandra
(revision) a. Formation of the CPI version 1920 b. Formation of the CPI version 1925
(revision) Origins of the RSP
217. Wiki article on the Workers and Peasants Party
218. Wiki article on Shaukat Usmani
219. Muzaffar Ahmad’s Unexpected Turn in Life by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
220. A Lok Sabha booklet on Sripad Dange, this is a hagiography read critically
221. On ITUC by M N Roy later called AITUC
222. A Brief History of Workers’ Movements in India, with focus on Bengal
(revision) The Meerut Conspiracy
(revision) Cellular Jail: Stories of Clemency and Betrayal by Zubair Ahmed
(revision) The United Socialist Front: The CSP and the CPI by Vineet Kaitan D’mello
(revision) The Great Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946 by Iqbal Javed
223. The Role of the Working Class in the Political Upsurges in Undivided India by Keka Bose
224. Wiki article on Hare Krishna Konar
(revision) Tebhaga Movement in Bengal: A Retrospect by D. Bandyopadhyay
225. The Swing Back, a critique of the 40s CPI by the RSP and CPM’s own telling of that era
226. The Left in India’s Freedom Movement and in Free India by E. M. S. Namboodiripad
227. The Story of an Aborted Revolution: Communist Insurgency in Post-independence West Bengal, 1948–501
(revision) State and the Making of Communist Politics in India, 1947-57 by J Alam
(revision) On the 1964 split
(revision) Communism in Kerala by Jitendra Singh
228. The CPI Congress alliance in India by Ouseph Varkey
229. No one killed the Dalits by Meena Kandasamy (71 pages)
230. Land Reform Law and Implementation in West Bengal page 40-60 (20 pages)
231. Bathani Tola (Bihar) (8 pages)
232. The Left Front Government by Ashok Rudra (4 pages)
233. The Communist Movement in India by Mohan Ram (15 pages)
234. The Left Front’s First Term in West Bengal (1971-1982) (8 pages)
235. Bal Thackeray, or, Why the Communists Did Nothing (5 pages)
237. The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar by Bela Bhatia
238. The Burning Forest by Nandini Sunder, read Chapter 4,5,12,14 (60 pages)
239. Land Acquisition and Compensation in Singur: What Really Happened? by M Ghatak (40 pages)
240. Dwelling on Morichjhanpi by Annu Jalais (7 pages)
241. Mandal and the parties (2 pages)
Extra readings
The Bomb in Bengal by Peter Heehs
CPI and its mass Organizations – 1936-1947 by Arindam Datta
Telengana’s People’s Struggles and Its Lessons by P Sundarayya
An Early Communist Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913–1929 by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
The Long Haul by Rajani Bakshi
Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women’s Movement by Kavita Punjabi
Amar Bari Tomar Bari NaxalBari by Sumit Kumar
India’s Simmering Revolution by Sumanta Banerjee
From Popular Movements to Rebellion, Bengal in the 50s and the 60s by Ranabir Samaddar
Septmber ’22 and October ’22
242. Chapters 1,2,3,4 of An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
(revision) What Do Bosses Do? by Stephen Marglin
(revision) Don’t Mention the War by Mike Beggs
(revision) The Keynesian Counterrevolution by Mike Beggs
(revision) The Left in A Foxhole by Geoff Mann
(revision) Introduction in Simon Clarke’s Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (pg 1-20)
(revision) Fantasies of Secession by Jamie Merchant
(revision) Critical Theory and the Critique of Anti-Imperialism by Marcel Stoetzler
243. Empire of Capital by Ellen Woods
244. Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Woods
(revision) Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer
November ’22 and December ’22
245. Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
(revision) Science and Freedom: D D Kosambi’s Exasperating Essays
(revision) Notes from the Grundrisse (pages 690-698) on Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine: Karl Marx
(revision) A tale of two AI cities by Melissa Hellmann
246. Part 1 of Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
(revision) The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried
(revision) Algorithmic Management, Employment, and the Self in Gig Work by Julia Tomassetti
(revision) Turkopticon by Lilly Irani et al
(revision) Capitalism’s New Clothes by Evgeny Morozov
(revision) Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek
(revision) The Socialist Case for Nuclear Energy
(revision) Lying Eyes, The Victorian roots of facial recognition by Richard Woodall
(revision) IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (read the summary for policymakers, for refernce read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 5)
247. Physiognomic Artificial Intelligence by Luke Stark, Jevan Hutson
248. Chapters 1 to 5 of Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz
249. Science in Saffron by Meera Nanda
250. Reflections on the past two decades of neuroscience by Bassett et al
January 2023 (Class)
Principles of Communism by Engels
The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx, *Read this with the 1872 preface
Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
February 2023 (Class)
Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
Theses on Feuerbach by Marx
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
February 2023 (Meeting – Theme 1: History)
251. Chapter 1 of Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women’s Movement by Kavita Punjabi
252. The Long Haul by Rajani Bakshi
(revision) Chapters 3,4,5 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
Video
Many Straws Make a Nest: Documentary on Workers Struggle in the Industrial Belt around Delhi
March 2023 (Class)
The Civil War in France by Marx
The State and the Revolution by Lenin
State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Mattick
The April Theses by Lenin
April 2023 (Meeting – Theme 2: State)
253. A Manifesto of Emancipation by Paresh Chattopadhyay
254. The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels by Hal Draper
255. Marx and the State by Ralph Miliband
256. State power and class interests by Ralph Miliband
257. Poulatnzas and the capitalist state by Ralph Miliband
April 2023 (Class)
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Red Virgin and Vision of Utopia by Mary Talbot
Red Rosa by Kate Evans
Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
April 2023 (Meeting – Theme 3: Philosophy)
(revision) Logic and Ontology
(revision) Epistemology
(revision) Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha
(revision) Theory of Mind
Video
Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx
May 2023 (Class)
Chapter 4,5,6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin
Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
Workers Control by Mattick
Council Communism by Mark Shipway
May 2023 (Meeting – Theme 4: Organisation)
(revision) The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
(revision) Democratic centralism
(revision) Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
(revision) Worker’s Opposition
(revision) Workers’ Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai
(revision) Chapter 9, 15, and 27 of My Disillusionment in Russia by Goldman
(revision) Kronstatd Resolution
e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd
(revision) 10th Party Congress resolutions
ii) On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation
Extra Reading
Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists
June 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 1)
(revision) An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
July 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 2)
(revision) An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
July 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 3)
Chapter 1 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
186 pages of How to Read Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
August 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 4)
Chapter 2 to 6 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
187 to 331 pages of How to Read Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
August 2023 (Meeting – Theme 5: Gender + Theme 6: Science)
(revision) Part 1 of Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
(revision) Chapter 1 and 2 of Science in Saffron by Meera Nanda
(revision) What is Socialist Feminism? by Barbara Ehrenreich
259. Revisiting the Domestic-Labour Debate: An Indian Perspective by Rohini Hensman
260. Chapter 1 of Social Reproduction Theory by Tithi Bhattacharya
261. Chapter 5 of Transgender Marxism by Nat Raha
September 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 5)
Chapter 7 to 11 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
332 to 398 pages of How to Read Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
October 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 6)
Chapter 12 to 15 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
October 2023 (Meeting – Theme 7: Caste)
262. Chapters 2, 5, 8, and 9 of Mapping the Elite collection of essays by Jodhka and Naudet
263. Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 of Outcaste Bombay by Junaid Shaikh
November 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 7)
Chapter 16 to 25 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
November 2023 (Capital vol 1 meet 8)
Chapter 26 to 33 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
December 2023 (Meeting – Theme 8: Palestine)
264. Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl
265. The Introduction to Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha
266. Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims by Edward Said
267. Chapter 1 of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine of Joel Kovel
268. Introduction and Chapter 4 of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse by Ali Abunimah
January 2024 (Meeting – Theme 9: Nation + Theme 10: Faith + Theme 11: Reaction)
(Revision) The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
269. Chapter 1 to 6 of The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2017 Ed)
270. Part 1 of Modi’s India by Christophe Jaffrelot
— 2024 calendar —
Programme for 2024
28 January 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 1)
(Revision) Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
18 February 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 2)
271. Chapters 1, 2, and 10 of Pan-Islamic Connections by Christtophe Jaffrelot
272. Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of Communal and Pan Islamic Trends in Colonial India, edited by Mushirul Hasan
24 February 2024 (Class)
Principles of Communism by Engels
The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx, *Read this with the 1872 preface
Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Civil War in France by Marx
Zasulich Letter by Marx
03 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 3)
273. Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 of Merchants of Virtue by Divya Cherian
274. Bolshevism, Patriarchy, and the Nation: The Soviet “Emancipation” of Muslim Women in Pan-Islamic Perspective by Adrienne Edgar
275. Chapter 12 (Historicity, hagiography, and hierarchy in Gangetic India) of Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism
09 March 2024 (Class)
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Civil War in France by Marx
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
17 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 4)
276. First three chapters of Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages, and Memories of Northeast India by Indrani Chatterjee
277. First five chapters of the Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies
278. Ham Hindu Nahin: Arya-Sikh Relations, 1877-1905 by Kenneth W. Jones
279. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia
23 March 2024 (Class)
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Rosa Luxemburg
The State and the Revolution by V. I. Lenin
State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
The April Theses by V. I. Lenin
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Paul Mattick
31 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 5)
280. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal by Rachel McDermott
(Revision) Harichand Thakur’s Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal by Kapil Krishna Thakur
281. Ramakrishna and the Calcutta of His Times by Sumit Sarkar
06 April 2024 (Class)
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Paul Mattick
The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin
Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
Workers Control by Paul Mattick
Council Communism by Mark Shipway
14 April 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 6)
Revision meeting
20 April 2024 (Class)
Revision class
28 April 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 1)
282. Every Cook Can Govern by CLR James
(Revision) The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels by Hal Draper
283. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Autonomy by Giles Dauvé
284. Authority and Democracy in the United States by Paul Mattick
12 May 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 2)
285. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Karl Kautsky
286. The proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky by V. I. Lenin
(Revision) The Russian Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
18 May 2024 (Class)
Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Red Virgin and Vision of Utopia by Mary Talbot
Red Rosa by Kate Evans
01 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 1)
An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
09 June 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 3)
287. India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right
288. Clientelism in Indian Villages
15 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 2)
Chapter 1 to 6 of Capital vol 1
First 331 pages of How to Read Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
23 June 2024 c
289. Part 2 and Part 3 of Modi’s India by Christophe Jaffrelot
29 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 3)
Chapter 7 to 11 of Capital vol 1
332 – 398 pages of How to Read Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
07 July 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 5)
290. Council Democracy by James Muldoon
13 July 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 4)
Chapter 12 to 15 of Capital vol 1
21 July 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 6)
Revision meeting
03 August 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 5)
Chapter 16 to 33 of Capital vol 1
11 August 2024 (Meeting Theme 3: Migration 1)
291. Letter of Karl Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt
292. Capitalism and Workers’ Immigration by V. I. Lenin
293. Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2 of Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls by Teresa Hayter
17 August 2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 1)
Chapter 1 and 2 of Capital vol 2
25 August 2024 (Meeting Theme 3: Migration 2)
294. Chapters 8, 9, and 10, from Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
31 August 2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 2)
Chapter 3 and 4 of Capital vol 2
08 November 2024 (Meeting Theme 3: Migration 3)
